To receive the greatest benefit for your work and family from the student missionaries you’ve requested, be prepared for them! Do the following before your student missionaries arrive.

Physically…

• Have all the logistics* confirmed.
• Have issues related to workspace, job description, and ministry relationships settled and communicated to the missionaries.
• Confirm details related to costs on the field, arrival in country, housing, and transportation.

Spiritually…

• Have the ministry location and involved churches pray for your missionaries.
• Pray with your missionaries in your pre-arrival conversations/emails. Let them know that others in the area are praying for them as well. Give the student missionaries prayer requests for your ministry and family.
• Plan a time for you and your missionary to discuss their spiritual growth plans and supervision covenant once they arrive on the field.
• Plan several times a week for end-of-the day debriefing about the days’ events and how students are adjusting to the culture. Include Bible devotion and prayer as part of this time.

Mentally…

• Be creative in planning the ministry of your missionary. Seek to utilize the skills, gifts and abilities God has given them. Seek to enhance those areas in which they are strong and strength those areas where they are weak.
• Intentionally seek ways to provide ongoing growth opportunities for your missionary. This may be through reading assignments, conference participation or other personal development experiences.
• Be prepared to practice positive conflict resolution.
• Be prepared to share the story of your faith and missions journey with the students so they can see how God has worked in and through your life through the good experiences and the tough times.

Emotionally…

• Create in you ministry location and churches in the association a sense of anticipation about your student missionaries coming to serve with you.
• Involve a variety of people from the field of service in helping the missionaries feel welcome.
• Encourage a family in a local church or area to “adopt” the missionary during their term of service. In many cases these young adults have left their family to serve with you. Help them to develop new “family” in your area.

* Logistics include items such as the following:

• Information about the students’ arrival in-country:
  • how to complete the arrival form for immigration and customs (most forms require an address of where the visitor will be staying in country)
  • what to expect from immigration, customs, and baggage claim
  • how to locate the person picking them up from the airport
• Housing
• Meals
• Laundry
• KP duty list around the housing
• Instructions about the housing (i.e. don’t flush toilet paper, do your own dishes after each meal, etc.)
• Transportation to and from work site
• Translators engaged
• Ministry activities mapped out with instructions on how to engage in the activities in culturally appropriate ways
• Orientation to culture and training for ministry
• Local doctor and hospital information if someone gets sick or hurt
• Collecting Adams and Associates insurance information from the team leader the student missionary
• Determining when, if, and how to collect passports and return tickets and where to hold them for safekeeping
• Plan to confirm return flights prior to the student missionaries’ departure
• Shopping/sightseeing day
• Create a supervision covenant (online on thetask.org/students) to discuss with the student missionaries upon their arrival

Vs/FB
1-02/10-05