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How Prepared Are You? SURVEY

Interested in finding out how your short-term mission team preparation process stacks up?

Want to discover the areas where you should spend more time in preparation with your short-term mission teams?

This short survey allows team leaders and team participants to gain some feedback on their preparation process.

Once you have completed the survey, you will be given access to a password protected page, where each level will be explained in detail, and level-specific training solutions will be available for you to browse.

Our long-term goal with our missionary host was:

There is no host where we're going, we're opening new fields, and our team is made up of professionals and experts

There's an understanding we'll come back in 2 years, the trip seems mutually helpful

Our on-going partnership includes mutual ownership, expectations and priorities

This was a one-time trip that provided great opportunity for team growth. Where next?

The missions trip was publicized and promoted by:

We held an information meeting before the trip, and publicity materials were made available

This trip was not open to the public. Since participants are invited based on expertise, publicity is limited to general reporting

Several months before departure, our information meeting established timelines, costs, schedule for training and debriefing, ministry objectives and introduced the team leader

Word-of-mouth, casual announcements, sign-up sheet on info table

The purpose of our team application was:

The organization we worked with needed them

The application helped screen and give info to the leader when they interviewed the candidate

We mostly used it as a way to gather names of interested team members

Team members share extensive international experience, newcomers are invited to join when there is a need for new expertise

Informing family members of the trip was:

Asking family members to pray for the team, and giving them reminder cards or calendars

Creating emergency plans, informing of exit strategies, updating wills and next-of-kin info

Asking family members to pray for the team, and giving them reminder cards or calendars

An unspoken responsibility of each team member

The international travel experience of individuals on our team was…

Multiple experiences (4+) per team member

On average, 2-3 experiences per team member

Less than one experience per team member

Approximately one experience per team member

As a team our work and our ministry objectives were mostly:

Decided during the planning phase in combined ownership between host and team leadership. Plans were made for each to exchange skills with one another

Decided by the STM agency we went with

Long-term objectives involving significant ($100 000+) resources in order to assist nationals to fulfill personal dreams

An opportunity for us to see the local host or missionary ‘in action’

Our team funds were raised by:

Telling the team members how much money they needed to raise

Individual team members are often funded by a ministry or have developed a personal funding base

The participants were taught by the team leaders how to raise friends to personally support their mission

Bake sales and car washes! There were several opportunities for team members to raise funds together

As a team we met face-to-face …

Multiple times over several months before we left

A couple of times before we left

At the airport...we came from lots of places

Between deployments the team meets on a regular basis to strategically plan for the future

Our team prepared for cross-cultural understanding by:

Deepening our expertise on worldview issues such as being-doing culture and high and low context

Studying behavioural differences in various cultures around the world

Learning some basic language and cultural differences - we found out they are called "nationals", not "local yocals"

Listening to our team leader who let us know how to pack, what to wear, and our host who gave us an orientation when we arrived

Secondary or support leadership for the team was:

Determined on the field, by the primary leader to help manage the team

Vital! Developing secondary team leaders was a big part of mobilizing our STM team

Secondary leaders are recruited, trained, and sent with new teams

Required to match the hosts request for a ratio of leaders to the team

Our team's health care and travel insurance plans:

As a sending agency, we have written policies, and coverage for our team members, including insurance for emergency airlift from politically unstable situations

We required everyone to have insurance coverage, and have a waiver of liability for our leaders

Our partner agency has a health and insurance package that they charge all team members

We used a waiver, and we also provided the proper insurance for all team members; team members who do not want our insurance must prove equal or greater coverage

Our team's safety and security meant that we:

Required the team leader and the host to stay informed of security threats and established contingency plans

Prayed for the protection of God and listened to the rules of our host

Told people where they could and couldn't go and had them sign a waiver of informed consent

Identified a safety and security professional for assistance at home in case of political, religious unrest or detention

Problem team members were managed by:

The team leader who consulted with their host and home leadership and followed their directives

The national host who carried the responsibility and right to discipline problem team members

The team collectively confronts the problem, attempts to reconcile, and may ultimately choose to disassociate themselves from the problem team member

Internal measures. The team members signed a covenant confirming the responsibility and right of the team leader to lead the team and to even end team member participation if necessary

Our humanitarian initiatives meant that:

Just before we left, friends and family donated items for the team to bring to people that they met along the way

The host had a strategy to use short-term teams to fulfill long-term goals, and the team gathered or developed the expertise during training

The team raised some finances in order to bless the hosts and meet their requested needs

The team has capacity for immediate deployment for disaster response, and extensive training for best practices in international development

The team leader (this might be you!):

Was new and inexperienced

Knew the typical ebbs and flows of a STM team

Is a first responder into emergencies, complex intercultural problems, and crisis counseling

Clarified authority, responsibility and accountability in the team

The procedure for handling our STM team's cash surplus was:

During the final day on the field, the team leader distributed leftover money equally among team members

Surpluses are returned to the accounts we had told everyone about before we left

The team agreed to divide the money between the host missionary, a local ministry at home, and to improve their own debriefing experience (bungee jump!)

Leftover money was returned to the sending organization for future STM activity

Re-entry debriefing took place with the team:

During a session on our last day on the field

Between trusted colleagues, and professionals who have the expertise to treat serious trauma

When we started training, frequently on the field, and within a month of return

What is re-entry debriefing?

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Mid-Termer Blogs

Create a Missionary

Connect on Skype

How Prepared Are You? SURVEY

Interested in finding out how your short-term mission team preparation process stacks up?

Want to discover the areas where you should spend more time in preparation with your short-term mission teams?