Don & Patti NicholsMission Work & Ministry
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Hygiene kits packed and sealed on the table before a Dominican Republic mission trip

Free to use, free to share

Guides and tools from thirteen years of packing trunks.

What Don and Patti know about medical missions, written down for the next team and the next church: what to pack, what it costs, how to pray, how to ask. Every number is real and every tool runs in your browser.

The guidesThe toolsBy the numbers

Guides

The questions people ask before they know Don’s name

Every fact about the mission comes from Don’s own published record. Where a guide offers general advice, it says so.

Heavy-duty ministry trunks on the move in the Dominican Republic, packed with donated suppliesPacking guide

What to Pack for a Medical Mission Trip: The Trunk System

How Don Nichols packs a medical mission: fifty-pound trunks, item-by-item inventory sheets, Spanish translations, and customs letters. Real weights, real costs, and a printable inventory sheet.

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Hygiene kits packed and sealed on the table before a Dominican Republic mission tripHygiene kit guide

How to Make a Hygiene Kit for a Mission Trip (About $3 Each)

What goes in a mission hygiene kit, what it costs, how the Nichols team assembles hundreds of them, and a printable checklist plus a party planner for churches.

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A team member talking with a man and a woman across a table at the Belize clinic; a Spanish New Testament sits on the benchPrayer guide

How to Pray for a Mission Team: A Seven-Day Guide

Seven days of prayer for a medical mission team — preparation, travel, the clinic, the vision table, the pastors, the Gospel, and the return home — with Scripture for each day and printable prayer cards.

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Dozens of pairs of donated reading glasses laid out in rows on a wooden table at the Belize clinic, June 2026Vision ministry

Reading Glasses on the Mission Field: The $0.60 Gift

Why a sixty-cent pair of reading glasses is the cheapest line on a medical mission budget and often the one that changes a person's day the most — how the vision table works and how to sponsor it.

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The mission team gathered in front of the Belize Anchor Mission church, June 2026Giving guide

How to Sponsor a Missionary: What $1,200 Covers

Sponsoring a missionary on the Nichols medical team costs $1,200 — $800 airfare and $400 lodging, meals and ground transport. Nobody is paid. Here is exactly what the money does and how to give it.

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The flight to Belize, carrying hundreds of pounds of donated suppliesFundraising guide

How to Write a Mission Trip Support Letter (Free Generator)

A support letter that gets answered names a place, a date, a specific job, a specific dollar amount and a way to give. Here is the structure, a worked example using real mission numbers, and a generator that writes your first draft.

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Tools

Use it, print it, download it

Nothing here asks for an account and nothing is saved. Calculate a budget, plan a kit party, print the prayer cards, make a poster for your church, or write your support letter.

Packed ministry trunks headed for the mission fieldCalculator

Mission Trip Budget Calculator

Price a whole medical mission from Don's real unit costs — team, Bibles, kits, glasses, trunks, baggage — and download the sheet.

Open the tool →
Hygiene kits packed and sealed on the table before a Dominican Republic mission tripPrintable

Hygiene Kit Checklist & Party Planner

Tell it how many kits you want to make; get the shopping list, the cost, and a printable checklist for the assembly table.

Open the tool →
A team member talking with a man and a woman across a table at the Belize clinic; a Spanish New Testament sits on the benchPrintable

Seven-Day Prayer Cards

The whole prayer guide on one printable sheet — a verse and prayer points for each day a team is on the ground.

Open the tool →
A man and a woman wading out into still water in Belize, seen from the shoreDownload

Scripture Phone Wallpapers

Seven lock-screen wallpapers, one verse per day of the prayer guide, over photographs from the mission field.

Open the tool →
The flight to Belize, carrying hundreds of pounds of donated suppliesGenerator

Support Letter Generator

Answer eight questions and get a one-page mission trip support letter to copy or download. Nothing is saved.

Open the tool →
Bibles from the Bible ministry in Malawi, bought in-country and given awayDownload

"I Gave" Share Card

Make a picture that says what you sent — ten Bibles, a trunk, a missionary — and post it so the next person gives too.

Open the tool →
The Belize Anchor Mission sign, painted with Ephesians 2:22Download

Church Poster & Bulletin Insert

Put your church's name and the date on a printable poster with a QR code to the mission, ready for the lobby or the bulletin.

Open the tool →
Heavy-duty ministry trunks on the move in the Dominican Republic, packed with donated suppliesPrintable

Trunk Inventory Sheet

The item-by-item inventory sheet that travels with every trunk through customs, with the free-of-charge declaration, ready to print.

Open the tool →

By the numbers

Where the money goes, what $25 buys, thirteen years in charts

All 8 articles →

Data pieces with charts you can share, a quiz, a trunk you can pack yourself, a monthly-giving slider and a 90-day checklist. Every figure reads from Don’s published budget and trip record.

Packed ministry trunks headed for the mission fieldBy the numbers

Where Does a Mission Trip Donation Actually Go? Don's $3,940 Budget, Charted

Most ministries answer "where does my donation go" with a pie chart of percentages. This one answers with a receipt: every line of a $3,940 medical mission supply drive, charted, with nothing held back for overhead.

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Bibles from the Bible ministry in Malawi, bought in-country and given awayInteractive

What $25 Buys on a Medical Mission Trip (Build the Trunk Yourself)

Twenty-five dollars is 41 pairs of reading glasses, ten Bibles, or eight hygiene kits at Don Nichols' real prices. Pick a budget, tap what goes in the trunk, then make it real.

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A drilling rig at work on a donated water well in MalawiThe record

2013 to 2026: Thirteen Years of Mission Trips, in Charts

13 mission trips across 5 countries since 2013, the three years they could not go, and 509 photographs — Don Nichols' own timeline, charted.

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Frequently asked questions

23 straight answers

Is the care really free? How much does a trip cost? Are Don and Patti paid? Can my church make kits? Can Don speak at my church?

Read the FAQ →

For churches

Invite Don to speak. Fill a trunk together.

A poster with your church’s name and a QR code, bulletin text, the prayer cards, and five concrete ways a congregation partners with the mission.

For churches →

New guides as they come

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Guides, tools, trip announcements, and Don’s stories from the field. Nothing else.

Don and Patti keep this list to themselves. No selling, no sharing, and one tap unsubscribes.