The following are different patterns we exhibit when we return from a mission’s trip. We want to learn and grow from the trip. It needs to be more than a vacation. It needs to accomplish something in our lives. Be careful not to react wrongly.
Alienation: “I can’t relate to anything I experienced – I’m going to dismiss it all as a bad dream.”
Condemnation: “Americans are so materialistic and spoiled. I can’t believe what a mess they are.”
Reversion: “I know the experience impacted me, but this old lifestyle of mine is calling my name right now.”
Integration: “I see my experience overseas for what it was and recognize the lessons it taught me – I’m making changes to my life.”
When you come back from a mission’s trip it is good to ask yourself some questions. It is good to talk to others about what God has taught you. With that in mind I am going to list several questions over the next few days that you might consider. Put them in your notebook. Leave space to answer them. Gather your thoughts and learn all that you can!
Debriefing questions from a mission’s trip
What lessons did you learn: Spiritual, About leadership, About the ministry, About cross cultural living, About interpersonal relationships, About family/marriage
Think about the hurts & praises that you experienced. Work through them so that you will be able to thank the Lord for them. Think of both your hurts and praises and then address any lies that might have attached themselves to your thoughts. Ensure that we have fully forgiven. Look at areas where we did not see breakthrough and ask the Lord for insight
What were the high points and the low points?
Who or what most encouraged you on the trip?
Did you accomplish your goals?
What did God do?
What stories can you share?
What part of the trip did you like best?
Describe some of the relationships you made.
What did you find most challenging?
Were you well prepared? What else could you have done?
How would you rate the unity in your team?
How are you doing physically?
How are you doing emotionally?
How are you doing spiritually?
Did anything disappoint you about yourself?
What surprised you about the culture?
What ministry skills did you sharpen?
Did you find fulfillment in your ministry time?
What did you learn about ministry?
Did you see God answer any prayers in your ministry time?
What’s the next step for you in life?
What do you hope to accomplish in the next year?
What is your plan to get there?
What changes do you want to make to your life?
Are there any relationships you need to change?
How will you change them?
What concerns do you have as you go back home?
Who can help you keep the flame alive back home?
What ministry will you continue to do in the community?
What can you do to go to the next level spiritually?
Who will you reach out and minister to?
Did you lie in answering any of the previous questions?
I wish that I could give credit for where I found this list of questions but do not remember. If you know who give me the data and I will give credit where credit is due!
Tyler, Gretchen, Nora, and Judson are spending their last week here in the states for quite some time. They will leave for Spain and North Africa one week from tomorrow. I am so glad that God is working in their lives. I am, personally, very proud of them.
This week will be a big week for them. They will finish packing. They will say lots of good byes.
Wednesday several of us will help the Masters pack their crates for the trip.
It is very exciting to be part of a church that has such an active part in the lives of so many missionaries. All you senders need to be part of these activities as one of our goers leaves for the field
But at Vision we want to bless them in some special ways: Thursday night we will have a Baby Dedication Service.
A baby dedication is more about a Parent’s Commitment than it is about dedicating the baby. Tyler and Gretchen want to publicly commit to raising their two children for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus this Thursday. That will be a great evening. You will not want to miss it.
Then on Friday night there will be the Mancation and the Moroccan Midnight Madness as the men and women have two separate events to spend time with Tyler and Gretchen. I hope you will be involved in this special evening.
Then on Sunday night we will have a special send off service for the Masters family. We will pray for them as we do all of our missionaries as they leave, we will honor them one last time with a special offering as they leave.
I hope you will make it a point to be in all of these events to express your love to this wonderful family. If you can’t make them all then be in what you can.
Tyler and Gretchen, we love you and are honored that you would make Vision Baptist Church your home church!
Kyle Shreve, Scott and Melissa Newton and I are in Barcelona, Spain. It is a wonderful place with very wonderful people. There is a great need for the gospel. Today we will spend the day trying to find out what is available and where the greatest needs are.
Last night we visited a 30 + year old church that had just a handful of people. They say that no matter where you turn the people need Christ and that there is little interest.
I couldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for my good nurse friends, Bekah Hall, Tracey Paver, and Anne Lundy who have given me shots to try and hurry me back to health. Thank you all very much.
I will write and let you know what I see happening but ask that you pray that God give Scott and Melissa clear direction.
The following article was written by a great friend working in the Muslim world. He understands first hand what the ministry there means. He has lived it and is leading a team there at this moment. Read and enjoy. Feel free to comment below.
A tool for understanding the complexities of Muslim missions
Many people have a hard time understanding the difference between Afghanistan and Turkey or Saudi Arabia and Morocco. “They’re all Muslim countries, aren’t they?” is the general American understanding. Well, yes, they are. But they are all very different in their method and severity of implementation.
Many young missionary candidates, like myself, are passionate about church planting, discipleship, and leadership training. As a result, they are looking for a place they can exercise these passions. Knowing the laws against these things in some Muslim countries, they never consider going to any Muslim or Arab country. Having thus decided, they ignore more than 20% of the world’s population (including half of the world’s unreached people groups).
Some other young missionary candidates, like myself, are passionate about reaching Muslims. So they change their missions strategies to fit a “Muslim” or “Closed” country mentality. They change their goals from being church planting to “blessing” the country with business or with their influence. Instead of tailoring a strategy to a country or region they would paint it all with the same brush and thus miss out on great opportunities for Christ’s glory.
Possibly a better understanding of what freedoms exist in each country will open up minds and hearts to reaching Muslim peoples. I have observed that there are basically four types of Muslim countries in terms of the religious freedom they grant their people. You could call this the “Freedom Scale” for quick reference. You can fit every majority Muslim into one of these six categories however each country has it’s own peculiarities. Muslim countries are also in a constant flux as leadership and attitude in the country changes. A country may move up or down a level in a day. Look at the Islamic revolution in Iran or the secularization of Turkey under AtaTurk for opposing examples.
Trent Cornwell, Joe Gibby, John and Sandy Pearson, Wade and Kathy Williams along with Betty and me have all arrived in Arequipa. We are excited to have the opportunity to take part in the organizational services for Omega Baptist Church on Tuesday night. This will be our second daughter church and that is very exciting.
Vision has several members that live and work here in the city of Arequipa, Chris, Andria, and Jacob Gardner, David and Katie Gardner, Mariangela Simeon, Rebecca Soncco, and David and Stephanie Velke. So with all of us that are here visiting Vision has 17 members in the city. That is pretty wild if you think about it.
The Velkes and Mariangela are here finishing part of their education at the Our Generation Training Center.
It is exciting to see all that God is doing here and to know that He is glorifying His name above everything because He is great.
Pray for Betty as she is quite sick and I am still trying to recover from what ever it is that is ailing my respiratory system and throat.
God allowed me to have a wonderful time with Kevin and Beth White in Cochabamba, Bolivia. They are doing a tremendous job.
They will be with us at Vision for our World Vision Celebration in September. So I hope you get it on your calendar to be at the conference and to meet and get to know the Whites.
The Whites are coming home on furlough at the end of May. If you have not had them in your church you will not want to miss them. God is using them in a great way.
The first thing we did on this trip was to take part in their first ever Couples Retreat. It was a blast. We stayed in a beautiful place. The couples were hungry to learn more about the Word of God and how to put it into practice in their marriages.
Then on Sunday we held regular services. They are having well over 100 each Sunday now and men are stepping forward to take the leadership positions.
On Monday I had the privilege of meeting with the leaders of the church as we had a cook out at the White’s home.
I ask you to pray for the ministry there. They need to purchase land for their future. They need your prayers that God will use the men to keep the church growing while Kevin is back in the states.
Pray that God will fill up their calendar and give them the needed new support.
I thank God for men and women like Kevin and Beth. They are true servants of the Lord. I thank God for the way they are serving Him.
Beth, I want to thank you for being a wonderful hostess. You are great and I think God is using you as a most wonderful help meet to a great man of God.
The marriage retreat is over and was a great success. The people are all telling Kevin and Beth that they want to do it again. There were a total of 11 or 12 couples at the retreat. The Lord spoke to hearts. I saw tears rolling down some cheeks, people spoke to us afterwards to say what a blessing it had been.
This morning we will be going to church, Sunday School and then evening service. Tomorrow there will be a leader’s meeting, Lord willing.
God is using Kevin and Beth White. I can highly recommend them to you as missionaries. They will be home on furlough starting the end of May. You would be blessed to have them in your church during this time. We have already booked them for Vision’s mission’s conference.
You can get more information about the White’s at their blog here. They are a wise mission dollar investment.
I challenge you to come for a visit. You will love what you see God doing. You will want to be part of it.
The White’s planted a church, Iglesia Bautista Vision several years ago. They are now preparing the people to lead on when they are on furlough. Please pray for them.
Go to bcwe.org for more information on world evangelism.
I am here in Cochabamba with our missionaries Kevin and Beth White. Today we will leave to go on a marriage retreat with the couples from the church. I am really looking forward to what God is going to do.
Kevin and Beth are doing a great job and have been now for several years. They will be home on furlough this year. You could be blessed to have them in your church to present what God has done in and through them here in Bolivia.
I left the house yesterday at about 2:30 and arrived at the Atlanta airport at 3:15. The plane was scheduled to leave for Miami at 5:15. It left late and I barely made my connection in Miami.
Then I arrived in Santa Cruz on time and arrived in Cochabamba nearly 2 hours early. Of course I have yet to have much sleep but God did bless and give me 3 seats on the plane so that I was able to sort of lay down most of the night.
I will get some sleep tonight, Lord willing.
God blessed greatly at Vision on Thursday night with Mark Tolson preaching and now on Sunday you will be blessed by the ministry of Trent Cornwell.
I thank God for giving us such good men in our church that are able to take the load when I travel.
You can learn more about Kevin White and other missionaries on bcwe.org.
I am very far behind and I have not updated like I should have. Brother Keith has kept us very busy. I am behind on email, blogs, reading, etc. So I ask that you please be patient with me.
On Thursday we left Ouagadougou and headed towards the border of Ghana. Just a few miles short of Kenya is the elephant park. There we spent the night and saw the elephants. It was a lot of fun because we took Vicente and Gabriela Garcia with us. I throughly enjoyed that.
Before we left we bought Vicente his motorcycle, showed it to him and left.
On Friday morning we got up, I took a cold shower, and we came back to Ouagadougou. Then we ate lunch, bought two cell phones for the Garcias and headed to Roungou where they have a village work.
We preached, then laid down to sleep outside on air mattresses under the African sky. It is usually so hot here that I can barely stand it but that night it got so cold that I thought I was going to freeze.
I laid there listening to the African drums in the distance, looking and the stars and freezing. By the way, I can assure you that the drums didn’t sound like rock music at all. That myth was quickly dismissed as we all lay there and listened.
At about 1 am we got up and went inside the church and slept till morning. I was still cold even here in Burkina Faso.
Then we preached again to the people who came to the church at about 7:30 and made our way back to the house. We took showers, got hot again, and got ready for the service last night.
I preached two messages, nearly 2 hours and talked about the strange woman from the book of Proverbs. God really used the message.
We came home, had some home made pizza and went to bed. I tried to catch up on lots of things but had to get the messages chosen for today. Looks like a total of 4 for today.
We will leave here at 7:30 am on the way to our first preaching service.
Tomorrow we will do some running around, preach Monday night and then go to the airport and should arrive on Tuesday evening at 8 pm.
I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep, my wife, and my bed.
I will post pictures when I return. The Internet here is very slow.
Numbers 3:13 Because all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I am the LORD. When all the firstborn of Egypt died God set aside for […]
Leviticus 25:35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. If your brother gets in trouble you are to help him. It doesn’t matter if he is a stranger or […]
Full time Deputation! It is finally here! We are on full time deputation to start churches in Thailand. We have been preparing for this day for 10 years, and the Lord has faithfully brought it to pass. Our schedule is about to change quite drastically, and we need your prayer that we would be able […]
Tonight will be Vision Baptist’s monthly “Goer /Sender Coalition” service. This is a spectacularly exciting service that you do not want to miss! This service will feature Vision Baptist missionaries, and missionaries in training, all preaching mini messages! Instead of one message, there will be several, shorter messages, and there will also be several inte […]
Leviticus 22:32-33 Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you, That brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD. He brought them out of Egypt to be their God. He rescued, […]
