Karen-Marie Yust is an associate professor of Christian education at Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Va. She is a minister in both the United Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ denominations and is the author of Real Kids, Real Faith: Practices for Nurturing Children’s Spiritual Lives.

Bob Ditter is a therapist and author who specializes in working with youth and their families. He is a consultant for the American Camping Association and has worked with summer camps since 1982.

Isaac Kramnick teaches government at Cornell University and co-authored The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State (W.W. Norton, 2005). His 1996 American Prospect essay “Is God a Republican?” reflects on religious entanglement in partisan politics. Book co-author R. Laurence Moore teaches American studies at Cornell.

Read a May 17, 2013, article by the Orlando Sentinel about one women’s religious mission trips with youth groups.

See an October 2008 Barna Group survey about mission trips.

Global Awareness Through Experience offers immersion trips to invite individuals to explore solidarity and compassion through giving. It’s based in La Crosse, Wis.

Orval Gingerich is director of the Center for Global Education at Augsburg College in Minneapolis and has created and led experiential study abroad semesters as part of EMU’s Global Village Curriculum.

David Livermore is executive director of the Global Learning Center at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Mich. He is author of Leading with Cultural Intelligence (2011) among other books.

Shawn Daggett is director of the Center for World Missions at Harding University in Searcy, Ark. Shawn served as a missionary to Bergamo, Italy, for ten years before teaching at Harding University. His focus is on missions history, anthropology and the New Testament.