Volunteer Resources PRINT MATERIALSCountry Profiles
A helpful tool for volunteers and potential visitors, country profiles provide information about the country's history, government, geography, culture, and transportation systems; and much more. Available online or in print. To order printed country profiles, contact Nancy Ellens, nellens@rca.org; (800) 968-3943, ext. 243. No charge. Get Dirty for Jesus: How to Organize a Work Trip
by Jayna E. Powell
Organized as a step-by-step manual, it includes preparations for your trip, organizing during the trip, a six-session Bible study for before and/or during your trip, a drama for those going to work in Appalachia, ideas for processing your experiences, and sample forms, letters, etc.
Getting Ready to Come Back: Advocacy Guide for Mission Team
Bread for the World
This guide will help short-term mission teams traveling internationally to understand how political, social, and economic systems contribute to hunger and poverty. The guide will support and encourage mission teams to engage in advocacy upon their return home.
Guidelines for Planning a Volunteer Experience
Each team considering a mission trip is asked to follow these online guidelines.
Living in Mission Everywhere (LIME): Volunteer Services Unit
by Liz Calsbeek
Engage children in learning center activities, including making a prayer bracelet, singing "Jesus Loves Me" in several languages, celebrating Chinese New Year, making a dragon puppet, playing Chopstick Relay, making awayuki kan (a sweet fruit gelatin dessert), and learning common words and phrases in several languages. Meeting God in the Ruins: Devotions for Disaster Volunteers
by Judith Mattison and Catherine Malotky. Lutheran Disaster Response.
This book includes 24 devotions for disaster volunteers to use as they prepare to head out, as they work on site, and when they return home. To order online (it's free), contact Augsburg Fortress or call (800) 328-4648.
Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships
by Sherwood G. Lingenfelter and Marvin K. Mayers. Baker Book House.
Mayers' basic-values model provides the theoretical base for this approach to improving relationships between people of various cultures. Mission Trips That Matter: Embodied Faith for the Sake of the World
by Don C. Richter. Upper Room Books.
Richter describes how individuals on a mission trip can become servant-guests who embody Christ's love. To support that process, Richter provides a number of aids: spiritual practices, mission trip stories, key biblical passages, and activity and reflection suggestions for the journey. "A must read for all mission trip leaders" according to volunteer coordinator Jay Harsevoort.
Nurturing the Spiritual Side of Your Mission Team Experience
Designed for mission trip participants, this online article helps prepare one spiritually for a mission trip. People, Places, and Partnerships: A Workbook for Your Mission Trip Abroad
by Sally Campbell Evans. The Ecumenical Working Group for Mission to the USA and Canada.
This workbook is written as a reflection guide to encourage North American Christians traveling on short-term mission assignments or church-sponsored travel study seminars. Order online with the Presbyterian Church (USA) or contact them at (888)728-7228, ext. 8185.
Re-Entry: Making the Transition from Missions to Life at Home
by Peter Jordan. YWAM Publishing.
This book is designed to help people safely navigate the transition from the mission field to home. The first section deals with the practical things that should be attended to before leaving the mission field and the second section deals with how to handle things once arriving home.
The Reformed Church in America: Volunteer Services (packet)
This packet contains photos; fact sheets; profiles; and further volunteer information. To order, contact Nancy Ellens, nellens@rca.org; (800) 968-3943, ext. 243. No charge Reformed Church in Mission Profiles
Profiles on RCA missionaries and special projects are available in bulk for free. Also available on the RCA website.
Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence
by David A. Livermore. Baker Book House.
Livermore calls short-term mission or service project participants (domestic or overseas) to serve with their eyes open to global and cultural realities so they can become more effective cross-cultural ministers.
The Spiritual Side of Mission Work Grouping
Designed for mission team leaders, this online article offers some specific ways in which you may want to help your team members individually and corporately nurture their faith.
Survival Kit for Overseas Living, Fourth Edition: For Americans Planning to Live and Work Abroad
by L. Robert Kohls. Nicholas Brealey Publishing / Intercultural Press.
Kohls provides insights and strategies on how to avoid stereotypes, how to explore the mysteries of culture, and how values and different ways of thinking influence behavior.
Transforming Ventures: A Spiritual Guide for Volunteers in Mission
by Jane Ives. Upper Room Books.
Designed for use by adult volunteers and leaders of youth volunteers, both as individuals and in small study groups, this book encourages participants to explore eight themes for spiritual growth before, during, and after their mission experience.
Volunteer Opportunities
This online resource is updated throughout the year and includes an in-depth list of RCA-affiliated work sites for mission teams and individual volunteers. A monthly Current Volunteer Opportunities bulletin highlights new opportunities.
Welcome Forward: A Field Guide for Global Travelers
by Susan Lang, Rochelle Melander, and Tim Hansen. Augsburg Fortress.
A handy companion before, during, and after an overseas trip, this book provides practical, spiritual, and respectful ways to travel in the world. The accompanying CD includes lively songs in various musical styles. Order online with Augsburg Fortress or call (800) 328-4648. When God’s People Travel Together series
Order online with the Presbyterian Church (USA) or contact them at (888)728-7228, ext. 8185. Individual books include:
When God’s People Travel Together: A Trip Leader’s Planning Manual, by Debby D. Vial.
When God’s People Travel Together: Bible Studies for Mission, by Alice Winters.
When God’s People Travel Together: Reflecting and Acting on Mission Trip Experiences.
Why Mission Trips Are a Waste of Time (And How to Make Sure Yours Isn’t)
by Noel Becchetti.
Becchetti offers three principles to keep in mind as you prepare yourself and your participants in order that your mission and service trip can be a wise and effective investment of your time, energy, and resources. Available on the RCA website. DVDs
Unless stated otherwise, contact Nancy Ellens to order: nellens@rca.org; (800) 968-3943, ext. 243. Some are available for viewing on the RCA website. Go Prepared, six 30-minute sessions provide a training series for short-term missions. Order online with Youth With a Mission or contact them at (719) 380-0507 or (888)926-6397.
Missionaries and Mission Teams Partner Together
Learn why it's important that volunteer mission teams partner with career mission personnel and how the partnership enhances the experience and long-term benefits for volunteers and missionary alike. Untold Stories: The Collegiate Church in New Orleans Post-Katrina
This DVD contains reflections from Collegiate Church volunteers working in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.
Walk Humbly: An Orientation for Christian Servants, 23 minutes, junior high–adult, 2001. Incorporating lessons learned over the course of RCA mission history, this video offers insights on both preparation and on-site work for mission trip volunteers.
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