This team will join long term partners who work with the most vulnerable in their community. Many refugees flee their war-torn countries to this area and are not met with kindness.
The team is committed to showing these displaced brothers and sisters the hands and feet of Christ. They believe the transformation of communities ensures that no one is invisible and everyone has access to food, freedom, and forgiveness. Some of the ways they do this is by visiting refugee friends in their homes, sharing the love of Christ with them, and walking alongside them helping them restore their dignity.
As team members are learning from and engaging with others, team members should have a heart posture of humility and remember that culture does not make people, people make the culture.You are part of the long-term team and are expected to participate in all their team-wide activities, events, fasts, meals, prayer meetings, work meetings, etc. Be ready to be flexible, as activities are often subject to change due to various factors (e.g. last minute invite to someone’s home).
Other expectations include:
The typical day will include running a VBS for refugee children and then visiting these families in their homes. There will be a daily debrief and time to talk about what they saw, learned, or did.
We desire you to pursue Jesus in your daily life and grow to be more like Him. We will provide trainings that walk through abiding and resting in Jesus (John 15), ministry overview and expectations, culture, and logistics. While we can’t perfectly prepare you for everything you might encounter, we do our best to train you with everything you’d need for your trip.
Being a short-term mission trip leader is a rewarding experience. It makes you a part of the Great Commission, letting you respond to God’s call to the nations in a sacrificial way while also shepherding a group of people. Check out the benefits and expectations here. If you are interested in being a trip leader, you apply through the application and complete the "Trip Leader" question section.
Everything you need for your trip is included in the trip cost, which can be viewed here. These amounts are based on preparation costs and costs given to us by the field partner.
February 25, 2024 | 3:30-5:30pm | St. John Campus
We go on short-term trips because we want to see God’s kingdom furthered. While most short-term trip participants are blessed by the experience, we do not primarily go to be filled up, but to pour out to others. Scripture consistently paints a correlation between spiritual health and our ability to be effective in ministry to the world, so we believe consistently seeking to abide in Christ is crucial to effectiveness for short-term trips.
12:00 AM - 12:00 AM CST
March 1 - 31, 2024 | Time and Location TBD
Led by the trip leaders, this training date, time, and location will be set and communicated by the trip leader. This training will be a time for the team to get to know each other, spend time reading God’s Word together, praying for the trip, growing in cultural awareness, and going through some trip expectations.
March 3, 2024 | 3-5:30pm | St. John Campus
In this training, we will train you on why we engage in support raising, how to raise support, and how to support each other throughout the support-raising process. We encourage you even if you have the financial means to pay for this trip to enter into support raising as it brings opportunity for those who aren’t going to be a part of what God is doing as well as getting to see God’s provision and faithfulness.
April 14, 2024 | 3-5:30pm | St. John Campus
We want to see the gospel go forth while also going into the host culture as learners. Ministry Partners provide resources for us that will help teams share the gospel effectively in their specific context.
It’s important to have an understanding of the culture that the team is about to enter. We want to prepare teams well to mitigate issues caused by cultural differences and to respect the host culture.
May 19, 2024 | 3-5:30pm | St. John Campus
“Evangelism is the proclamation of the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit with the aim of persuading people to repent and believe in Christ. (Luke 24:47, John 16:8–11, Acts 1:8, 2 Corinthians 5:11)
The purpose of this training is to offer a guide for equipping participants to do the work of the Great Commission, that is, declaring the gospel. The goal is to help every believer grow in their confidence and competence to make disciples both here in Austin and overseas.
This training is not exhaustive. We are continually learning. We listen to God through prayer, move as He directs, and set an example for other believers. As the Holy Spirit teaches us from the Word of God, we continue to seek His wisdom, asking, “What did Jesus do? What did He tell His disciples to do? What did they do?”
Jesus is our Lord and Strategist. The Bible is His plan for telling the world who He is and what He has done.
