For Field Personnel

Pitfalls to Avoid When Working with Students

Students can benefit mission strategy, but virtually every missionary who has hosted students has hit a pitfall or two that created a hiccup in the mission project. Pitfalls most often occur because students are new to a culture and they need mentoring and assistance to effectively work within the parameters of the culture. Pitfalls often can be avoided through thorough orientation and consistent discipling while the students are on the field. As the missionary host, take note of the student's reactions to culture and ministry issues and use their reaction to train future student teams.

Below are some typical pitfalls that students have faced and some advice on how to avoid these issues with your student teams.

• Emotional issues
  • Culture shock can be lethal to an effective ministry, especially when that ministry is only a week or two in length. Some cultural issues, whether from the food, heat, or relationships with nationals, are more significant than others, but the volunteers need their missionary supervisors to respond to their felt need so they feel heard and cared for rather than feeling ignored or belittled for their concerns.
    • Some symptoms of culture shock include moodiness, withdrawal, extreme sadness, homesickness, extremely negative attitudes, criticism, and anger toward other team members, you as the field supervisor, local residents and even God.
    • Luis Bush, evangelist and director of AD2002, says that usually, it takes time to recover from culture shock and adjust to the everyday realities of a country before being able to contribute much, limiting the length of effective ministry time even further. With encouragement and caring, and an occasional kick in the seat of the pants from the missionary supervisor and other volunteer team members, a volunteer can slog through culture shock issues and still have an effective short-term ministry.
  • Prejudice is often an outgrowth of culture shock that manifests itself in an attitude that "our way is right, their way is wrong." Continual nurturing of the mindset that worldviews and the resulting cultural activities are simply different, not right and wrong. Convinced that the Western way to do things is the Christian way, Bush says, the volunteer may become critical of cultural differences and give the impression that they feel superior. It takes time to develop an appreciation for a particular culture's strengths.
    • Of course, some moral issues will shake down into categories of moral (right) and immoral (wrong), or godly and ungodly. In those cases, you can disciple your volunteers to have a compassionate view of the sinfulness of the culture rather than a superior, judgmental attitude.
    • Solution for culture shock and prejudice: Individuals in culture shock need immediate counsel. Encourage them to talk about their feelings, to pray about them and to increase their quite time. Lead the volunteer to focus on the positive aspects of the work and the similarities between American culture and the host culture, rather than dwelling on the difficulties and differences. Keeping the volunteers busy and encouraging him to learn to laugh at himself aids in this time of emotional crisis.
    • The team can help a team member overcome culture shock and prejudice issues as to debrief each evening. Encourage team members to share openly about their experiences and their feelings about their experiences. Reflect the team member's feelings back to him and then ask a team member to pray for that team member and the specific need(s). For example, if Joe Team Member shares that he feels overwhelmed by his lack of ability to communicate because of the language barrier, reflect back to Joe, "Joe, I hear you saying that you feel overwhelmed because you don't know the language and, therefore, can't talk to the people like you want to." Joe will affirm your reflection. Encourage Joe about the positive side of the issue - his desire to talk with the people shows a real interest in them, which is a gift from God. His love for God is also evident in the fact that he wants to verbally share Jesus with them. Then either you can pray for Joe or ask a team member to pray for Joe, asking God to show Joe how to glorify Him in his actions if he can't use words, and to remind Joe that God's peace is available to him if he will keep his mind on Christ (Is.26:3) and choose to not let his heart be troubled and to not be afraid (John 14:27)
• Health issues
  a. Staying healthy is a primary concern of volunteers. Many volunteers will be overly cautious about their health, but some will take unhealthy precautions such as not drinking in order to avoid using a public toilet. The problem this unhealthy approach creates is dehydration. Dehydration can devastate a volunteer's long-term health, so reviewing the basics of how to stay healthy in the host culture is an excellent way to avoid trips to the doctor that you don't really have time to make.
  b. Solution for staying healthy: (2) Have a plan for health care ahead of time should any team members become ill and need to visit a doctor or a hospital. You can use the medical facilities part of the pre-project checklist as a quick reference to be prepared for health emergencies.
  c. In case of emergency: how to contact the insurance company.
  d. In case of illness or injury: Be sure that all volunteers working with you have enrolled for Adams and Associates. Unless the situation is life-threatening, follow the steps on the in case of emergencies form before going to the doctor so you know ahead of time how the insurance company needs to handle the situation.

• Dependency issues

  a. This issue is critical, but most volunteers do not understand the concept of dependencies on the mission field and how detrimental dependencies can be to multiplying, healthy indigenous churches. When well-meaning volunteers encounter poverty and need, they want to fix the problem and the first solution that comes to mind is providing money. Monetary solutions can come in the form of wanting to adopt a national child, bring a young adult to the USA for higher education, or simply handing out money or goods. The sad fact is that sometimes good intentions result in situations that are not productive or are even harmful.

  Some common situations to which you will want to formulate responses
  before hosting volunteers include:

• Encountering beggars (of all ages) on the street or at restaurants
• Befriending young adults who ask for a sponsor to come to the

USA for higher education or seminary studies

• Determining who chooses and pays for interpreters and how much to pay/tip
• Deciding how much extra money or tip a missionary's regular house help should receive when she cooks and cleans for volunteers and how that money should be given.
• Paying all the money for a church building to be built or for items for the church building.
• Providing or subsidizing local pastors' salaries or buying vehicles for them to encourage evangelism in outlying areas.

  More about dependencies from Missions Frontiers

b. Solution for dependencies: Nip this issue in the bud by addressing dependency issues in orientation. Help the team understand your overall strategy and to see their piece of the puzzle. Talk about help that really helps and help that hurts your specific ministry. The harvest Bible study will help the team to understand the stage your ministry is in (sowing, planting, watering, or reaping) and the role they play.

As the field supervisor, you can teach the volunteer team the following issues about using money without causing harm:

• It is easy for a volunteer team to think they can solve a problem (as they perceive it) with money.
• Volunteers need to recognize that the infusion of the U.S. dollars may:
• Make the missionary or church leader look bad.
• Make the local church and believer dependent on the dollar and on Americans rather than on God.
• Make people think they have little or nothing to give back to God
• Foster the attitude that Western technology and structure is superior.
• Set outsiders’ agenda
• Determine progress by the availability of outside funds
• Stifle local leaders creativity and innovation
• Damage local value systems
• Harden the hearts of local believers
• Destroy ownership

You can also give the volunteers these tips for giving:

• Do not give to individual church leaders.
• Subsidizing literature should not lower its value in the user’s eye.
• Providing for education out of the cultural context maybe more harmful than helpful.
• Buildings should reflect the quality of housing people live in.
• Projects that do not fit the character of the community should be avoided.
• Food aid should not lower the price of local commodities thus impacting the economy.

Once the volunteers experience the poverty or need of your people group/population segment, emotional responses will be the primary issue to counteract because emotion often overrides logic. To counteract the emotions connected with dependency issues, help the volunteers to put the situation in a cultural context rather than in an American context. Remember how you first felt as a wealthy American in an impoverished culture and share your struggles and your solutions for dealing with the poverty with the volunteers. Help the volunteers find culturally appropriate solutions that can truly help ministry efforts and the individuals involved without creating dependencies such as entrusting you or someone on your mission team with money that can be given to true needs at an appropriate time and in an appropriate manner.

• Money issues

  a. As mentioned in the dependencies section, using money appropriately in the host culture is a major puzzle for most volunteers and they need your help to develop appropriate solutions to the problems they will face.

  • Shopping - What should volunteers expect to find when they shop? Are the prices fixed, or should they expect to bargain for the goods? Help the volunteers know approximate costs they should pay for certain items, particularly souvenirs.
  • Beggars - If a volunteer does want to give something to a beggar, what is appropriate to give (money versus food, for example), and what amount is appropriate to give.
  • Offerings - How much is appropriate to give for the offering at church services?
  • Tips - do taxi drivers and restaurant wait staff receive tips in your country? If so, how much is the right amount to give? Should house help and translators receive a tip? If so, how much should be given and how should it be given, directly to the person, or through you as a third party?
  • Payment for services - What is the appropriate payment for the services of an interpreter and how should the payment be made to the individual? Money issues related to translators and other nationals who have served a volunteer team may require explanation of why the boundaries are set as they are. For example, if a volunteer gives a translator an extra $100 as a tip for doing a great job, the other translators will become jealous and discord between the translators can result. Another issue to explain is that the translators may work with the ministry in the future and with other volunteer teams because of the monetary gain they may receive, rather than being a partner in ministry for ministry's sake. Finally, if a team pays house help a higher salary than other house help receives, that team basically "breaks the curve" for house helpers and can create discord between missionaries and their house help in the future.
• Maturity and Lack of Mentoring Issues
  a. Most volunteers want their missionary supervisor to mentor them in effective ministry techniques and culturally appropriate behavior for the host culture. Luis Bush says that few volunteers can function effectively without long-term missionaries alongside. Mentoring often consumes a great deal of more of a missionary's time and emotional energy than is expected. Mentoring is, however, the not same and babysitting, that is, having to watch over a volunteers and hold his hand through every situation to ensure that he does not harm the ministry, himself, or others.
  b. Please be sensitive to mentoring volunteers in ministry strategy, personal spirituality, and cross-cultural living as some of them, especially student volunteers, will be wondering if God is leading them to longer-term service on the international mission field and they will want your insight and personal testimony for direction.
  c. Solution for mentoring issues: On the Volunteer Project Request, feel free to write the level of emotional and spiritual maturity that you need from volunteers who fill this assignment.
  d. Once the volunteers are on the field, If you do encounter a volunteer who needs "babysitting," give advice to the team leader about working through the problem, but leave the team leader to deal with the difficult team member(s). Some suggestions to give the team leader include (1) Look beyond the surface with the student to determine the core issue resulting in their issue/discouragement then address that issue accordingly; (2) covenant to pray for the team members that God will supply all their needs; (2) encourage the team leader to listen to the issues of the struggling team member and reflect the feelings raised back to the person. Often, hearing a persons feelings can be the starting point for dealing with the problem; (3) partner a more mature team member with the struggling team member for accountability and spiritual encouragement.
  e. If a student creates too many problems and seems to fragment the team's effectiveness, or becomes too subversive, you have the authority to send the person home early. Please discuss this solution with the Team Leader prior to making the decision. The Student Mobilization Team will support you if they make the decision to send a student home early. If there is no team leader for a particular student, as in the case of individual student applicants, you have the final say about sending a student home to deal with his/her issues at home rather than being a distraction on the field to the ministry and the rest of the team.

  In a case when there is a team leader but the leader doesn’t want to deal with the problem, you as the field personnel also have the final say about sending the student home early. These cases are usually extreme, and the Student Team hopes and believes that this scenario does not happen often. However, there have been cases when field personnel felt “trapped” with the student for however long they were on the field; in reality, the student could have and should have been sent home at the behest of the field personnel and with the support of the Student Mobilization Team.

• Morality and accountability issues
  a. Some volunteers may come to the field with unresolved spiritual and emotional issues because they are running away from the issues at home or because a parent, minister, or therapist advised them that a mission experience could be good for them. Culture shock can cause unhealthy coping mechanisms in a person's life to surface on the mission field. One volunteer's morality issues can derail a ministry and wreak havoc on a volunteer team's cohesiveness and their ability to be effective.
  b. Solution: If you encounter a volunteer acting out in inappropriate or immoral ways, please confront the person and the situation in a redemptive manner, but do not hesitate to sideline the volunteer from ministry and interaction with the nationals, even choosing to send the person home before the end of the project if you deem it necessary. Encourage the volunteer to seek accountability on the team and also once he returns home. Also encourage the volunteer that God can help him overcome these issues and will use him for His glory in the future.
  c. Sometimes nationals will perceive immorality through actions that are completely innocent to Americans. Remember that your volunteers are new to this culture and the new set of cultural boundaries will be hard for them to remember, so orient them to the morality issues of your culture that can create problems and remind them of those issues periodically throughout their time with you.
  d. Some of the more common perceive immorality issues include:
• Clothing, especially what American women wear in public
• Smoking
• Drinking
• Cross-gender interactions, including pairing off for any activity and hugging and/or kissing in greeting or departing
• Visits to inappropriate establishments on the field such as nightclubs or the “red light district,” even just to “see what it looks like.” Inappropriate joking in public about “where to meet girls/guys” is also detrimental to the team's witness.
• Unrealistic Expectation Issues
  a. Some volunteers become disillusioned with the ministry and even with the missionary if they are not allowed to minister or evangelize in a way they think is appropriate. They may arrive on the field with the idea that “the Lord sent me here to do so-and-so type of ministry” and they believe that the supervisor is off-base and unspiritual if s/he does not allow the volunteer the freedom to pursue that ministry.
  b. Solution: To counteract this kind of disillusionment that can lead to ministry mutiny, review with your volunteers where in the harvest process your ministry and this project resides. Are you in the sowing phase (widely broadcasting the gospel), the planting phase (deliberate planting of the gospel or of discipleship), the watering phase (nurturing the gospel seeds that have begun to take root), or the reaping phase? Helping the volunteers understand where their efforts fit in the harvest process will help them to stay focused on the tasks at hand rather than being sidetracked by activities in which they are not "allowed" to engage.
  c. Pray with team members for God to give them opportunities to do the ministry they “came to do.” For example, if evangelism is the desire of the team, but the ministry or ministry setting is not appropriate, for pray God to give opportunities for team member(s) to give a verbal witness in an appropriate place to someone who is seeking. If the team came expecting to lead ESL and the ministry plans changed, ask the Lord to provide opportunities for the team members to help nationals practice their English after the day's other ministry activities are finished.
  d. Pray with the team, also, for a spirit of unity and cooperation. God will bring unity to your hearts and visions to bring Himself glory if all those involved are willing to humble themselves and their desires. The team's attitudes toward each other and toward you will have a great effect on the community beyond the basic ministry activities that were performed. Jesus prayed in John 17 that His followers would be one and He and the Father are one. Pray for the same unity with and among the volunteer team.
  e. Check your own attitude, too, toward the volunteers, toward ownership of the ministry, and toward unity with God's people.. Perhaps your vision of ministry has been too narrow and the ideas the volunteers bring could effectively broaden and deepen your plans. As you will tell the volunteers many times, flexibility is a key to effective missions ministry.

• The Ugly American Issue
  a. Boundaries delineating appropriate and inappropriate activities are important for volunteers so they know how to be good guests in the host culture, in a national's home and in your home. For example, many Americans when visiting another country think that if a local person does not understand them, they simply need to speak more loudly.
  b. Solutions for being a good guest in a host culture: Don't be afraid to set down the ground rules for how to be a good guest in “your” culture. Help volunteers become self-aware about habits (such as speaking and laughing loudly in public) that would be considered rude in the host culture. Ground rules also apply to being a guest in someone's home. Let volunteers know, for example, that they can eat anything in your refrigerator except the imported American cheese or chocolate that you have been hoarding since you arrived in the country. If K.P. duty is necessary to keep the guest house running smoothly during their stay or to prevent overworking the house help, clearly delineate each team member's duties each day so there is no confusion about their responsibilities. If team members create difficulties about the ground rules, defer the problem to the team leader.
  c. Being a good guest in a national's home is something all volunteers desire, but few will know how to accomplish without your insight. Advise them, for example, if eating everything on their plate is a signal to their hostess that they want more food. Give them culturally appropriate ways to say “no, thank you” to a food dish or advise them that they have to try every dish or risk offending their hosts. Another potential faux pas arises in taking a “hostess gift” such as a bouquet flowers or candy. If a hostess gift is expected by the national hosts, give the volunteers advance warning so they can be prepared and give them ideas of appropriate gifts to bring. If carnations are offensive, for example, because they are considered a funeral flower in your country, knowing this tip in advance will help the volunteers be gracious guests.
  d. Students may need more direction in how to be a good guest in a host's home than adult volunteer teams. Curfew times, when it's appropriate to raid the a refrigerator, appropriate clothing around the house, etc. are issues with which youth and college students will need guidance. Taking gifts to national hosts is also an area in which young people will welcome your advice.

• Interpreter issues
  a. Working with and speaking through an interpreter will be new for most students. Red flags are raised when volunteers use idioms and colloquial expressions that the translator does not understand or cannot easily translate. The timing and rhythm of speaking in short phrases and waiting for the phrase to be translated can create difficulty for a volunteer, as well.
  b. Solution: Encourage your volunteers to write down their testimonies and sermons and have another team member review it for American expressions and illustrations. Then have the team practice “translating” for each other as if they were in a real translation situation.

• Security Issues

a. Safety and security are uppermost in Americans' minds as they travel overseas these days.

b. Solution for safety issues: Volunteers who work with you will want to hear from you that the travel to the field and their stay on the field should be safe. No one can promise safety, but reasonable assurances that their experience should be safe and that you would not invite them to work with you if they would be in danger can quell fears for both volunteers and their families.

• Emergency Issues
  a. Medical and other emergencies can crop up even during the best-planned volunteer projects. As the field supervisor, the team leader and team members will look to you to be level-headed and provide solutions to the emergency.
  b. Solutions for emergencies: Anticipate possible emergencies and work out solutions to them before they occur. Typical emergencies include the following:
  • Typical medical emergencies not requiring hospitalization (dehydration, stomach problems, etc.)
  • Medical emergency requiring hospitalization or medical evacuation to another location
  • Death of a volunteer and repatriation of the remains
  • Loss of passport by accident or theft
  • Loss of valuables/personal property either by accident or theft
  • Political evacuation of Americans in the country because of political unrest/instability

  c. For detailed help with medical emergencies, see Emergency Issues

• Future missions participation issues
  a. This red flag issue is more relates to you as the field supervisor rather than to your student missionaries. A perceived negative experience with a individual volunteer or a team can lead to the “solution” of not hosting volunteers in the future. This type of problem solving will sabotage your ministry and the benefits that volunteers can bring to your ministry.
  b. A perceived negative experience for the volunteer can also be detrimental to that person's participation in missions in the future as well as detrimental to his support of the IMB and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Negative feedback from a mission volunteer can sow seeds of discontent in a church and can create lack of desire to support the IMB, so when possible, do you best to live at peace with all volunteers.