Free · Certificate included
Preparing for a Mission Trip to the Philippines
Arrive as a guest who did the homework — the language, the respect words and the harm to avoid.
Reviewed monthly · last reviewed October 2026
What you’ll learn
- Explain who you are visiting — the three island groups, the languages, and a church that has been there for centuries
- Use po and opo correctly, greet an elder with pagmamano, and carry twenty-four Tagalog phrases
- Read an indirect answer, so a smile or a "siguro po" does not get mistaken for a yes
- Apply photography and safeguarding rules that matter acutely in a country with severe child online exploitation
- Recognize the short-term practices that do harm — orphanage visits, exposure tours, direct giving, displaced labour
- Prepare for heat, typhoons, water, dengue and island travel time before you go
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Create a free account →Course outline
- 1
Why preparation is the work
What goes wrong when teams arrive unprepared, and the posture that prevents it.
6 min Quiz - 2
Who you are visiting
7,641 islands, three island groups, a 450-year-old church, and a Muslim south.
7 min Quiz - 3
The language you actually need
English will carry you. Po, opo and twenty-four phrases are what earn you a welcome.
8 min Quiz Written + interactive - 4
Respect in practice
Pagmamano, hiya, pakikisama, utang na loob — and why a yes may not be one.
8 min Quiz Interactive - 5
Children, photography and safeguarding
The rules that are not etiquette: why your camera is a safeguarding risk here.
8 min Quiz Interactive - 6
Help that helps
Orphanage visits, exposure tours, direct giving, displaced labour — and the alternatives.
7 min Quiz Written + interactive - 7
Heat, typhoons, water and getting around
The practical things that end trips early — plus the pre-flight checklist.
8 min Quiz Written + interactive
Sources & further reading
- U.S. Department of State — Philippines Travel Advisory
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — CDC Travelers’ Health: Philippines
- UNICEF Philippines — National Study on Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children in the Philippines (executive summary)
- Philippine Statistics Authority — Religious Affiliation in the Philippines (2020 Census of Population and Housing)
- PAGASA, Philippine Department of Science and Technology — Tropical Cyclone Information
- Better Care Network — Philippines: children’s care and residential care data
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