The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Training

Pre-field Training is Too Good to be Restricted to New Missionaries

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On August 3, 2010

In E-learning, Pre-field Training

The SEND summer 2010 Candidate Orientation Program (COP) and Member Orientation Program (MOP) are now history, and after 7 weeks in North America, we are now back in Kiev, Ukraine.   While in Michigan at our international office where the training programs were hosted, I enjoyed getting to know two great groups of new SEND missionaries in these 2 pre-field programs. My primary purpose in attending COP and MOP was to better understand what we are teaching to new missionaries, and to look for ways that the two programs might be overlapping or missing some significant areas of necessary training. 

Although I had a few recommendations for both programs, my impressions were overwhelmingly positive.  The content of the training is significantly different from what I received 25 years ago, and understandably so because the context of the North American churches has also changed, and so has the options available for communication.   But I think the quality of the training has also significantly improved since I went through COP in 1985 (no MOP back then).  I realized that some of this pre-field training is just too good to be restricted to new appointees.   For example, I think many of us missionaries would really benefit by sitting down with someone from the SEND media department and discussing how we can improve our newsletters. In fact, if you struggle to communicate effectively and regularly with your donors and prayer partners, why don’t you make spending some time with the media department as one of your home service objectives? Take along some recent issues of your newsletter and ask them to give you some suggestions for how you can communicate more effectively. I know they will be kind – and helpful.

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Finding Assignments for Missionaries

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On June 18, 2010

In Training, Team Leadership

What responsibility do mission field leaders have in finding suitable ministry assignments and opportunities for other missionaries?  In the last few weeks, this question has been asked in a number of different contexts. These missionaries needing a ministry placement could either be missionaries on the leader’s own team, or new missionaries who are finishing language school or missionaries returning to the field after a period of home service or “furlough”.    Sometimes missionaries returning to their home countries after completing their overseas assignment are open to a continuing ministry with the mission if a suitable assignment could be found.   Who bears the responsibility for identifying potential ministry placements?

To some, this may seem to be a strange question.   There are so many acute needs on the mission field.   Aren’t mission organizations always looking for more missionaries?   Why is there ever a need to “find” a ministry assignment for a missionary?   Isn’t the bigger problem knowing how to say ‘no’ to the myriad of opportunities and needs?

While this may be true for some, most missionaries are looking to join a ministry team, one in which they can make a valuable contribution to a larger purpose, without requiring them to be the primary initiator or visionary for that ministry task.  But not every available missionary will fit on every team with personnel needs.   One needs to carefully consider the vision, gifts and personalities of the existing team and potential team members to determine whether this will be a good fit.

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What Does a New missionary Need to Learn Before They Leave for the Field?

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On May 13, 2010

In Pre-field Training

One of the projects we are working on these days is determining the objectives for MOP (SEND’s Member Orientation Program).   The facilitators for the various sessions at MOP have submitted their objectives for their individual sessions, but it seems to us that just as important, if not more important, are SEND’s overall objectives for this entire pre-field orientation program.   So we are asking the following questions:

  1. What does a new missionary appointee need to know as they prepare to engage a new culture,  language and missionary team in their chosen country of service?
  2. Of all the things that an missionary appointee needs to know, what do we in the International Office want new missionary appointees to learn in the 2 weeks that they are with us in MOP?
  3. Is it realistic to expect that an appointee will learn these things in the two weeks that they are on the Farmington campus?  Are our objectives attainable?
  4. Are these objectives going to be accomplished by the orientation sessions and learning activities that we currently  include in the program?  Or do we need to either add to or revise what we are already doing?  For example, if learning to prepare for cross-cultural is important, should we be designing learning experiences that take our new missionary appointees into ethnic neighbourhoods in Detroit?
  5. How will we know whether the appointee has actually learned these things?
  6. How can we find out if the things that were learned during MOP are truly the most helpful and relevant things the new missionary appointees could have learned?   Is there a way that we can get feedback on the relevance of what was learned – and how much was actually retained?

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Avatar and All Things Virtual

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On February 6, 2010

In Training

I have not yet seen the movie “Avatar”.  I don’t enjoy science-fiction novels, have made no attempt to learn Klingon, and I slept through the remake of Star Wars back in ’90s.   But I may make an exception for “Avatar”.   I am intrigued by a news report I read about the impact on the viewers:  “The world of the sci-fi epic Avatar is so perfect the line between fact and fiction has become somewhat blurred. … The stunning special effects of the film have contributed to its success with film-goers declaring that they feel depressed at not being able to visit the fictional world.” A psychiatrist told CNN, “Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far.”

I have little fear that I will be needing counseling for after-movie depression.   Virtual life is no substitute for real-life and holds little attraction for me.  But I am starting to see the possibilities of “virtuality” in other contexts.  During the past 2 weeks, I have been part of a virtual learning community, as seven other students in five different countries participated in an online module on “Orientation to Effective Online Facilitation.”  It has been a thoroughly engaging experience, so much so that I found myself spending far more time participating in the forum discussions than was required (4-6 hours/per week). Most of the students are complete strangers to me in the real world; I have never met them, never heard their voice, and don’t know if I would recognize them if I saw them in real life, since the picture on their profile is minuscule.   While I was talking (typing a reply to their discussion post), they were sleeping.  But nevertheless, I feel that I do know them.  I know how they think and something about their backgrounds, preferences, and faith.   Even their personalities have become recognizable as we have interacted on a number of different topics. These 2 weeks have definitely heightened my own desire to use online facilitated modules as part of the training for SEND U. And if you are interested in participating in such a virtual learning community, check out the course offerings at Grow2Serve.

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