For Field Personnel
Planning for a Volunteer
Project
Think back to your first months in the country and all the
strangeness, yet excitement about beginning your ministry.
Your volunteers will be eager, yet afraid. They will be adventurous,
yet timid b/c of language barriers and culture shock. They
want to make a difference, but they have no idea how to be
effective for the Kingdom in that place and with those people.
You, the missionary supervisor, will be the main person to
help the volunteers know how to be assets to your ministry
strategy and how to behave in a culturally appropriate manner.
This section will give you some guidance on adequate and appropriate
planning for volunteers before they arrive and on how to guide
the volunteers to live and minister effectively among your
people.
The profile of a
missionary shows characteristics that the volunteers will
need from you as they overcome culture shock and settle in
to short-term ministry. Each of these characteristics need
to be evidenced toward the nationals and toward the volunteers
themselves. For example, the volunteers will appreciate skilled
communication from you with the nationals since they do not
speak the language and they also need clear and thorough communication
about the mores of the culture and their activities and ministry
responsibilities.
Determining if you Need
Volunteers
Before submitting a Volunteer
Project Request Form, revisit the need for a volunteer
team in your ministry. Ask yourself the following questions:
1. How can volunteers help my ministry
flourish?
a. Read how other missionaries are using
volunteers
b. Make sure that any volunteers you request fit within
your ministry strategy. If you have questions about how
volunteers fit in your strategy, contact the Student
Mobilization Team.
2. When do I need volunteers?
3. What kind of volunteers do I need? That is, in what stage
of the harvest is my ministry?
4. Were do I find volunteers to help me?
a. Your home church
b. Student Mobilization
Team of the IMB
- The Student Mobilization Team has access to Southern
Baptists in all SBC churches and Baptist Campus Ministries
from which to find student volunteers to help your ministry.
- Almost half of the world is 25 years old or younger,
and young American Christians are helping missionaries
world-wide to reach this unique population segment.
5. Am I prepared to host a volunteer/volunteer team?
a. Review the Biblical
Basis of Supervision
b. Identify your leadership strengths and weaknesses and
put in place some stop-gap measures to compensate for your
weaknesses.
c. Study the supervision
chart, recognizing that most volunteers will be in the
first level in order to adjust your supervision style accordingly.
Before the volunteers leave the USA
Before the volunteers reach your mission field, complete
the checklist below to make sure all the bases are covered.
At the end of the checklist is a general timeline
for preparing for a volunteer project.
Submit the Volunteer
Project Request Form
a. The Volunteer
Project Request Form and instructions
for completing the form are online. Print the instructions
and follow them carefully.
Screen Shot of the Volunteer Project Request Form:
Screen Shot of the Instructions for the Volunteer Project
Request Form:
b. Submit your request six months to one year in advance
of the team arriving on the field, especially if you want
VIMD to recruit a volunteer team for you.
c. You can submit a project request for youth, college
and seminary students, or for adult teams.
d. You can submit a project request for a one-time team,
or a request for multiple teams over a given time period,
as long as each team will engage in the same ministry
activities.
e. If you submit a request that is good for say 5 teams
of 10 volunteers, they only need to send in the first
one (if only the date will be changing) and we can do
spin-offs as needed. For example, Southern Cross is open
all year long and after the volunteer talks with the field,
they let me know the dates and I do a spin-off. Nothing
else on the request changes. This makes it much easier
for the missionary.
f. Each team member will see a copy of your project request
to gain a full understanding of your expectations and
the field situation. Please be as specific and thorough
as possible in completing the request form so your volunteers
have a thorough idea of the ministry.
g. Requests will automatically expire 18 months after
the date they are uploaded, that is, the day they arrive
in the VIMD office (not the day you complete the form
and send it to your supervisor for approval). The computer
system is supposed to send a notice letting you know that
your project request is about to expire.
Encourage the volunteers to go through IMTI
Cross-Cultural Training and Team
Leader Training before leaving for the
mission field. These sessions will help them learn about
living and
ministering cross-culturally, and about missiological issues
such as dependencies.
Develop a detailed project plan outlining how the volunteer
team will spend their time on the field. View an example
daily plan.
Send the volunteers the project
plan
and a worldview profile on your people group/population
segment.
Check with your Regional Office and Regional Personalizer
to see if your region has introductory materials about your
region and even about your people group/population segment
available to send to the volunteers. Your region also may
have developed a volunteer manual. If so, ask that the materials
be sent or tell the volunteers to contact the appropriate
person to request the materials.
Encourage the volunteers to begin their spiritual preparation
- Experiencing
God or On Mission With God (by Avery Willis and
Henry Blackaby) are excellent studies that will place
the mission project activities solidly as the activity
of God, not just a trip or busy-ness, but an opportunity
to join God where He is working.
- Impact
Eternity is another excellent group study that will
help volunteers understand that God's desire is for his
people to take the knowledge of him to all people groups
of the world.
- The
Prayer of Jesus by Ken Hemphill will give a foundation
kingdom-focused prayer and prepare the volunteers for
God to speak in a fresh way to his disciples.
- Students can prepare spiritually with the pre-project
study or any of the Bible study and devotion guides
listed on the spiritual
preparation page of thetask.org as well as online
information about Becoming
a World Christian.
Encourage the volunteers to enlist prayer partners and
People Group Advocates. This can be done in several ways:
- Encourage the volunteers to enlist ten people who will
pray for each of them specifically and for the needs of
the people group/populations segment each day they are
gone.
- Encourage the volunteers within a church to enlist certain
Sunday School classes to pray on specific days.
- Within an association, churches can be enlisted to pray
on specific days. You can remind the volunteers that requesting
prayer commitment needs to be done personally (possibly
with a prayer commitment card), meeting with the classes
or churches to emphasize to those who remain at home that
prayer is vital to the success of the trip and provides
them an opportunity to participate with the team. Enlisting
these prayer supporters is also the first step in developing
a new prayer network for your people group/population
segment. New People Group Advocate and future volunteers
likely will grow from this group.
Encourage team members to include their family members
in their
preparation, especially their children.
- Families can use Kingdom Families as a daily
devotional guide during the time of a parent's preparation
for mission service. \Visit the children's Sunday School
class to share about your mission project and ask the
teacher to lead the class in prayer for the mission each
time they meet until the team returns home.
- If the trip is of the type where the children can gather
items for the team to take to children of the host country
or to the host missionary family, that is an excellent
way to encourage giving and to include children in the
excitement of mission preparation.
Communicate with the volunteers regularly as they prepare
to go overseas.
View a list of typical
questions that volunteers ask before coming to the
field.
Send to the volunteers a list of cultural
do's and don'ts. Some of these do's and don'ts include
the following:
- appropriate clothes for the culture, ministry and climate
- how to eat politely according to cultural norms and
how to refuse food that is offered
- appropriate and inappropriate photo opportunities
- cultural norms foreign to Americans such as not giving
anything, receiving anything, nor eating with the left
hand
- the view of time in the culture and if "hurry up
and wait" is to be expectedappropriate interaction
between males and females in the culture
- etc.
Timeline for Preparing for
a Volunteer Project
6 months to 1 year in advance
- Submit a Volunteer Project Request Form
- Develop a plan for the following types of emergencies:
- Travel interruptions of the team to or from the field
- Medical
- Basic illnesses (cold, stomach upset, jet lag
illness, dehydration)
- Hospitalization
- Medical evacuation
- Accidents resulting in injury
- Lost Passport / lost travelers checks or credit card/ATM
card
- Natural disaster
- Political instability
3 to 6 months in advance
- Create a detailed daily plan for the project
- Create a Plan B for the daily plan in case the travel
plans to the field are interrupted.
- Contact the team leader by email to discuss any questions
about the project.
- Send the volunteer manual from your region/country to
the team leader.
- Work on project ministry details such as securing permits
for construction or sports projects, or talking with school
officials if the team will minister on school property or
during school time.
- Work out housing, meal, and travel logistics for the project.
- Invite ministry partners to join the team in the ministry
when appropriate.
- Find translators, if needed.
1 to 3 months in advance
- Send the daily plan and the worldview to the team leader.
- Contact the team leader on a weekly basis to share prayer
requests and discuss any questions about the project.
- Ask the team leader if any team members have allergies
or special medical needs.
- Determine the airport pickup routine.
3 weeks in advance
- Verify the housing, meal, and travel logistics.
- Ask the team leader for the flight itinerary for the team
or for each team member if they are traveling on different
flights.
- Get extra cash for unexpected needs.
- Verify the commitment of the translators.
- Verify the commitment of the ministry partners.
- Continue in weekly email communication with the team leader.
- Ask the team leader for emergency contact phone numbers
for each team member.
- Send the team leader a guide for completing the arrival
card each team member will present to immigration.
- Send the team member tips for getting through customs
smoothly.
1 week in advance
- Verify the airport pickup routine and the commitment
of those going to pick the team up to be there on time.
- Spend significant time with your family this week before
the volunteer team arrives.
- Get extra rest each night.
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