Self-Help

• What is self-care?  What biblical basis does it have?

• Guidelines and tools for self-care

• Areas of self-care that all should practice

• Self-care specifically for missionaries

• Self-care chart

 

Non-ministry responsibilities of the Missionary

• Responsibility to Parents

• Caring for Children

• Caring for Oneself

 

Transitions into Missions (problems in adjusting to the new field)

• Types of Transitions for Missionaries

• Why Do Cross-Cultural Transitions Cause Stress or Depression?

• Typical Emotions during Transition

• Stages of Transition

• Transition Times

• Reactions to Transition and Change

• Benefits of Processing Transition Well

• Influences on Severity and Length of Transition Process

• Self-Help: Suggested Coping Strategies

• Helping Others in Times of Transition

 

Culture Shock/culture stress

• What is culture shock?  How does it show itself?

• Managing culture shock

• What is culture stress

• How Missionaries Can Help Themselves:

  • Coping Before Leaving for the Field

  • Coping on Arrival at the Field

  • Coping on the Field

• How to Help Others Adjust to a New Culture

 

Managing Stress

• Types of Stressors Missionaries Face

• Symptoms of Stress

• How to manage stress

• Ideas for helping yourself and others with stress

 

Maintaining Spiritual Dynamic

• The Importance and Challenge to Maintain Relationship

• The Silent Killer: Overwork!

• The Role of Spiritual Opposition

• Causes of Spiritual Decline

• A Healthy, Daily, Spiritual Diet

• Quiet Time (meeting with God; not preparing messages!)

• Clean-living and moral purity

• Creativity in our relationship with the Lord

• Accountability for Spiritual dynamic

• Self-help for dry spiritual life

• Hearing the Holy Spirit

• Living from the Place of Victory

 

Team Ministry

• Why teams are the biblical model for ministry

• Qualities of an effective team

• How to build an effective team

• Dealing with toxic leaders

• Dealing with toxic relationships

 

Managing Conflict

• Conflict Management

  • Biblical examples

  • What the Bible says about peace

  • Causes of conflict

  • Dangers of ignoring conflict

  • Unhealthy reactions to conflict

    • Blind spots

    • Strongly held beliefs

    • Toxic leadership

    • Other reasons

  • Steps to approaching the offender/offended

  • Effective communication/use of intermediaries

  • Approaches to resolving conflict

  • Helping others manage conflicts

• Loving Confrontation

  • Confrontation in the Scriptures

  • When to confront

  • How to confront well

• Cultural Conflict

  • Issues of conflict in the cross-cultural setting

  • Learning from mentors how how they settle conflict

  • Keys to surviving cross-cultural conflict

• Mediation in conflict

  • When one party is superior in status to the other

  • Acting as “go-between”

  • Suggest Processes for getting the two parties together and resolving the conflict

 

Marriage in Cross-cultural Context

 

Family in Cross-Cultural Context

• What is a biblically healthy family?

• What makes a home dysfunctional?

• Four main areas of wounding

• Survival techniques used by those raised in dysfunctional homes

• How to Help Those From Dysfunctional Backgrounds

• How disfunctions affect ministry and the team

• Steps to Recovery

 

Helping Missionary Children

• Challenges experienced by MK’s

• Grief Issues (losses)

• Helping grieving MKs

• Help for Parents of MKs

• Giving sense of identity in the ministry

• Why some MKs walk away from the Lord.  How to prevent this

• MK education

           

Singleness

• Singles in Scripture

• Challenges of Singles in Missions

• Privileges of Singes in Missions

• How to thrive as a single in missions

 

Dealing with Loneliness

• Loneliness in Scripture

• Loneliness vrs. Aloneness/Solitude

• Factors that contribute to loneliness in missionaries

• Ideas for dealing with loneliness

• Helping the lonely missionary

 

Dealing with Burnout

• What is burnout?  Biblical examples

• How missionaries can burn out

• Differences between burnout and stress

• Warning signals of burnout

• Stages of burnout

• Effects of burnout

• How to prevent burnout

• Helping yourself if you are experiencing burnout

• Helping others recover from burnout

 

Grief and Loss

• Biblical Occurrences of Grief

• Losses that can cause grief

• Losses and causes of grief among missionaries

• Symptoms of grief

  • Normal and healthy symptoms

  • Unhealthy symptoms

• Stages of grief

• How to help yourself in the process of grief

• How to help another missionary in grief

• How to help grieving MKs

• The process of healing in grief

 

Disappointments, Failure

• Examples of people in the Bible who suffered disappointment

• God’s purposes in hardships

• How to be “strong in spirit”

  • Failure

    • How to help yourself in the context of failure

    • How to help others who are experiencing failure

  • Disappointments

    • Dealing with disappointments

  • Persecution

    • Handling persecution

    • Helping others who are facing persecution

  • “Death of a vision”

    • What this means and examples of people in the Bible who experienced this

    • Possible causes of spiritual vision miscarriage

    • Self-help after spiritual vision miscarriage

    • Helping others suffering vision miscarriage

     

Trauma and Crisis

• Types of events that can be traumatic crises

• How to prepare for contingencies/security planning[1]

• Managing trauma and the after-effects of trauma

• Helping missionaries who have experienced trauma

 

Difficulties in Returning Home from the Field

•             The Challenges of Returning Home

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General Needs of Returning Missionaries

•             Self-help Before Leaving for the Field

•             Self-help During Visits Home

•             Self-Help on Permanent Return

•             How to Help Returning Missionaries Readjust

•             Helping Missionary Children with Return Home

 

[1] We have an entire course on this, taught in Nepal with materials already translated in Mandarin.  This would be broken down into a series of things to think through and do to enhance security on the mission field.  It is for both individual missionaries and teams.