3 Follow-Through Meetings For When You Come Home

Coming home is always so anticlimactic.  Most teams spend months preparing for two intensive weeks in a foreign country bonding with team members they barely knew. Then they go home to their normal and overly busy life in which they rarely see their former team members.

If you have been involved in short-term mission trips for any length of time, the story is all too familiar. A team comes home excited to share their story and influence their community, but they lose their connection and thus their energy. We all know that we should be doing something for follow-through with our team, but what works?

Follow-through meetings don’t have to last forever, and don’t have to be complicated. I recommend pre-planning the dates for three follow through meetings. Set these up ahead of time so people realize they are important, and will schedule them well ahead of their calendar filling up. Each of these meetings should have a theme, and be planned with the intent of moving the team along a process from debriefing to next steps.

Here are the three meetings I suggest:

1.      Celebration. Schedule this meeting to happen within a week to 10 days of returning home. This can be a pizza party, an ice-cream social, a potluck, or whatever you want. Have everyone bring their pictures, a CD with pictures, or something else by which to remember the trip. Simply sit around telling stories, laughing, and reminiscing. You need this time to connect and remember. You don’t need to get overly spiritual —this meeting is simply to celebrate the trip and connect.

2.      Reflection. This is the meeting where you will get reflective and misty-eyed. We want people to not just remember the stories, but to re-experience the impact. And with the perspective that time and distance gives, to be able to see what God was communicating to them. Here’s the thing though: you can’t simply sit in a circle and expect everyone to share. You need some sort of activity to prompt reflective though. If you need help planning a meeting like this, contact me using the information at the bottom of the article.

3.      Planning Next Steps. As an individual and as a team, what are the next steps? “How, then, shall I now live?” should be the theme of this question. Sometimes we consider this too quickly. It is important to have celebrated the trip and deeply reflected before considering what’s next. Hopefully this meeting will lead to next steps for the individual as well as next steps that will help the team impact their community in light of their experience. Again, you can’t expect to sit in a circle and brainstorm to a resolution. Contact me for ideas of how to creatively manage this meeting.

Finishing well can be hard in our fast-paced, high energy world. Our society is quick to move on to the next big thing before the current big thing is resolved and our lives often reflect it. Make sure you finish your short-term mission experience well, for this is how we will see life-long change in our participants. 

Questions for the author? Need help planning these meetings? You can contact Tory at 520-404-0841 or toryr@deltaministries.com.

Mission Trip Triage Made Simple In 3 Easily Levels

Last week we talked about the idea of triage when it comes to our mission team participants. But what is triage? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines triage as, “the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients, and especially battle and disaster victims, according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors.” Now, we don’t expect to treat injured people, but we should be strategic. Emergency room doctors don’t spend more time with someone who cut their finger than someone who cut their arm off, and they certainly don’t treat them the same way. So why are we trying to treat everyone with a one-size-fits-all follow through strategy?

The Next Mile curriculum divides team members up into three categories. Follow-through should be customized but we have to start somewhere. Here are the three categories:

Level One —Those not likely to do another trip (est. 60%)

Level Two —Those likely to go on another trip (est. 30%)

Level Three —Those who may go onto mid- or long-term ministry (est. 10%)

Next week you will see an article about follow-through meetings. One whole meeting will be dedicated to reflection. By the end of this meeting, each participant should know where to put themselves. These can change, of course, but it provides a starting point for follow-through.

So now that we have categories identified, what are appropriate actions steps for each category?

Level one: Become a mentor to a short-term missionary next time, join the missions committee, pray for missionaries, become a home-country advocate for a missionary, give to missions, get involved in a ministry at the church.

Level two: All of the above, get involved with the particular people group in your area, language classes, be trained to lead the team next time, other classes that may prepare for ministry such as evangelism, Bible, or other practical skills.

Level three: All of the above, connect with missions pastor or missions committee about calling, investigate mission organizations that can help, educational considerations, begin dealing with logistics – pay off debt, downsize material possessions, etc.

This, of course, is not an all-inclusive list. I just want to get you thinking. What else can you come up with? Leave a comment at the bottom of this post with other ways that you have encouraged short-term missionaries in their journey to become more like Christ.

Taking the approach of triage will help you determine what life-change really looks like for each individual. It will also help you know how much time to invest in each individual. Hopefully this will make you more strategic and more confident in interactions with returning team members.

Questions for the author? You can contact Tory at 520-404-0841 or toryr@delaministries.com.

4 Things Every Team Leader Should Do After a Short-term Mission Trip

July is here and you are probably back from your annual short-term mission trip. Or maybe the youth group at your church just returned home. In any case, whether this is your first or 15th trip, you might be wondering what is next. The group got along so well, and vowed to get together, but you just don’t know how to keep everyone connected. Or maybe you have already been home for a couple of months and still haven’t seen everyone.

Here are three things to do:

1. Get them signed up for The Next Mile E-zine. This is an e-zine automatically delivered through email and is free. You only need a name and en email address to sign up. The e-zine discusses issues associated to returning home and helps the participant process their experience as well seek God’s next steps for them. This should not replace follow-through by the church or team leader, but is meant to enhance it. Click here to sign up.

2. Mission Trip Triage—You probably feel paralyzed by the fact that you are responsible for so many people. The problem is that we often try to treat everyone the same even though no one is the same. We use the idea of triage to help team leaders determine what and how much is appropriate to invest in each participant. Upon returning, help your team members figure out what level they are and then plan appropriate next steps for living a more Christ-like life. Check back next week to find out what the levels are and how to follow through with each level.

3. Encourage your team members to continue praying and reading their Bible. We often spend more time than usual praying and reading our Bibles in anticipation of our mission trip or during our mission—and most people like it! Push them not to let that practice end when they come home.

4. Plan three follow-through team meetings. I know everyone lives a busy life so don’t overdo it. The meeting could be for lunch, after church, or dessert one evening. Look for an article in two weeks with details about these three team meetings.

Following through with your team members is a big job, and an important one! It can be easy to let it go because the trip is over, but God’s work in your team members’ lives is not. For more on following through with your team members, I recommend The Next Mile curriculum.

Questions for the author? You can contact Tory at 520-404-0841 or toryr@delaministries.com.

Three Ways For Tying Global to Local

Many churches are looking for ways to connect their overseas ministries with their local ministries. The idea, of course, is to hook people into ministry through the convenience of their own community and then provide them the opportunity to minister in similar ways in another country. This is a good way of preparing people. Conversely, there are some people who are enticed by travel and will go on a short-term mission trip before regularly serving in their community. So how do we find connections between ministries in such different cultures? There are three main ways to do this:

1. Common Cause – This is a common issue. It could be something like homelessness, AIDS, orphans, or health and hygiene.

2. Common Role – This is a common ministry function. This could be something like children’s ministry, sports ministry, or a medical ministry

3. Common People – This could be a common culture, country or a people group. Perhaps you have a large immigrant population near your church; you could develop a missions sending program that goes to their homeland. 

In order to coordinate these, the church needs to begin by praying. Seek God’s will for your church—both in the context of the community and the world. Second, evaluate the church’s gifts and passions. How has God uniquely positioned you to reach others for Jesus? Are there common passions that God has placed in many individuals in your congregation? Finally, look to see if your church has a significant number of people from a specific group. Maybe your church has a large number of attendees who are from a specific country. You may consider adopting that place or people group as your focus.

You may even consider participating in a “Tying global to local” seminar. Click here to request more information on the seminar or to see about bringing it to you.

Questions for the author? Need coaching or consulting? You can contact Tory at 520-404-0841 or toryr@delaministries.com.

4 Things Every Friend of a Short-term Missionary Needs to Know

Normally I write an article to short-term mission (STM) participants or pastors. This one is going to be different. This one should be SENT to anyone who has or had a friend or family member go on a short-term mission trip. That might mean you are going to have to forward this email—just make sure you delete the FW at the beginning of the subject! We don't want to be confused for one of those annoying forwards your coworkers always send you!

Have you thought about what coming home might be like for your friend or family member? Maybe you have been on a trip and know, but if you are reading this article, maybe you haven't. Coming home from a STM trip can be an exhilarating and scary thing. It is exciting to come home and tell stories and show pictures. Often we have a new purpose in life. But it can be a scary, depressing time as well.

I want to give you an idea of what to expect when your STM trip participant comes home. There is typically a four-stage process:

1. Excitement--coming home is exciting. The participant can't wait to share stories, show pictures, and live "a new way."
2. Hostility--the air is let out. Life is harder than imagined, change seems impossible, and no one seems to care. Sometimes we treat others with disdain, judgment, and superiority.
3. Adjustment--we gradually adjust back to life as it was. We give up trying to "change the world" and just accept life as it is and was before the trip.
4. Integration--taking lessons learned and applying them to a transformed, more Christ-like life. Most people never get to this stage--they stop at #3.

So what should you do? How can you help your friend or family member through the coming home process? Here are some suggestions:

1. Listen to their stories and look at their pictures--I mean all of them. It may take one whole evening. Put in the time. They need to express themselves.
2. Listen for heart change. Listen for how God is calling them to change. This may come across as contempt for their current life--don't take it personally. They may be processing our affluence in comparison with deep poverty. Listen for the heart change and encourage them.
3. Encourage them to stay in contact with the team. They have a shared bond and shared understanding. Their interaction and desire to be together will eventually fade, but for now they are a good support for each other.
4. Journey together. You may not have gone on the STM together, but that doesn't mean you can't journey together. Listen for the heart change and pray about what God is calling both of you to do or become. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Sometimes the people who appear the least affected on the outside are the ones struggling the most on the inside. All STM trip participants need their friends, family, and church to love them well when they come home. I hope this article helps you know where to start.

Coming home is hard. Follow-through with a returning STM trip participant can be even harder. But as their friend, you are perfectly placed to walk the journey with them!

Questions for the author? You can contact Tory at 520-404-0841 or toryr@delaministries.com.

How To Avoid Donor Fatigue In Your Short-term Mission Program

Does your church send out multiple mission teams every year? Do your church members become fatigued opening all the support letters that come to them? Or maybe you have a hard time deciding which people from your church to support. You don’t want to pick and choose, but you can’t afford to support them all.

A little bit of strategic planning can alleviate the stress. Here is a process that I would recommend trying:

1. Get the church on some sort of cycle. I would recommend six to nine months or even one year.

2.  Discourage or even forbid support letters to be sent to members of the church. Instead encourage the team members to send support letters to friends and family in other places, hold fundraisers, and even save some of their own money to pay for the trip.

3. Promote the trips or individuals going on a short-term mission trip in the next six months to one year. Make sure people know that they are going and what they will be doing and assure them they will have a chance to contribute towards the project.

4. Take up an offering sometime during the cycle and split it amongst all the team members evenly. If you don’t want to collect a special offering, have a pastor write one letter to the congregation outlining the trips and asking for donations. All donations will then be split amongst all the team members.

I think you will find that this removes the “first come, first serve” environment as well as keeps generous donors from being overwhelmed. After a cycle or two, your members will begin to budget and expect the annual or biannual donation to the mission teams.

Questions for the author? You can contact Tory at 520-404-0841 or toryr@delaministries.com.

3 Crucial Reminders about Remembering God on a STM

As a goer on a short-term mission (STM), a lot is going on in your mind when you arrive on location – did my shampoo explode in my suitcase; the sites are breath taking; excitement and nervousness; or even frustration from the journey it took to get there. There is an endless list of possible thoughts and emotions. The point is, in the hustle and bustle of traveling and doing, are you focused on the fact that you are on a STM?

First, upon arrival, pause and take a moment to focus your heart on the Lord. Being intimately connected in your heart and mind to God in each moment is vital when doing His work. Unfortunately one overwhelming reality of a STM is the issue of time, and the possibility of its distraction. The problem is that when a schedule is in place, people are then constantly thinking of what the next task is, but God meets us in the moments we are in. He meets us in the present tense – in the here and now. This means, that while time is active and moving, and the schedule ticks on, we must be aware we need to be fixed upon the presence of the Lord, praying and conversing with him continually.
When we seek Him in continual prayer, we are abiding in Him by giving Him the entirety of our situations. We offer Him the space to work freely, acknowledging His greatness and the power and control of His hand. We ask for our daily bread and the essentials, putting faith in His provision, and praise Him when our needs are met or when glory is deserved. Essentially, we are surrendering to God, and humbly seeking Him and worshiping Him for all He is and what He can do, for He is the center of all.

Second, remember you are in an ongoing spiritual battle. A STM means going and fulfilling the work he commissioned to us, make disciples of all nations. A STM is sent forward because of that call and the motivation to advance the kingdom for his glory. By responding to this call, we are declaring that God is our master. Remember that by doing such, we are stepping forth into a battle; into the thick of all that is of the world.
Realize the severity of the spiritual move we’ve made, disrupting the darkness, and bringing forth the light of God to the unreached, we go forth into enemy territory. Be prepared for spiritual warfare, and in faith, and with prayer, rely upon God for the protection we need with steadfast dedication. If our hearts harden, and become prideful or overconfident while serving Him, maybe even distracted, Satan is gaining ground because our hearts are being consumed with ourselves, and not relying on God for our needs, which are many.

Third and finally, take the time daily to meet with God while on your STM. In fact, meet with Him multiple times a day – as you transition from event to event, before travel, before speaking with people, while speaking, or any chance that you have. Keep the conversation going, inviting God to be part of your time. Also, try not to constantly be asking for things, but worshipping Him for His power and might, for His plan, for His greatness and mystery. Thank Him for Jesus and the gift of salvation, and be praying for hearts to soften, for safety while you’re involved in physical activity in that place, and for focus. Be praying for spiritual protection because Satan can come into your work to tempt and distract. Be on your guard, and ask specifically. Our God is a God who hears and acts – He is omnipotent and powerful.

Often we are inclined to think that God’s presence will be close at hand on a STM, but like regular life, we know we can’t make any assumptions about His closeness to us if it’s something we are not pursuing ourselves. So, focus your heart on the Lord when you arrive. Remember you’re in the midst of a spiritual battle, and take time to meet with him daily. You’ll find Him and discover what His will is for you and your involvement in the advancement of His kingdom.


Article by Crystal Mann