November 2013 - TEAM Christian Missions Blog

What You Should Know When Supporting Disaster Relief

Not all international ministries are equipped to respond to all disasters. TEAM responded to earthquakes and tsunami in Japan in 2011 (above), but chose not to make a formal fundraising appeal for typhoon relief in the Philippines. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

Nov 25 2013

Today, TEAM Chief Advancement Officer Arnie Adkison contributes to the blog. He addresses how you can make the most difference when tragedy strikes, and shares some of how TEAM decides when to get involved. Last week a retired TEAM missionary couple in southern Illinois had no idea that as they headed out to church, the home they would later return to was about to become rubble. While they prayed and worshiped with their church community, a tornado ripped through their town and destroyed their house and everything in it, leaving them with little more than the clothes they were wearing….

[VIDEO] Campus Life in Papua, Indonesia

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it’s the time of year when college students begin feeling the stress of looming deadlines and final exams. Many slip into survival mode, put their heads down, and count the minutes until they can head home for Christmas.

Across the world in Indonesia, college students feel this stress, too. But in-between everything else, they also must make time to fish for their dinner, chop firewood to cook it with, and fetch drinking water from a well.

Students at the Roesler Memorial Bible School, a TEAM ministry in Papua, Indonesia, juggle far more in a semester than just books. Most come from rural tribal villages to study the Bible and bring that knowledge back to their communities as pastors, teachers and church leaders. They not only have to adjust to academia — a completely new experience for many of them — but also to the somewhat more urban environment of the campus, located just outside the city of Merauke. Their days begin before 5 A.M. and stretch well into the night.

Yaimo Perew brought his whole family to the school so he could study. He’s not only trying to reach his village for Christ, but his own family, as well.

Watch Yaimo’s story above.

Read more about the Roesler Memorial Bible School, and explore opportunities to join TEAM’s work in Indonesia’s Papua province.

Nov 19 2013

Is Self-Funding for You?

Self-funding a mission trip is not for everyone. But some professions lend themselves especially well to paying your own way in short-term and even long-term missions. Photo by Timothy Yiu

Nov 12 2013

This is the last of a three-part series exploring self-funding short-term missions. In this post, we explore whether you should consider self-funding your next mission trip. Read Part I and Part II of this series here. An estimated 2 million people or more in the United States take short-term mission trips each year. If you’re one of them, or even if you’re considering long-term missionary service, should you try to pay part or all of your own costs? Should you fundraise for the whole amount? “There’s really no best way to do it,” said John*, who uses seasonal work to…

Chelsea Burdick used savings from freelance design work, among other jobs, to cover part of the cost of her recent trip with TEAM to Thailand. Photo courtesy Chelsea Burdick

Nov 05 2013

This is the second of a three-part series exploring self-funding short-term missions. In this post, we explore the financial aspects of self-funding a mission trip. Read Part I of this series here. Or jump to Part III. John* began working summers as a firefighter on a tip from a friend. The gig got him through college. He kept it up after graduating, using his earnings to serve on repeated trips with TEAM as a short-term missionary in a creative-access country, at around $10,000 per trip. Now those summer wages are putting him through graduate school, and he has more mission…

Archive - November 2013

What You Should Know When Supporting Disaster Relief

[VIDEO] Campus Life in Papua, Indonesia

Is Self-Funding for You?

Does Paying for Your Own Mission Trip Make It Better?