What Are Navajo Mission Trips Like?
Updated: April 2026
Experience Mission Staff
This post was collected with the help of multiple members of Experience Mission full-time staff who work closely with the Dine/Navajo people in Arizona and New Mexico.
Since the early 2010s, Experience Mission (EM) has partnered with churches in the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico. Stepping into Navajo Nation feels like you've left the States behind and entered a new country hidden within the borders of the U.S. Teams that come and serve in Bisti, Black Mesa and Twin Pine, joining and learning from ministries and outreach already in motion long before any team arrived. Here are five things you can expect if you serve on a Navajo mission trip this year:
1. Meet the Navajo people and learn their culture
Unlike most Native American tribes, the Navajo continue to dwell on the land of their ancestors. Because of this, Navajo culture has been preserved in a distinct way. While younger generations are increasingly influenced by mainstream American culture, many Navajo people maintain a strong tie to their tribe and their land. Many elders still speak primarily in the Navajo language and continue to herd sheep as their people have done for centuries.While serving on a Navajo mission trip, you will have the chance to learn about Navajo culture and language and build genuine friendships along the way.
2. Serve families in need
It can often be difficult to find and maintain good-paying jobs in the area. This means Navajo families often struggle to afford basic maintenance and repairs on their homes. By performing basic construction tasks such as drywalling, tiling, and roofing, your mission trip team will support local families identified by partner church leaders. If you don't have construction experience, that's ok! EM staff members get you started and coordinate all of the details. Everyone can contribute in some way.
3. Experience the beauty of Arizona's high desert
Navajo land is a remote desert region that can seem very desolate at times, but its beauty is remarkable.
There are canyons such as the magnificent Canyon de Chelly, Chaco Canyon, and the lesser-known Box Canyon, right next to a partner church in Black Mesa, Arizona. Ruins from Ancestral Puebloans can also be found at Navajo National Monument, Chaco Canyon, and many other locations.
4. Make Navajo tacos with local church members
On every Navajo mission trip, teams spend an evening with local church members learning to make traditional fry bread, the base for the Navajo taco. Top your fry bread with meat and beans, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and more. For a dessert taco, sugar, jam, or honey does the trick. It is always a great night to gather with the community and take part in a favorite piece of local culture. Fair warning: Navajo tacos are delicious but notoriously hard to eat without making a mess. That's what your work clothes are for. ;)
5. Stand alongside a local church investing in their own community
Navajo pastors and church members carry the ministry in their communities every day, long before and after any team visits. Given the complicated history between Native and Anglo communities in the U.S., local Navajo believers often do the hard work of building trust and long-term relationships within their own tribe and families. Serving alongside these churches means encouraging pastors and congregations who are already doing this work, not stepping in as outsiders to run programs for them.
By coming alongside a Navajo-led partner church and serving in their community, you provide encouragement to the local congregation, free up their leaders to focus on relationships they have already built, and get to know a community with a rich and resilient history of its own.
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Ready to learn more? Explore Navajo mission trip opportunities to find out how your group can serve alongside EM's partner churches in the Navajo Nation.
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