Terrorism, natural disasters and even lost luggage and airline bankruptcies have influenced more and more churches to purchase travel insurance. For some U.S. congregations, staying home is not an option. So they continue to obey the Great Commission to go into all the world to make disciples—and they do so prepared for nearly anything.

"9/11 and incidents thereafter have caused a decrease in the number of churches going overseas," says Mike Ummel, senior marketing specialist for Brotherhood Mutual Insurance, "but those going are more interested in insurance."

Since 2000 Brotherhood has offered the Passport to Ministry program to provide insurance protections and travel assistance services for organizations and travelers when they leave the United States. The benefits of this program include a package of medical, personal, travel and security assistance services. The policy gives travelers access to a professional staff of multilingual personnel, including doctors on call 24 hours a day.

"People assume that their major medical insurance will cover them overseas," Ummel says. That isn't always the case. And even when coverage does extend overseas, it is often significantly altered, he says.

Air evacuation is rarely a part of any major medical insurance policy.

"I've seen a bill of $120,000 to air evac somebody out of the Amazon," Ummel says. While that is extreme, Ummel says even the normal range for evacuation is between $20,000 to $50,000—a price most church staff members measure as the bulk of their annual salary.

And with Brotherhood's Passport to Ministry and other similar coverage programs ringing in at only a few dollars per person per day ($3 to $7.50) the benefits seem to far outweigh the cost.

The Passport to Ministry insurance also protects churches from foreign liability, including lawsuits arising from religious activity or communications, auto liability and employer's liability.

Church Mutual Insurance Company offers the Global Guardian program for employees and volunteers leaving the country.

The program includes medical coverage, injury and automobile liability, extended worker's compensation and an optional foreign kidnap and ransom/extortion insurance.

The Global Guardian offers 24-hour access to medical personnel and multilingual travel assistants.

According to Ummel, programs such as The Global Guardian or Passport to Ministry programs may make more sense for larger churches or organizations as smaller groups tend to team up with a para-church organizations that typically carry their own insurance for travel abroad.

Extreme insurance

Extreme emergencies are the focus for extra insurance that Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., purchases for some 40 to 50 trips sponsored by the mega-church each year.

"It's important for churches to protect their short-term teams in the event of an extreme emergency," says Melanie Mitchell, travel coordinator with the Missions Ministry of Southeast. She organizes travel for a couple thousand volunteers and a dozen staff members from the church every year. As a former travel agent, Mitchell is always thinking about the contingencies.

For that, the church buys coverage from International SOS. It may be fitting that the congregation of more than 25,000 contracts with an industry giant such as SOS. According to a report in USAToday, the company says they contracted for nearly 12,000 evacuations last year, alone. SOS also provides its own medical clinics, doctors, interpreters and aircraft.

The cost for SOS reflects that type of service. "A smaller organization or church may not be able to afford this type of coverage," Mitchell says. She recommends other companies such as Access America and Travel-Ex, which inexpensively cover individual travelers in cases of emergency.

Companies such as Travel Guard International, Medex or Medjet Assist charge as little as $3.75 a day to a couple hundred dollars a year for emergency air evacuation coverage. Cross-Atlantic ambulance flights otherwise cost around $40,000.

International SOS can also be used to evacuate travelers who have medical emergencies. "SOS will determine if the medical facilities on the ground can handle the situation," Mitchell says, "and if not they will evacuate them to a hospital facility that can handle the emergency."

SOS will also evacuate teams in the event of political unrest, Mitchell says. That type of coverage has been important as the church has added partners in politically hot areas of North Africa, Asia and the Middle East to its growing list of global outreach efforts.

Mitchell says Southeast also uses the SOS coverage for some of their nearly 75 partners in various areas around the world. "It's a blanket policy to cover extreme emergencies," she says.

That type of bulking up on policies from a single provider may net churches a better rate, according to Ummel, who says Brotherhood often offers volume discounts.

Whatever the price, Mitchell says churches should pay up. Whether you miss a connection, have a medical emergency, bad weather, accidents, or a family emergency back home, some type of emergency coverage is critical.

"I don't recommend anyone traveling outside the United States do so without adequate coverage."