The Go Guide: A Manual for Short-Term Missions Teams

 

So you’re going on a mission trip with members of your church.

It may be your first; it may be your 15th. You may be so nervous about all of the details you can’t think clearly, or you’re so relaxed about it people are hardly aware you’re going.

Whatever your experience level or state of mind, there’s something I hope you will consider before you go:

Don’t go without reading The GO Guide.

 

 

The Go Guide: A Manual for Short-Term Missions Teams is a 125-page partially interactive tool from Christian Reformed World Missions designed to accomplish these things:

  • Make your short-term missions experience the best it can possibly be for team members and nationals in the host country.
  • Understand what is often misunderstood in missions.
  • Connect a Reformed viewpoint to the practice of ministry.
  • Give a visual aid to the Gospel through teamwork done in love.
  • Invest in your short-term ministry with a long-term approach.
  • Gain cultural sensitivity before ever getting to the new culture.
  • Much, much more.

Historically, Christian Reformed World Missions has viewed itself as a sending organization, not a training organization. But, as more and more Christian Reformed congregations recognize their responsibility to those beyond their local communities, churches are looking to CRWM for leadership and guidance. The GO Guide is one response to their requests.

“This manual is a tool to prepare people,” says Rhonda Whyte-Koster, training manager for CRWM and editor of The GO Guide. “It has sections on giving a verbal witness (yes, it is necessary even in a non-English short-term ministry); using language to say you want to be familiar with your hosts and to call them to belong to the family of God; and a series of devotions to ponder in the ministry context.”

For the sake of your team, for the missionaries who will host you, and for the nationals with whom you will interact, please take time to read The Go Guide. It could be the difference between a successful mission effort and a cross-cultural disaster.

                                                                                                                                               --Gary Bekker

To order, contact Faith Alive Christian Resources at 1-800-333-8300 or 616-224-0728.