Team Expansion wants our missionaries to thrive. We want them to feel cared for and supported, so they’ll do the work of spreading the Gospel. So we do everything we can to equip them for the vital work they’re attempting.
International Services
Team Expansion’s home office staff, known as International Services (IS), exists purely to serve the field workers. IS researches the best strategies for church multiplication. They recruit and train new teammates. They answer endless questions about budgets and newsletters and conflict and security and technology. They provide training, coaching, counseling, resources, advice, and housing.
The International Services staff raises support, just like the field missionaries. They’re determined to see to multiplying disciples and churches among the unreached, and they know it won’t happen without a home team.
Pre-Field Evaluation, Training, and Coaching
Before we let a missionary on the field, we’re going to walk with them through extensive preparation.
Before we let a missionary on the field, we’re going to walk with them through extensive preparation. From psychological evaluation and follow-up counseling, to training in everything from budgets to church planting. We’re committed to giving our teams everything we can give them before they hit the ground.
Each Team Expansion missionary recruit gets a personalized preparation plan, with ongoing coaching, accountability, and support. But our role doesn’t end once you get on that airplane.
Ongoing Training
Several times each year, Team Expansion provides different kinds of training specifically designed to meet the day-to-day needs of its fielded workers. Some trainings are for multiplication and church-planting strategies. Sometimes they’re to equip team leaders in bringing out the best in their teams. And every once in awhile, they’re just a chance for our workers to get together to worship and pray as a community.
Field Coaching
Each field has a designated coach whose role is specifically to see the teammates in their care thrive in every area.
Each field has a designated Team Expansion field coordinator whose role is specifically to see the teammates in their care thrive in every area.
They provide and coach through multiplication strategies. They navigate personal issues with the missionaries, from culture stress to burnout and everything in between.
Each field coordinator also visits every year to make sure they’re understanding the exact pressures, obstacles, and victories each of their team members is experiencing. Then the coach advises Team Expansion’s leadership and partnering churches about how to best help each field.
Integrated Member Care
For several years now, it’s been Team Expansion’s official stance that the task of taking care of each other falls on all of us. There’s no one person or team who carries the entire burden of looking out for the emotional well-being of the entire organization.
Each of us has a responsibility and a privilege to walk with any other Team Expansion missionary we happen to be in contact with at any given moment.
However, there is a team of people specifically caring for some of the more individualized needs of the organization, like debriefings, counseling, and the unique social needs of single missionaries.
Unparalleled Prayer Support
We are offering our missionaries the gift of united intercession on their behalf.
Team Expansion began as a prayer meeting, and our dedication to prayer has only grown since. We pray for our workers. Extensively. We know what’s going on in their lives and ministries, and we intercede urgently as often as possible.
The International Services team prays together every morning to start their day.
They pray for an extra hour every week, lifting up each worker and their needs specifically.
One day a month, they fast, pray, and worship on behalf of the nations yet to hear the Gospel and the workers who are living there.
Beyond that, it’s not uncommon for the International Services staff to gather together in emergency prayer for one of our workers or teams.
We pray faithfully – expecting that God hears and answers when we ask Him.
Through ongoing, faithful prayer, we are offering our missionaries the greatest support we could possibly give them – the gift of united intercession on their behalf.
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How have you experienced care from Team Expansion or another sending organization? What do you think is the greatest need that a sending organization can provide for their missionaries? Let us know in the comments.
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