The room was silent.
A young Third Culture Kid stepped onto the stage, looked out across a room filled with more than 200 missionaries, and began to pray.
Through tears, she thanked God for the people who had shaped her life—not only her parents, but the missionaries she had grown up calling her aunts, uncles, and grandparents. She thanked Him for allowing her to witness lives poured out for the Gospel, and she prayed that God would strengthen the adults before her as they continued His work around the world.
There weren’t many dry eyes in the room.
Moments like these are why Team Expansion gathers each year for Connect.
For nearly 50 years, we’ve learned that sending missionaries isn’t the end of the story—it’s the beginning. Long-term ministry requires more than a plane ticket and a sending church. It requires encouragement, biblical grounding, lifelong learning, deep friendships, and intentional care. Connect exists to provide all of those things, strengthening our workers so they can continue faithfully making disciples among the nations.
Sowing, Growing, and Multiplying
This year, approximately 224 Team Expansion workers and family members gathered for five days of worship, prayer, teaching, and fellowship. Under the theme “Sowing, Growing, and Multiplying,” guest speaker Nathan Shank led us through Scripture, challenging us to embrace God’s heart for multiplication and our role in joining Him in that work.
Throughout the week, missionaries who normally serve thousands of miles apart worshiped side by side, shared meals together, lingered in hallways long after sessions ended, and prayed over one another. Old friendships were renewed, new ones were formed, and workers found something many rarely experience in their everyday ministry—a room full of people who truly understand the unique joys and challenges of cross-cultural life.
One of the unique strengths of Connect is that much of the training comes from within our own missionary family. Workers who have spent years planting churches, navigating different cultures, raising families overseas, and persevering through difficult seasons shared practical wisdom learned firsthand on the field.
Attendees chose from dozens of workshops covering every aspect of missionary life. Some explored disciple making, church planting, and leadership development. Others focused on spiritual formation, prayer, and hearing God’s voice. Many addressed the realities missionaries face every day—resilience, stress, trauma, healthy relationships, and caring well for their families. Others equipped workers with practical skills in digital security, storytelling, artificial intelligence, communication, and mobilization. New interactive roundtables created opportunities for workers to learn from one another as they discussed topics ranging from marketplace ministry and security to prayer-based team culture and pioneering new fields.
Another highlight came through honest panel discussions with our own workers. They shared stories of both triumph and disappointment, answered difficult questions, and encouraged one another with lessons learned through years of ministry. Their openness reminded us that God often does His deepest work not through easy victories, but through faithful perseverance.
The message was clear: we never stop learning. Whether someone had been on the field for six months or six decades, everyone came ready to grow so that more disciples, churches, and leaders might be multiplied around the world.
While the adults gathered, our Third Culture Kids built friendships with others who understand what it’s like to grow up between cultures. They laughed together, worshiped together, learned together, and reminded all of us that discipleship doesn’t stop at the edge of the mission field—it begins in our own homes. That young girl’s prayer became one of the defining moments of the week because it revealed something beautiful: God is already raising up the next generation through the faithfulness of those serving today.
Grateful and Growing
None of this would have been possible without the generosity of our ministry partners. Because of their special gifts, our workers only needed to cover their travel expenses, making it possible for more missionaries and families to receive the encouragement and training they needed. We are deeply grateful to everyone who invested in this week of renewal.
We’re also thankful for our friends from CCV, who faithfully led us in worship throughout the week, helping us fix our eyes on Christ. We extend our gratitude to our friends from Parkview Christian Church, whose technology and production team served tirelessly behind the scenes to make every session possible. And teams from Compassion Christian Church served the TCKs, freeing their parents to engage in workshops, encourage one another, and fully participate in worship and training. Their willingness to use their gifts allowed our workers to focus on what mattered most: seeking God, encouraging one another, and preparing for the work ahead.
As the week came to a close, workers boarded planes bound for cities, villages, university campuses, refugee communities, and neighborhoods across the globe. They carried with them more than notebooks full of ideas. They left strengthened by God’s Word, encouraged by a global family, and reminded that they are part of something far bigger than themselves.
Throughout the week, Nathan Shank repeatedly pointed us to Paul’s remarkable declaration in Romans 15 that there was “no more place” for him to work—not because every individual had heard the Gospel, but because disciple-making communities had been established and the mission was advancing through others. That became our prayer as well: that one day there truly would be no place left to work because the Gospel has taken root among every people and every place.
Until that day, we will keep sowing. We will keep growing. We will keep multiplying.
And when that prayer is finally answered, the glory won’t belong to Team Expansion, to our missionaries, or to any strategy we’ve employed. It will belong to God alone, whose power builds His Church and whose faithfulness will see His mission accomplished.