Most people associate missions trips with charity and love seeing pictures of their neighbors and nieces hugging little African children in an orphanage. But there is so much wrong with that picture. Missionary work has a long, bloody and objectively horrid history and, though it has gotten so much better, there is still a plethora of reasons why inexperienced American children or even adults shouldn’t be allowed on these trips. Not only do missions trips build a white savior complex, but also having so many different and temporary groups of people loving on orphans then leaving forever fundamentally messes with trust issues of the orphaned children. They learn that love is not permanent and everyone leaves. Not to mention, people not only go on these harmful trips, but then post about it for clout. If you wish to help someone, there are many ways to do it from afar, even if it means sacrificing a good Instagram post.