When you go on a short-term mission trip, it would be both impractical and offensive to pack two weeks’ worth of clothing. So you must worry about laundry at some point. When I was in Nicaragua in 2003, and in Nairobi in 2004, the people with whom I was staying took care of our laundry. This is a humbling thing, because it both cases it meant that our clothes were being washed by hand. The service was offered sincerely and graciously, and I tried not to abuse it, but it still gave me pause.

In 2005 and 2006, in rural Kenya, we weren’t staying in private homes. We were staying at a church one year and in a ramshackle hotel the next. So we had to wash our own clothes in the sink or a bucket. Last year, I discovered a product that any traveler needs to know about. In the sample-size aisle of Wal-Mart’s health and beauty department, they have Tide Travel Sink Packets. You get three packets in a package; each packet is designed to wash a sinkful of clothes.

The same company which markets the Tide packets, under license from Procter & Gamble, also makes a little travel-size roll of toilet paper. This is also a must-have for short-term mission trips. Trust me on this one; you can’t always count on there being toilet paper.