WHO provides an interactive travel map with details on requirements, risks and recommendations related to yellow fever, malaria and rabies. The site can be accessed directly at http://apps.who.int/tools/geoserver/www/ith/index.html.

WHO also provides pertinent information on each of its member countries. Each nation has its own web page that includes the country’s health profile, country brief, current outbreaks and crises, risk factors, and more. The outbreaks and crises section is especially helpful for travelers as it provides detailed current and archived information on emergency situations.

If the country was included in a weekly “regional situation update” then a link to that report is provided in the emergency section. These updates give a snap-shot of health and safety concerns affecting the region, list any acute crises presently faced, and summarize the “countries under surveillance.” The latter is a paragraph report on countries where dangerous or potentially dangerous activities are taking place.

To access the list of countries, go to http://www.who.int/countries/en/. To get a quick list of countries and regions currently experiencing a crisis, go to http://www.who.int/hac/crises/en/.

In addition to the travel information, humanitarian and medical mission teams will find the country background materials very beneficial. The country brief gives an overview of the country’s health and development, along with health-related opportunities and challenges. Through a link on its regional websites, you can access a detailed country health report. Risk factors faced by the country are also identified along with corresponding reports.

These background reports and related information can enable humanitarian teams to prioritize their response to the country’s needs. They also provide insight into current health strategies and how the team might connect with them.

Information like that provided on the WHO site is especially important to humanitarian and ministry team leaders, and to the organizations they represent. By staying abreast of the current health and safety situation, these leaders can better prepare their teams and take appropriate precautions to protect themselves.

Begin un-cluttering your life

Over the years we accumulate a lot of “stuff.” Often that “stuff” is material—our garage and rented storage space are full—but sometimes our lives are cluttered with business or relational issues. Whether it is tangible or intangible, you want to consider ways to begin simplifying your life so that you are ready to “go” when the time comes.

Start formal and informal learning

If you believe that one day you will be working with a particular people group or in a certain country, then begin now to learn everything you can about them. Even if your transition to career missions won’t be for several more years, begin educating yourself now so that you will be prepared when the time comes. This may mean studying the language at a local university, reading pertinent books or doing in-depth research.

Do locally what you expect to do globally

If you are going to be in a church-based ministry, then do an internship with your church or at least find ways to expose yourself to as many pastoral duties as possible. If you will be working with the homeless, assisting with agriculture, educating children, or whatever it might be, find something comparable that you can do now. Don’t wait until you get to the field to start “practicing.”

This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list, but hopefully these six suggestions from today and our last post are good starting points for you. Do you have other ideas or suggestions on transitioning from short-term to career missions? We would love to hear them. You can share them on our Facebook page, at our LinkedIn group or here on our blog.

Consider your family and your life stage

Certainly the first thing to consider as you eye a transition into career missions is the impact on your family. Especially important  is the issue of timing—is this the appropriate time to make such a major change? Some mission organizations will not appoint missionaries with teenage children, except on rare occasions. They do this because they have found that teenagers have an especially difficult time transitioning to living abroad. They know that if your children struggle then you will struggle and have a hard time adjusting. Another issue is the health and care of your parents. What is the likelihood that if you do get to the mission field that you will have to leave to care for them? If your parents are in poor health, is there a support system in place or are there other means to care for them while you live abroad? While family issues may not be a “no” to the idea of career missions, they may require a “wait.”

Get the needed education

Each mission organization has different education requirements for their missionaries. Some require a high-level of biblical or theological training, while others rely more on practical experiences. As you talk with different agencies, education requirements should be one of the first things you ask about. If you do lack their requirements, find out specifically what steps you can take to meet them.

Get your finances in order

We all know that no one goes into missions to get rich, but we may forget that burdensome debt can keep us from the mission field in the first place. Whether your potential new position is salaried or faith supported—meaning you have to raise the funds to support yourself and your work—you potentially will have less income to work with than what you have now. Many mission agencies have strict debt to income limits. Regardless of the agency’s policy, you want to eliminate consumer and other debt as quickly as possible so that you have the financial freedom to really pursue your calling.

In our next blog post we’ll continue our look at short-term to career missions transitions with three more suggestions on how to prepare for the jump.

Many career missionaries began their journeys on short-term teams, but how does one transition from a 10 day trip to a lifetime calling?

A similar question was posed recently on our LinkedIn group. A group member wanted advice on how he could take his skills and work experiences and transition them into missions. Like Steve and Joan, he recognized the need in the world and felt that he had something to offer but just didn’t know how to get going. Maybe you or someone you know feels the same way. If so, here are five good places to start as you consider the jump from short-term to career missions.

Short-term agencies with whom you have worked

While we may overlook this, the people who led and organized your mission trip are probably themselves in a missions career. If you like the focus and approach that your short-term organization takes towards its ministry, talk to them about career opportunities. Even if they aren’t a good fit for you, they might be able to guide you to another ministry that is.

Your denomination

If your church is part of a denomination, then contact the denomination’s international missions department. Many denominations have recruiters, often retired field missionaries, who can help match your unique gifts to their global needs.

Missionaries/agencies that your church supports

Talk to your pastor or church’s mission team about the different agencies or missionaries with which your church is already working. There may be a natural fit with these groups that will create good synergy between you, your church and the agency.

Finishers Project

The Finisher’s Project (www.finishers.org) is like a matching service between ministries and those seeking a second career in missions. Through the Finishers website you can explore dozens of top mission agency needs at home and around the world. Finishers also provides training, insights and encouragement as you begin the search process. In addition, they conduct forums and regional events where you can meet face-to-face with multiple agencies and, according to their website, reflect on “how, where and when the Lord may be leading you to invest time in Kingdom service.”

Right Now

The Right Now Campaign (www.rightnow.org) is similar to Finisher’s but much more “hands on” with a focus on 20 and 30-somethings. Their mission “is to help people trade in the pursuit of the American Dream for a world that desperately needs Christ.” They utilize a team of mission coaches to walk people through the process of connecting to mission opportunities in 75 partner organizations.

In our next blog we’ll examine how to transition from mission trip to career. We’ll give you some ideas of things that you can begin doing now even if that transition may not be for several years.

You see, even though Laurie wanted to go, flying was way outside of her comfort zone. In fact, you could say Laurie was scared to fly. But she knew if she was ever going to go on one of these trips, she would have to fly to get there. Her friends came back and once again told her all of the great encounters they had while serving abroad. Laurie made up her mind that the next time she was going to go—but she also knew she had to do something about her fear. Laurie began seeing a professional for help. She stayed with the counseling, sent in her application, and the next time around made the trip. She had an incredible week serving in Romania and came home with her own stories to tell.

While Laurie may be an extreme example, we all have our comfort zones.  We all have those places that we don’t want to leave. Sometimes we don’t want to leave because we are fearful of what may be outside the walls of what is comfortable to us. For Laurie it was the fear of getting on an airplane. For some it may be the fear of new food or strange cultures. Others never make an attempt because they are afraid they can’t get the money to go.

Yet every year thousands of people travel abroad on their very first ministry trip. They step out of their comfort zones and do something truly selfless, but very rewarding. They give of themselves to serve others in distant places.

Stepping out of your comfort zone, even if just for a week or two, has some very positive effects. First, it stretches you as a person. When we are stretched, we grow. We become stronger, better people. Second, it causes you to see things differently. You get a new perspective on life and the world. Finally, it enables you to accomplish things that could never be done inside your “zone.” You may even discover some gifts and abilities that you didn’t think you had!

There is a whole world waiting to be discovered. There are people waiting to be touched and helped. There are new experiences that will grow you, fulfill you and reward you. They are all there, just waiting for you to move out of your comfort zone.

Billy Graham, founder of the Lausanne Movement which started from a global meeting in Switzerland in 1974, was quoted as saying, “The 1974 Lausanne Congress was critical to the evangelism efforts of that day. But the issues facing today’s generation are radically different. That’s why I strongly support the need for a new congress in 2010.”

Cape Town 2010, according the Lausanne Movement’s website, will “in essence…be a ‘global church council’ on the pressing issues facing the advance of the gospel around the world. Church councils like this allow the body of Christ to come together on issues which impact the integrity of the gospel and the future of the life and witness of the church.”

While the recent Tokyo 2010 global missions consultation was primarily made up of mission agencies or organizations, Cape Town is expected to be made up primarily of church and denominational leaders from around the world. While most participants will be in vocational ministry, organizers are hoping that at least 10% will come from the laity—those not working in fulltime ministry. They also want 35% of participants to be under the age of 40 and 60% under the age of 50.

Speakers for the meeting will include John Piper from the U.S. along with others from Sri Lanka, Kenya, England and Egypt. “The Congress will be truly global while at the same time being distinctly African in nuance and feel,” said the Rev. Doug Birdsall, Chairman of the Lausanne Movement. There will be eight official languages for Cape Town 2010. The meetings will also be broadcasted to more than 200 seminaries, universities and churches in 50 countries.

The event will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Center, with its 108,000 square feet of exhibition space. The Westin Grand Hotel with its 483 rooms adjoins the convention center complex, and an additional 3,000 hotel rooms are within walking distance. Ministry Travel, through its partnerships with South African Airways and other carriers, is pleased to provide discounted airfare to Cape Town. For a no-obligation quote, call 1-877-541-5726 or go online at www.ministrytravel.com.

• The shift in mission-sending activities from the West to Asia and Africa continues. Korea has especially become a leading missionary-sending nation. As an example of this, the largest mission agency in the Western world, the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, announced it is cutting back its personnel by 500. The largest non-Western mission agency, the Global Mission Society of the Korean Presbyterian Church, announced it would double its mission force in the next decade. Korea as a whole has a goal to send out 100,000 missionaries over the next 20 years. The Chinese church and Filipino church have similar goals.
• More and more missionaries in Japan are actually from Africa. The high cost of living in Japan has made it difficult for many older missions to continue their presence, but missionaries from some of the poorest nations on earth are taking their place.
• Tokyo 2010 presented mission leaders with a list of 632 “unengaged” people groups, each with a population over 50,000. Mission leaders selected 171 of the groups for outreach over the next three years.
• A goal was made to recruit, train and place 100,000 missionaries among the least-reached people groups in the next 10 years.
• The great spiritual need of today’s Europe, where the Church could virtually disappear within the next 50 years, was highlighted. It was the European Church that a century ago made such great inroads into missions and had a profound impact on the world. Now it is Europe that is in desperate need of revival and missionary focus.
• The conference emphasized the need for real discipleship among Christians, and that any missions endeavor must be balanced with disciple making. Yes, the least reached need to be evangelized but they also need to be taught how to grow in the faith.
• There are 2,252 language groups without any portion of the Bible whatsoever, and no one is currently working on translations for these groups. To combat this, missionaries and agencies are re-focusing on the oral communication of Scripture, such as existed before the invention of the printing press. Two-thirds of people worldwide are oral learners anyway, and this approach better fits their learning style.

For more details on these stories, visit http://www.missionfrontiers.org/. The next major gathering of global mission and evangelism leaders will be the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (www.lausanne.org/cape-town-2010) scheduled for Cape Town, South Africa, October 16-25. Ministry Travel offers special discounted fares to South Africa and other African nations. If your international travel plans include Africa, please contact us for a no-obligation quote on your airfare.

Starving, the college student and missionary host made their way to a nearby café. The food was pre-cooked and behind glass. “Order anything you want,” said the missionary.

The student looked and looked—at food he had never seen before. “Order whatever I want,” he thought to himself, “I think some of this stuff is still moving. What have I gotten myself into?”

At that moment, the college junior experienced culture shock. He was in a very strange place, far from his Southern California home, about to eat unusual food and surrounded by people talking in a language he couldn’t understand. For what seemed like an eternity, but only lasting a few seconds, he was paralyzed. He didn’t know how to function. He didn’t know what to do or even how to move. This was his first trip outside the U.S. and it was clear that he “wasn’t in Kansas” anymore.

The feeling of helplessness, however, soon subsided as the missionary explained the food options and helped him get settled.

It is often said that the world is shrinking. While travel, technology and satellite TV have brought the world closer, we must never forget that the world is still vast collection of cultures. The college student learned that first-hand!

Culture varies region to region, country to country, and even within a nation. Those who seek to deliver aid, conduct training, or spread the gospel abroad need to familiarize themselves with the culture where they will serve, even if they are only there a few days. While information won’t necessarily help you avoid culture shock, it will help you show respect and enable you to better connect with the local people.

Please see our last two blogs for thoughts on dealing with different cultures. We’ll have some additional tips in our next blog. By the way, the story with the college student happened more than 20 years ago. He has since visited more than two dozen countries. Guess he got over the culture shock!

Ministry Travel Blog (MTB): Having been on a number of trips to countries besides Colombia, what is your advice to those who are just starting to do mission trips? Do you think they should find one country and continue to go there, or should they explore different places?

Beth: You know, everyone is different. I actually would love to go more places on mission trips. So the last couple years, I thought I would not be returning to Colombia but Lord kept showing me that I needed to go back. I would say definitely that if you have a mission trip experience that isn’t you’re cup of tea, don’t give up. Keep trying to find the best combination that fits you.

MTB: The world in general and our nation in particular is in a deep recession. Travel has been down significantly and is just now starting to show signs of rebounding. Ministry Travel, however, continues to see an increase in short term missions travelers. Why do you think that is?

Beth: I think there has been an increase in missionary travel because if God calls you to go, and you are an obedient Christian, then you find a way to go. You find the resources, and God provides for you to go. In our niche market, if God calls you to go, you go regardless of what is happening around you. After 9-11 hit many travel agencies were going out of business left and right, but we continued to grow. That is because those doing missions work kept going. Now we do a lot of non-profits, not just missionaries, but since the bulk of our business is missionaries we continue to see an increase.

MTB: You have been on both sides of these trips—you have led them and you also have been a participant on many of them. If you could give one word of advice to someone who is a team leader and then one word to someone who is a trip participant, what would they be?

Beth: For a trip participant it would be to remember unity. When there isn’t unity on the team, it can ruin your whole trip. I’ve seen that happen in some of the teams that I have been on. I would definitely say unity. For the team leader, I would encourage them to really interact with their team members. This speaks volumes. If the team leader is so busy keeping track of all the paperwork, budget, and just doing their thing but not getting to know their team members, I think they miss a great opportunity. Seeing that their team’s needs are met is what will give them a successful and encouraging trip.

MTB: Thanks Beth for sharing your thoughts with us. We hope you have a great trip.

Beth: Thank you. It is a privilege to get to make a trip like this ever year. It is also a privilege through Ministry Travel to every day serve those who are giving their time and lives to make a difference in the world.

Ministry Travel Blog (MTB): You have gone on at least one short term mission trip every year for the past 10 years. Why seven times to Colombia?

Beth: After you go the first time and fall in love with the people you are hooked. When I went the second time I got to see some of the same people I met during that first trip. When I go it is like a family reunion. I don’t, however, assume that I will go back each year—I pray about it.

MTB: Do you feel that you are more effective by going back regularly and building on those existing relationships?

Beth: I feel that I’m more effective in building into the lives of the national leaders with whom we work. I wouldn’t say that it is more effective in terms of the work that we do with the people that I usually don’t see again. There definitely is something to be said about the national leaders who need to be encouraged. It speaks volumes to them when we come and assist in their work.

MTB: What do you expect to get out of this trip? What do you expect to see?

Beth: My only pre-conceived notion is that I will see my friends that I have maintained relationships with over the last number of years. I hope we will see a lot of decisions for the Lord, but I know it will be hard work. We will be in the barrios, walking the dirt roads. It’s going to be miserably hot and rainy from what I understand, but I hope that we will see new churches started. That is our purpose for going—to start new churches.

We’ll have more with our interview with Beth Banfill in our next blog. She will be sharing some tips for mission leaders and well as mission trip participants.