Thousands of people, including a teen from Old Town, are finding ways to help tsunami victims in Asia.

Some are donating money. Others are sending supplies.

Not yet out of high school, Eric Porter, 18, wants to help in another way: He is planning to head for Madras, India, in June as part of a missionary group that wants to help residents get back on their feet.

“Basically we’re going to be working along the coastline of India and just rebuilding and cleaning up,” Porter said recently during an interview in a Bangor coffee shop.

Though Porter said the main goal of the group is to aid tsunami victims in cleanup, he also hopes to be able to spread the Word: his Christian faith.

Porter and his fellow travelers will be in India as missionaries, and he said they know the boundaries. “If people have questions, they can ask us, but we’re not going to force it on anyone,” the Old Town High School senior said. “Just living out our faith is enough.”

He is arranging the journey through a Texas-based organization called Global Expeditions and its Teen Mania program. Teen Mania’s aim is “to provoke a young generation to passionately pursue Jesus Christ” and to spread that message around the world, according to the organization’s Web site.

Porter, who grew up in Old Town, has been attending Abundant Life Church on Broadway for the past three years.

After graduation, Porter said, he plans to continue his mission work by attending Teen Mania Honor Academy in the fall. He already has been accepted into the yearlong program, which is designed to “cultivate and develop the leadership potential in young adults while preparing them to impact today’s world for Christ,” according to its Web site.

India won’t be Porter’s first visit to Asia. He said he was part of a missionary group that visited China, where missionary work is illegal. So that group’s members got into the country by saying they were there to teach English.

“People would ask us secretly [about our religion],” he said.

The goal, he said, is not to preach to people, but to educate them if they want to know more.

“If God opens up doorways for us to talk to them about religion, we will,” he said.

Porter said he has never come across people who don’t want his help because he’s a missionary. … “And especially I don’t think on this trip it will be a problem because we’re there to help rebuild and clean up.”

One of the most important things to remember is respect, he said. His group is taught to respect the customs of the cultures they’re surrounded by, he said.

The Global Expeditions group will be in India for about a month. About 30 people are slated to go.

Porter is raising money for his trip, which is expected to cost $3,482. That includes travel from Dallas to India, as well as food and accommodations while he is there. In addition, Porter will have to come up with money to pay for a plane ticket from Maine to Dallas.

Once in Dallas Porter will go through a weeklong mentor training camp.

This time, Porter will be a mentor to a group of four or five other teen missionaries. As a mentor, he is to encourage others in his group to keep going, even when the job gets tough.

“This trip is probably going to be the most physical trip I’ve ever been on,” Porter said.

Raising money isn’t the only thing Porter does before going on a mission trip.

“I begin praying for the people,” he said. “I’ve been praying for the people [of India] for a while now.”

He also researches the culture and religions he will encounter.

“My personal reason is definitely to tell them about Jesus Christ and that there’s hope out there,” Porter said. “I just want to bring hope to the hopeless and love to the loveless.”

Donations to Porter’s trip may be made online at www.globalexpeditions.com.