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Follow-Up for Growth
Jenny Collins on the importance of follow-up.
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Why is follow-up important? This question takes us back to the purpose of short term mission ministry. Why do most teams go out in the first place? What were they hoping to accomplish? Most of the time at least one of the team's goals is to experience spiritual growth. You're really going to struggle to accomplish that goal if you don't do follow-up. We come back to a busy life in this culture. We've had our mission experience, but then we have to get back to bills that need to be paid, and work that needs to be done. We can't properly process the experience we had because we're so busy. Serving your partner community should be the primary reason for going on the trip. But personal growth is important too. And if you have any hope for growth, you will not attain it without a good follow-up program. In the months leading up to a mission, it's relatively easy to keep people excited about the trip. But when you come back, that enthusiasm tends to fade. What are some of the practical ways you suggest doing follow-up? One idea is to have the team members write themselves a letter at the end of the trip. These letters can be about what they've learned and what they want to see changed in their own lives. Then they put the letters in envelopes, seal them, and put their own address on it, but they don't mail them. The leader collects them and the leader sends it to all of them three months later. It's important to have follow-up done in phases. There should be something done immediately when they return because "reentry" can be overwhelming for some people. And then you need follow-up a week or two out, and then a few weeks after that and then maybe a few months down the road. Have them articulate some goals early: "This is what I think God taught me, this is what I believe he's leading me to change in my life." It could be a whole scope of things; you don't have to put any parameters around that. Have people share with their team and maybe with a mentor who has been assigned to help them through this process. The next time they come together they can share how they're doing at accomplishing those goals. This is simply for encouragement, not to make anyone feel badly. But as they mutually encourage each other towards those goals, they start to experience real change with the Lord's help. It's also important to just help them process the experience. Give them good questions to journal on when they get back "How was your trip?" is not helpful. That's too broad. They don't know where to start. Give them open-ended questions, such as, "Was there anything that you learned about God? Was there anything you learned about yourself? What were some highlights? What was difficult? What was a typical day like?" Just get them expressing their experience and reflecting. Many of us really don't know how to stop and reflect because we are not living in a reflective culture. We don't lead contemplative lives so we have to be intentional about processing our experiences. |        
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