Missions Debriefing Tips Tweets

i shared a debriefing tip on twitter every weekday in August - here they are summarized. Probably too late to use with your teams this summer... but who knows...

+ august is missions trip debriefing. i'll be sharing some tips through the rest of the month.
+ write 3 summaries of your experience you can share in 20 secs, 2 mins and 20 mins.
+august is missions trip debriefing. i'll be sharing some tips through the rest of the month.
+ write 3 summaries of your experience you can share in 20 secs, 2 mins and 20 mins.
+ Seths Great 30 questions. http://www.sethbarnes.com/?filename=debriefing-part-5-30-questions-to-ask
+ let them talk and talk and talk. most don't get to talk about their trip enough and hardly anyone really listens.
+ signs of culture shock-disillusionment, lack of motivation, withdrawl. happens with reentry more than you think.
+ let someone else run debriefing for your team. at end of the trip, your willpower might not be enough to get it done.
+ journal journal journal. get your thoughts, no matter how scattered, on paper. you will value this later.
+ list new things: people, experiences, concepts, ideas about the world.
+ three opps for debriefing: instant, daily, post-trip. if you look for teachable moments, be ready to debrief instantly.
+ debrief in a neutral location if you can. extra day in layover, airport meal, tourist spot, hotel lobby, flight home
+ wait 30 days before making major commitments or decisions. [not many people besides me like this one]
+ be patient and challenging to yourself. post mission change isn't easy. but its why you went.
+hang with someone from you team after you get home. talk about one thing that changed you
+ send your supporters a letter with your 2 minute summary. try to get invited to dinner.
+ find a patron of missions at your church. buy them coffee.
+ take the perspectives class. perspectives.org
+ identify environments of different cultures where you live. spend an evening there.
+ keep in touch with your hosts and let them know how you have changed.
+ offer your talent, time and finances to someone doing what you did.
+ start a missions book reading list. start following missions thinkers on the internets.
+ think about your future involvement in missions with the filters of 'teams', 'sustainability' and 'indigenous'.

[Related - student missions advice tweets]

2007 summer leader debriefing

This morning, I met with some other mission team leaders [in SPACE and out of SPACE] in a meeting facilitated by the GCC Missions Task Force for the purpose of debriefing the summer teams leaders. Here are some random and scattered notes that may help you if you are a mission team leader, serve on a mission board or have involvement in sending, supporting or being on teams.

PH - adult short term coordinator
PW - elder, overseeing missions
SW - chair of MTF
J and J - team leaders, adult - Uganda, AOET
S and B - team leaders, adult - Mexico, WorldServants
TS - moi, SPACE in general, SPACE 2007 Hungary
DS - my better half, SPACE 2007 Hungary
TM - SPACE 2007 England
JB - SPACE 2007 NYC

Team prep time:
Mexico - 9 weeks from start to finish - not enough time
Uganda - 12 weeks

What kind of preparation:
logistical
language training
Might help to have single day workshop to cover fund raising, culture and logistics - like Mission Advance
Uganda did personality testing
can and should begin to resource a lot of other people within the Body - language training, cultural engagement, team building

Team application process:
how do we choose who goes - need some level of baseline for participants
interviews
this year for adult teams, short term coord did most of the interviewing and then placed people on specific teams
need spousal buy in and agreement

While the team is on the field:
support for spouses/families - who is left behind
including expectations for communication protocol

Debriefing:
need to meet with teams once they come home again - specific to process not for social
have people who are fully devoted to the experience but gain a heart for missions after they return home
long term view - how is God calling you to this in the future?
bring in a guest facilitator for debriefing teams

You probably noticed that most of these issues are common to mission team leaders. You could also infer that there was a lot more to talk about and these were just the talking points that rose to the top in our limited time. Consistently, the missions piece has gotten tons of empowerment, gratefulness and delegation of authority and leadership from the higher-ups at GCC.

Within SPACE, we have also been thinking about process improvement and I'll be detailing some of our plans along those lines in a later post.

Related MTF debriefing sessions - 2005 and 2006

The Best Debriefing Resources

Seth Barnes, Executive Director of Adventures in Missions, has a series of 10 posts that deal specifically with debriefing and reentry. I've thought for a long time that there was not a lot of material available on this subject and I think Seth's posts are probably the most comprehensive I have seen. Some of you may want to read, study and print these posts out.

#1 - Overview
#2 - Biblical Perspective
#3 - Why Do It?
#4 - Areas to Cover
#5 - 30 Questions to Ask, #5b - Continued
#6 - How Debriefs Make A Difference
#7 - Different Ways
#8 - Why Debriefing is Important
#9 - Debriefing Sharpens Our Spiritual Sight
#10 - Untangling Lies

A few things out of Seth's series that I try to specifically do:
- Instant, daily and post trip debriefs.
- Using journals and photos a lot.
- Encourage people to come up with different summaries of the trip for different people - 30 second, 2 minute and 20 minute versions.

Things out of his posts that I'm going to think more about:
- looking at those 30 questions more.
- more focus on planning for the future versus just processing the experience.
- more thinking about the 4 re-entry patterns and how they matter.

Related posts:
- Brasil 2005 Reentry
- The Next Mile debriefing resources

How Some Organizations Do Debriefing

If you are like some organizations - churches, schools, mission agencies - you probably decompress your teams around the idea of what you already do or what you already know. Your goal is to get people more engaged with what you are already involved in, what exists now, what things you are currently resourcing. I'm not saying that is a bad thing.

What might serve us all better is what Alan Hirsch calls missional imagination - what can your students dream up that no one knows about... yet. Instead of helping your students get plugged in to what you know, maybe you should help them engage something they know that you don't.

I am not saying this is simple or easy. This requires you to unleash people. To empower them and send them out. Untether them and allow them to dream. Risky, brave, filled with potential for failure. That's the apostolic.

Photo: Debriefing in Bandol. July 2014.

Detailed Short Term Mission Team Preps

Had a fantastical time with Ember guides facilitating a short term mission prep experience this past weekend. Here's the big picture on some of the values, activities, working documents and systems behind this training experience for the student teams at GRACE [my home church.] As always, feel free to steal what you can contextualize.

Friday night was a leader only experience - participants were leaders that were leading various student mission trips this summer - Uganda, New Orleans and Baltimore. The targeted concepts included navigation, team work, and an urban/cultural immersion. As our Ember team prepared, we landed on the idea of having the leaders travel to multiple locations in Washington DC and doing some kind of learning exercise at each location. Each location was distinctly different in cultural context, a key to this experience. Another key to this exercise was also done in the context of being a 'mapmaker' - you can be taught how to engage a specific culture or you can learn how to navigate cultures and make your own maps.

Leader teams departed right from the church with a set of minimal instructions and made their way to the first destination where our guides met them. From there, our guides traveled with them to the next 2 destinations, observing and debriefing when appropriate, and then all teams met back at Union Station to talk about the whole evening. This included conversations about being sent and being God's people on the move, being a mapmaker and different facets of teamwork. There is no better place to talk about movement than Union Station.

Saturday included a general mixer, some team building exercises and a series of quick 10 minute teaching rotations on sharing your story, global world realities, case studies in culture and contextualization and movement thinking. We wanted teams to experience working together as well as get some informal teaching. The more teams spend together before they hit the mission field, the better. The team building activities are always a big hit - high school kids should learn by doing.

From an Ember guide perspective, the working documents needed for this project included: instructions for Friday night activity [just enough directions - not too many], a debriefing how-to guide, and instructions for each of the team building activities. Regardless of the documents, each guide needed to be 100% engaged - observing the leader teams working [or not working] together or how teams did the team building activities, etc.

Our 6 Ember guides did amazing [amy, trevin, lexi, carolyn, kristen.] They navigated the unknown, improvised when needed and engaged every leader and student to think about the values each activity tried to impart. I'm not only proud of the work they did, but I'm proud of the culture of Ember that they are propagating. They trust each other which provides the foundation for unfiltered debate as we evaluate the event. Our evaluation was over lunch right after the event ended. An added plus if you are a guide: I write a feedback letter to every guide after every event where they have served.

See some pictures here. If you are involved with student mission teams and are interested in missions team preps, get in touch.

[Related: Mission Advancing, NY Mission Cast, Mission Preps with Bay Area]

Summer 2010 Listening - Di

I had lunch with Di Dinnis - she was on the World Race in 2009 and before that served in the student ministry at GRACE. She's now getting ready for another WR of sorts - she's traveling with a WR team for 4 months as a squad leader. Di will help them prep for the first part of their race and then turn over leadership. She will then return to the team in month 8 and help them start to debrief their trip. You read that right - they start debriefing 3 months before they come home.

I've heard nothing but great things about all the stuff Adventures in Missions [who run The World Race] does and lunch with Di continued to confirm this. Stuff like:
+ Choosing World Race teams includes: 3 days of observing people in various team building initiatives including immediate evaluation; MBTI, StrengthsFinder and personality test results; asking God to reveal the right combination of people and teams.
+ World Race teams have a feedback session every single night on how to better their team - based on the combination of trust and vulnerability and grace filled conversations. One principle they live by is to 'vent up.'
+ Ask God and then life happens. While on the field, everyone gets some time every day to 'ask God' about what they should be doing with that time and the freedom to execute on it.
+ Most team members have to take a blogging seminar during training camp.

Teams and preparation are two vital pieces of preparing young people to make a difference. Not only does Adventures seem to be a great model on how to prepare people and teams, we would all be better if we followed their posture of an organization that is constantly learning how to do it even better.

[Related:
+ Best debriefing resources from Seth Barnes, pres of Adventures
+ Seth's recap of what some WR alumni are doing now ]

Friday

Friday morning was spent taking the Kids Week structures down and cleaning up the general property. In the afternoon and evening, we had a little concluding picnic at a local park with all the families of the kids. The French call this an 'apero' [I think....]

There has been a huge rally of support from the community around Kids Week and ICCP and interestingly enough, the theme of Kids Week was 'Kingdom of Grace.' So it's been a great example of the leadership and volunteer staff thinking and believing the best instead of being angry or mad.

Wrapping up things over the next few days. A big part of that is being very very very intentional about decompression and debriefing. Most teams, including many of mine in the past, spend little to no energy on these topics. Do not make that mistake. [Debriefing resources]

Italy Friday

Friday was debriefing day so we spent most of the morning discussing the week in detail. Unfiltered debate and missional imagination were key pieces of this.

We spent a little bit of time on the beach in the afternoon also working through more thoughts about the trip using the questions below. 

In the evening we went to a worship gathering at a center in the town of Ragusa. Fitting end to our time here.

We devote a whole day to debriefing because it is that important.

1 Write about - What did you love/hate

2 Story on an index card

3 20 second, 2 minute, 20 minute
4 Write about - When did time go fast (generative) 
5 Listing important people that you met
6 Envelopes - Tess has these
7 Write about - Something new you learned about God
8 Highlight points on thank you cards
9 Encouragement notes to others

The Next Mile - Short Term Mission Debriefing

You long time readers know that I collect as much material as I can about debriefing. Bible studies, images, charts, messages, activities, etc. Looks like a bunch of mission organizations got together and put some serious investment into this thing called The Next Mile - a collection of practical tools for post-mission trip development.

I'm thinking about possibly trying to borrow one copy of their "curriculum", although I have a big dislike for that word. "Curriculum" can make lazy leaders if you let it. And with students, they *totally* know when you are using something you found, without investing and studying and owning it yourself. (But that's probably fodder for another post. )

Included in the curriculum is:
- a Goer guide, which includes "a Spiritual Journal with daily Bible readings and space to journal, record thoughts from Scripture, and write prayer requests. This helpful tool begins 14 days before departure and continues for 7 days after the conclusion of a Short-Term trip."
- a Resource CD, which contains all kinds of forms, powerpoint, etc. By the way, this is not sold separately.
- a Roadmap poster, looking at the mission trip big picture
- a Leaders Guide

In my humble estimation, if you are a team leader, a guide that you put together specifically for your team would be *worlds* better than something someone else put together, who has no idea where you are going, what your team is like, what your students' favorite candy bars are... But you already knew that...

The focus on a missional experience as part of the overall discipleship of a person is pretty key and I think its right on. I'm excited to see what looks like a lot of people put some time and energy into some debrief and post trip follow up. And having a devotional guide that continues on after participants go home - thats a GREAT idea. The first image below is of a one-time missions experience, versus the second, a missional experience as part of a lifetime of following Jesus.




HT - Brigada

Mission Trip Reentry, Debrief and Sharing

We had yet another Brasil team meeting last night, our first one post trip.  It was good.  Like I mentioned before, we never really did a lot to talk about debriefing and reentry, and last night was perfect.  Everyone has had enough time to process, share with their family and friends and get used to being back home after a great experience.

My friend T, the Fusion pastor organized it because he is in charge of 'Glimpse' Sunday, where all the mission teams will get a chance to share with the body about their trips.  In my view, its a pretty crucial thing, sharing with the body.  All the teams are really an extension of GCC around the world.  Many, many people in the church supported us through finances and prayer.  We were all 'sent out' a few Sundays ago.  And of course, its a great opportunity to expose people to SPACE.  (Sidebar:  Part of me wants to keep it really small and be mysterious and subversive.  Part of me thinks that after this summer, it's going to expand exponentially...) (Sidebar 2:  a God sized dream...)
So last night was a combination of reentry, debriefing and planning the service.  All three things are really well connected.  I put together the first two sections below and we did that over pizza.  We then moved into the auditorium and did section 3 below.

The kids spoke honestly and openly.  More than one of them shared how hard it is to be home and away from the team and the experience.  It was a really, really good time of just connecting again and probably the biggest thing for everyone was to hear, "You are not alone.  I feel the same way."

1.
Pick one from below and share how you did this in Brasil:
- Walk with humility.
Remember, you are showing up late to a meeting.  God has been at work among these people long before you arrived!    
- Embrace with affirmation.
Your greatest gift to the people you meet will be affirmation, not criticism.    
- Live with vulnerability.
Don't be afraid of weakness - it's normal.    
- Practice flexibility.
Always expect the unexpected - you're not in control.    
- Live as a student.
Be determined to learn from everyone.    
- Work as a servant.
Be willing to do whatever needs to be done.    
- Speak as a storyteller.
Let the Spirit tell God's story through you. (Taken from The Short Term Missions Workbook)    


2.
Pick two from below and answer:
-    The thing I liked best about my short-term was . . .
-    The thing that made my short-term most unpleasant was . . .
-    A story that is important for me to tell . . .
-    The most significant lesson God taught me was . . .
-    The area in my life where I saw the greatest change was . . .
-    One story that sums up what God did through me is . . .
-    The biggest challenge I face in returning home will be . . .
-    The thing I'm most thankful to God for is . . .
-    Now that I am back home, I feel
-    I find it easy to
-    I find it hard to
-    I wish
-    The people who I feel understand me are
-    I enjoy being with
-    I enjoy (activity)
-    My family says I
-    My friends say I
-    My pastor says I
-    I need help in

other comments from me:
- your emotions will be a rollercoaster
- it will get easier when you get into school and a routine
- its ok to let your emotions fade, but not your convictions

3.
planning for Sunday
- pray for a big ripple in the Body
- draw in
- one story - no other trip - only happened in Brazil
- what was its purpose
- how about the culture
- anything didn't expect
- hardest time
- when did you feel like 'God brought me for this exact moment?'
- one person you connected with
- how is Brazil different now that we went?
- how are you different?
- how can we encourage them more?

K back from Kstan

K hung out with our fam last night for a few hours, telling loads and loads of stories about Kstan. Definitely a great experience, propelling him even more into missions. Very cool.
So many stories... He said the most interesting was probably hearing a believer in one of the villages give the Bridge illustration, but one that was slightly changed to be specific for Muslims. Really brought out some intersting things for K to process regarding the Contextualization Scale... And, believe me, I've got lots of questions about it too. But I think it's good for him to be thinking about that. More about the C-scale here.
K also mentioned:
- the trip made him see that the world is pretty big. the idea that Americans have this inherent right - to be happy, to be wealthy, to be comfortable - really annoys him.
- what is the core of the Gospel in the New Testament? because we (the Church) disagree about a lot of other stuff that doesn't really matter.
It was great to hear all the stories and see all the pictures. I didn't want him to be overwhelmed with our questions, but yet I wanted him to be able to share all that he wanted to. Sometimes, people come home and they get frustrated because their friends and family here only want to listen for a short time, when they have absolutely tons to share.
K gave me the questions that his team leader gave them for debriefing too. I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, but debriefing is always key. So I grab as much as I can from people who have debriefed or done debriefings, especially for cross cultural ministry. I've got probably about 10-12 different documents with questions, studies on specific passages, activities, etc.
K brought me back a miniature dutar, which looks like this -
He also brought me a set of muslim prayer beads. 33 beads, and when they pray through them 3 times, they have covered the 99 gods. I asked him if it was safe to bring into my house and at one point, D put them on her Bible and said, "I probably shouldn't put them on my Bible..."

ACMC Conf - Fairfield CT

OK - my notes from the Advancing Churches in Missions Commtiment New England Conference. It's going to be long, let me know if it was worth it....


Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment conference
ACMC – acmc.gospelcom.net
‘Flooding the World with God’s Word’

2003-11-22
Black Rock Congregational Church, Fairfield CT
Keynote
Clive Calver
World Relief

Not a lot of people working in relief, but not anyone who does it through the Church
6 ½ years as pres of World Relief
43K US Churches to serve other churches only through local churches

Temptations Facing Missions Today
Going for the jugular
Luke 4

Satan and Jesus meet in the desert
The wilderness is the classroom
30 miles x 15 miles – Judean desert
lowest places on earth
We assume Satan is a vague source of evil
Deliver us from the evil one – the Lord’s prayer which should be renamed as the Disciple’s prayer
Where Jesus will be tried and proven

Jesus was just at His highest point – baptized, mountain top experience
40 days without food
physical weakest

Why does God allow us to be tested?
Refining fire – impurities rise
Look into gold to see His reflection, in the hearts of His people
By His strength, we will win

Effective = Attacked
You are not alone.
The Holy Spirit took Jesus into the desert.
Scripture – Book of Deut

Story - The Iranian Church
5am Bible delivery
$60 = a lifesavings for Bibles

Kinds of Temptations
1. stone into bread
lots of limestone in the Judean desert, looks like bread
temptation to whine
look at your pain
use your power to feed yourself

80% of world resources are in the North American church
God trusted us to serve His church

Paul and Barnabas
Jerusalem famine, they went to Macedonia and sent back to Jerusalem

We need to rethink missions
Not a statement against expatriates
Evangelical churches don’t change quickly

19th century – sending
20th century – sharing, with indigenous
21th century – train the nationals, serving and enabling them
the serving is going to be incredibly unpopular

film about Sudan

2. temptation of compromise
All the kingdoms of the earth
Do it the easy way
The simple way

The greatest strength can become the greatest weakness
Americans are fix it people
Pioneering instinct
Sometimes it’s too easy

Not what we can do but what we can release
Most of the Christians around the world are spiritually deeper than us
Satan offers the wealth and the kingdoms of this world
Jesus strips you of what the world gives
A commitment to sacrifice

Story about the Iraqi church
Clive met a pastor’s wife
She told him her husband was preaching
He asked her what happened to the previous pastor
He showed up, a drought came, they killed him
He asked her what motivated them to come then.
She asked isn’t that what all Christians do?

‘Let a man deny himself’ – 7 times
Compromise is not the pattern of Jesus

3. Temptation to shine
Psalm 91 – aligned with the word of God
The Devil is the accuser of the brethren
Satan’s aim is the destruction of Jesus

The missions Rhode’s gallery (the wall of missionaries)
God called us to serve not to shine
‘I’ve never seen so little money going into missions. Other countries hope is in the US government when it should be in the US Church.’

You can earn the reward of service but not salvation.

Workshop #1
Ken Campbell – President – World Team Associates
Implementing a Missions Strategy in Your Church

I’m the 2nd youngest person here
The average age is easily in the upper 40s.

Affiliate of World Team
Service agency to missionaries
Church link division – connecting churches
Missions mobilization for 25 years
Wheaton IL, Wheaton Bible Church

- why have a strategy?
Communicate vision
Give focus
Establish direction
Answer questions
Enhance good stewardship

- Start with the church mission statement
Ask and answer
What is our history
What is our distinctive
Why was this church founded
What characteristics remain today
Any natural bridges to other cultures
In Wheaton, every Dunkin Donuts is owned by Pakistani people

- Misc
Gather facts about current missions commitments
Analyze data and discover current strategy
Take Perspectives course
Read _The Church is Bigger than You Think_
Subscribe to Missions Frontiers

- Select/Appoint Task force
Thinkers strategic planners
Research other churches in your network
Compare mission/strategy statements
Learn how they made changes
Analyze for what fits us
Allow time for the process
Involve key decision makers and leaders from the body

- Resources
ACMC
Denomination
Agencies
Other churches
Link to the missions strategy
Define missions for your church

- Paradigm shift in missions
Passive supporting
Proactive sending
Mission Focused/Synergistic

- How Churches View Missions (scale)
Problem -> possibility -> project -> program -> purpose -> passion

- Other Key Definitions
Church planting
Unreached
Unevangelized
Cross cultural
Domestic outreach
Support ministries

- Transition
Implement over time
Use natural attrition as part of implementation
Fire missionaries when necessary
Recruit to meet the strategy
Educate the congregation
Be gracious and generous
Communicate with present missionaries
Identify agencies that fit your strategy and partner with them
46 missionaries from 1 church with 1 agency
Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit

Workshop #2
Tom Telford, ACMC
Six Steps to Bring Missions Alive in Your Church

Many churches take a shotgun approach to missions
Focus that is strategic, defined, cooperative
Missions doesn’t fit into the American dream

- Add younger members to your missions team
Older generation – pray and pay
Younger generation – pray, pay, go

- Focus on integration versus information in Missions Programming
Missions is caught not taught
Concentrate on small groups, one-on-one

- Youth
Develop skills and passion systematically
Begin with local, physical assignments and progress to cross-cultural and international ministry
Solid training program
Debrief and move up
Short terms should be called vision trips
- Expand your involvement as senders
Evaluating call and readiness
Develop the support team
Prep field ministry
Spirit/emotional health
Family concerns
Home assignment needs

Survey of 50 churches:
20 had scholarship programs for the kids of their missionaries
48 send staff every year on a missions trip – missions minded pastor
be sensitive where you send them

*Chinese Urbana – 2004

10 essentials in a missions church
1. Outward Focus
2. pastor sold out to world evangelization
has a passion for it
3. church has a well defined missions strategy and policy
4. An effective international ministry team (missions committee)
5. A significant percent of the budget is for missions
One church gave a copy of Operation World to every person for Christmas
Resource a geography teacher
God is blessing churches that make sacrifices – economic climate
One church said if we run out of money, we fire the pastor first and the missionaries last – came upon a church property for 0 cost

6. Missions Education is for everyone
Covered basketballs as globes and gave to toddlers with the theme of hug a planet
Take your church and dip it into missions, sometimes you have to hold it down.
Drama – who wants to be a millionaire – all questions about missionaries – lifeline was one of their missionaries they called live – all money given to missions pastor at the end of the drama

7. church prepares and sends out missionaries
8. missionaries are well cared for
evaluation is part of this
missionaries child was sick. Church sent a doctor to the field. Couldn’t diagnose. Sent doctor and child to CDC in Atlanta. And then back to the field after treatment, church picked up the whole cost.

9. Broad personal involvement
10. The church prays for the world

Preachers kids are bad because they hang out with deacons kids.

Workshop #3
Doug Christgau
Everything you need to know to have effective short term missions trips

Inspire you all to do it with excellence
The kingdom would be better if we didn’t do the bottom 1/3 trips
Black Rock Church, Wheaton Bible Church, Valley Community Baptist – Avon CT
Missions Pastor

Fellowship of Short Term Leaders
1. Why Take short-term trips
a. Missionary encouragement
Do short term with your own missionaries
To encourage your own
If they have a need you can meet
b. Ministry with nationals
No just what we want
Think cognitively
Mutually designed by sending and going

c. Spiritual missions growth of members
Not a substitute for summer camp
d. Church mission passion
Church passion – debrief is huge for this
2. Before the trip – disciplined preparation leads to excellence
a. Church vs. short term agency organized
b. Financing
Should not come out of missions budget
Financed/partnered with people
If person wants to pay, let them
Giving begets giving
Can become a cash cow

c. Trip ministries and locations
Doug’s sampling of trips:
Construction trips
Rob economy – 5x the cost of a national
Nationals helping you
Work alongside
Not negative on construction trips if they are done right
Senegal
Muslims were their bosses
Will we submit?
Will we work hard
Will we be productive?
Good rapport and relationships
Sports Evangelism – Nicaragua – baseball fanatics
10 softball players
baseball clinics in the am
games with locals in the pm
evangelistic in the evening
Seeker Driven – Montreal
3 languages in city – international city
Family outreach – Indian reservation
Womens program
VBS
Youth programs
Same place for 7 years
Very good possibility of a church plant
ESL – Eastern Europe – Romania
Basic of English
Conversational English
Library software upgrades –
Software upgrade to library systems
Had special access to software in different languages
Business Education
American business practices
Believe it or not, other countries desire our standard of morality and code of ethics when it comes to business
Camp – Albania
Volunteer staff support – clean, dishes, etc.
Midpoint during their season
Muslim

There are 150K missionary kid schools around the world, virtually all are understaffed
MK schools are a great experience
Most MK schools have 50% unsaved, lots of expats have kids there

d. Training/equipping of leadership and participants
Thorough administration
8 hours of training
_Prepare Your Heart_ Cindy Judge – personal prep, any age
_Maximum Short Term Missions_ Peterson, Sneed
_Short Term Missions Workbook_ IVP
Training is critical
Hardy Personality test – have people choose one item and talk about it, in over 12 years, it helps on every team
Application/selection process
You don’t want a dysfunctional person on the trip
Missions trip are not reform school
Need a baseline of spiritual maturity – demonstrated in context of the local church
Ok for nonchristians to go
3. During the trip – direction amidst stops and starts
a. Pace of activity
b. Cultural sensitivity
c. Spiritual goals for trip members
d. Flexibility
e. Anticipate illness or stress
4. after the trip – yield from the investment
a. debrief on the plane
b. reunion with supporters included
c. tell your church
d. recruit for mission leadership at home
25% of short term members became missions volunteers

Standards of Excellent in Short-Term Missions
www.fstml.org

1. Releases God-centered kingdom growth
Expressed in the lives of all participants by:
- sound biblical doctrine
- persistent prayer
- integrity

2. is based on Partnership between sending and receiving sides
expressed by:
- primary focus on intended receptors
- planned outcomes which benefit all participants
- mutual acocountability
3. delivers a program which has been Mutually Designed by sending and receiving sides
expressed by:
- common philosophical base and alignment to long-term strategies/mission
- goer guests ability to deliver and receive
- hosts receivers ability to deliver and receive
4. provides Reliable Setup and Thorough Administration for all participants
expressed by:
- sound financial practices
- appropriate risk management
- program delivery and support logistics
5. screens, trains and provides Qualified Leadership for all participants
expressed by:
- pre-field through training and equipping leadership
- on-field through program delivery and support leadership
- post-field through debriefing and follow-up leadership
or expressed by:
- spiritually mature servant leadership
- competent interculturally experienced leadership
- empowering and equipping leadership
- prepared, organized and accountable leadership
6. is evidenced by Participants Trained and Equipped
expressed by:
- biblical, appropriate and timely for all participants
- commitment to continuous training (pre-field, on-field, post-field)
- qualified trainers
7. is commited to Thorough Debriefing and Follow-Up for all participants
expressed by:
- debriefing throughout entire process (pre-field, on-field, post-field)
- re-entry preparation for goer guests prior to leaving the field
- post-field follow-up and evaluations
or expressed by:
- spiritually mature servant leadership
- competent interculturally experienced leadership
- empowering and equipping leadership
- prepared, organized and accountable leadership

Summer Experience Improvements

Here's a few ideas that have been cooking in my head about how we improve our summer experiences. Some of them may come to fruition and some may not.

+ Teams do a bit of language study as part of their prep. Seems obvious but we totally missed this one.
+ Require reference letters for leadership roles. Another duh. Related: press our network for info on leaders that our weak ties might know.
+ Adjust applications to visit the area of humility.
+ Get a filled out application and reference letters for people we send to partners. Send these documents to the partners.
+ Each team has someone that prays. That really really prays - and that helps the team pray.
+ Each team also has someone that is in charge of logistics - where do we need to get to and when and how. If you have traveled with me, you know the gap I'm talking about is mine. I'm easily lost and this summer, I got lost trying to find a park that was 50 feet in front of me [to my credit, those were small European streets] My wife is a huge help in this area but sometimes, combined with everything else, it's a lot.
+ And from a process improvement evaluation in the Fall of 2007 - a Post trip debriefing packet - every student gets something to ponder at 2, 4, 6 week intervals after they come home.

The low water mark for emerging global student leaders gets higher every year. This type of kid gets smarter, more experienced, more passionate and has a greater bias for action every year. What doesn't change is their desire to be engaged in areas such as cross cultural leadership, calling, vocation, and the personal journeys of world class global leaders. They push us to be better and that is a good thing.

Reentry with Tom Cruise

So many things in the past few days have reminded me of Cameroon for some strange reason. The Ghost is trying to blow some embers and I'm getting excited for the next season of SPACE come January. You should be too.

The biggest reminder, oddly enough, was the release of Mission:Impossible:III on DVD last week. I've been a huge fan of the movies [global destinations, cool gadgetry and the epic battle for good and evil] and will eventually buy it used. I watched this movie on the plane ride home between Paris and the US and watched it with ESunde, my amazing intern that continued to be an amazing leader - who incidentally is going to China for a few weeks in January. We sat together for three out of the four flights - alphabetized tickets.

In many ways, I had just finished an incredible mission - Africa, blessing one of our own, students that invested so much in others, a rich time of debriefing and reentry in Paris. In a weird way, watching that movie was part of my personal reentry. Hey, people have certainly done more unconventional debriefings...

From the "I'd Rather Be In Africa" facebook group.
- it doesn't seem right to pay the asking price on anything in a store. If you can't barter for it, it's not worth having.
- four cars are driving parallel to each other on a one-lane road.
- cramming 7 passangers in a 4 passenger taxi is really not a big deal.
- carry purell like it's your life supply.

Ember X flying home

Flying home right now. Debrief session in the terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris. Not ideal but we have to do at least some of it.

Not a great picture of Hope and Measu but anyway. They led us in some debriefing - love giving students opportinities like this.

Much more later after we get home. Thanks to all of the Ember X friends and supporters.

Friday Burn

::: Clarkston, GA welcomes 1500 refugees a year
Link


::: Bill Gates' Advice for New Graduates
Link


::: Living Together, Alone
The money quote: "The downfall of humanity is the invention of the refrigerator."
Link


::: This is an amazing time to be alive. I hope you make the most of it. - Bill Gates

Photo: Debriefing team building.

Hungary Brain Dump

absolutely no rhyme or reason to this deluge of information - except to motivate you...

:: For a global missions org like CAI, even the kids ministry team needs to be at the top of their game.
identification/selection and preparation in both ministry skills and the big picture of affecting humanity

:: Debriefing in Munich
should have listened to D
ended up at a hotel too far in the suburbs
too much travel time to get into the city and landed too late in the day
team [minus Shengri-Las] still went into downtown Munich but it was a long day
and I left my wallet on an unattended cafe table for 20 minutes in the Munich airport.

:: CAI
organic, experimental, low-hierarchy, almost solely church planting, lots of tattoos
cool, young, hip missionaries, emerging culture

:: CAI internships - Brussels
either for post high school or post college
post high school - spend 3 months in Bible college in Europe - good time to acclimate to European culture
focused on action, experimental, etc. very well thought out
team leaders were youth pastors in the US and then in Europe before CAI
about Brussels - mix of French and Flemish
150,000 people, a third are immigrants
hq of the EU

:: Worship
in the sessions brought tears to my eyes every time - i have no idea why

:: CAI process
If you are not already living intentionally, being on staff won't make a difference.
Process

:: Europe
.05% in France are evangelical
Most people that come from Perspectives are very focused on the 10/40 window and Europe gets lost.
You have made it through your first year on the field, describe it. "Brutal." - Megan

:: Leadership
Everyone can be a leader - everyone can have influence over at least one more person.
Fuller's MA in Global Leadership sounds great if you are in your twenties or thirties

:: Say What?
There was a missions org in the conference center ending their conference as ours was beginning. They were your parents missionaries... and their conference [nor any of their conferences] did not accommodate any children. Not everything that falls under the label of "Missions" is inherently good or right.

Photos: Pirate Sven and EllyK, some of the girls and TriciaB and RobynB's VBS group.

London

Debriefing and decompression in London because we do it in a neutral location and because this process in your students missions experience is a non-negotiable. If you skip this, you should find another line of work.

We are down a few in this picture - KatieV flew all the way home today to catch a flight for her family vacation. KatieS was resting after being up most of the night for our last night of Camp Juice.

The Last Match

The Poland ladies returned a few weeks ago and we had a decompression session a few nights ago. You should know this but if you don't, decompression is one of your big responsibilities if you are involved in cross cultural teams. It is the make or break, the smoking gun, the silver bullet. If you help students process their experience, they might change and grow. If you skip it, they almost certainly will not.

We worked through Ember's decompression toolkit, something that we have put together over the years of our experience. It includes things like having students write a few different summaries of their trip, exploring re-entry patterns, and thinking about missional imagination and idea models. As good as this is, I've said for many years that Seth Barnes has the treasure trove for debriefing here.

This was our last Ember project for the foreseeable future. Since these ladies are some of Emily's best friends, we've known them for years. Not only have them been involved with lots of Ember's projects, they've been an integral part of our lives. We've gone to the beach with them, they've spent countless hours at our house, they have eaten so much of our food. Could not think of a better last match for The Ember Cast.

This blog goes into pause mode for a little while. Thanks for joining us for the last incredible 16 years.

August Kindling

+ Debriefing the STC Baltimore team last night included the three topics of context, sustainability and indigenous. I continue to ask why hardly anyone is discussing these all important concepts with students. Interesting: a suburban youth ministry whose ethos included youth gatherings in the inner city with no big deal.
+ Grace high school team leaves for DC Sunday. They'll be working with CSM DC.
+ Happened to meet the owner and founder of Icing Smiles last month at a swim team event. They've experienced the kind of explosive growth that lots of starters could really learn from. She incidentally goes to our church.
+ There are probably some people in our churches that are doing amazing things but are unknown to all of us. That may have more to do with church leadership than you think.
+ Some of Ember's favorite people are coming home to disturbia in waves. Could you people be in the same zip code at the same time?
+ Met Kirk Crager face to face - he hosted a SPACE England team in 2008. Best insight - England is a culture that is highly segmented via economic strata because a class system has existed for centuries. No, not segmented like the US. Segmented like you don't go to the same church or live in the same community.
+ Sad that our guide gatherings are ending after the summer. Loved Wednesday evenings dreaming and executing with John, Trevin, Lexi and Tayest.
+ Deanna and I celebrate our 17 year anniversary this weekend. No it doesn't seem that long.
+ August is blog sabbath. See you in September.