TEAM Christian Missions Blog

Exploring cross-cultural ministry around the globe.
1
Why All Missionaries Are Environmentalists (or Should Be)
2
Want to Do Missions? Begin Preparing Now.
3
The “D” Word in Missions
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What is Human Trafficking? A No-Hype, Honest Definition
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6 Lessons from a New Missionary
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3 Ways Millennials See Missions Differently
7
What’s So Great About TEAM?
8
How To Choose A Missions Agency
9
Everyday Prayer
10
A Tale of Two Photos

Why All Missionaries Are Environmentalists (or Should Be)

all missionaries are environmentalists
Far from a political posture, caring for the earth was God's first command to man. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

Steve Dresselhaus, a senior director at TEAM, shares about the vision behind TEAM’s creation care initiatives. Whether or not he or she knows it, every missionary is an environmentalist. Perhaps not the tree-hugging, Gaia-worshiping, organic-brown-rice-eating style of environmentalist caricatured by the media, but a practicing one, nonetheless. Obviously, some of us are more specialized and intentional in creation care than others, and we could all do a bit better at it. But each of us is somewhere to be found on the caring-for-the planet continuum. Anyone who has fed a poor person, been involved in healthcare, helped in disaster relief,…

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Want to Do Missions? Begin Preparing Now.

Young man learns how to prepare for missionary service.
Discover three simple ways to help you prepare for missionary service. Photo by TEAM

Do you have your sights set on exploring that missionary calling you’ve been feeling? Do you want to start talking with some missions agencies and take the first steps toward missionary service? Or maybe you’ve just resolved to be a more globally-minded Christian? At TEAM, we meet a lot of people interested in missions. A lot. Some of them are truly prepared for overseas service. Others think they are but haven’t quite gotten there yet, And still others just want to know how they can best get involved in missions without leaving their “day jobs” as students, professionals, or stay-at-home…

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The “D” Word in Missions

Tool or burden? Does student debt have a place on the mission field?
Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

Almost every missions mobilizer can tell this tale: They found the perfect would-be missionary, highly qualified and ready to ship all their belongings to the other side of the world, with one little problem. The candidate is drowning in debt. Debt is one of the biggest challenges of our time for North American missions and has been called “the greatest enemy other than Satan himself” to sending missionaries. This may be a slight overstatement, but there’s no doubt that personal debt is a huge obstacle for many young people who want to serve overseas (or domestically). Because missionaries tend to…

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What is Human Trafficking? A No-Hype, Honest Definition

Human trafficking is best combated through partnerships between governments, nonprofits and trained professionals. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

No two victims of sex trafficking have the same story. But many stories sound a lot like Sarah’s: a big dream and a wrong turn. A nursing student in Africa with six siblings, Sarah wanted to continue her nurse’s training in Europe. Her stepfather told her about a recruiter who would connect her with work at shops in Europe — exactly where, it’s unclear — to help her pay for her studies. The door for her dream opportunity was swinging wide open, or so she thought. Then she found herself locked in a house with ten other girls, the start…

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6 Lessons from a New Missionary

From Chick-fil-a cravings to aching loneliness, a missionary's first months on the field are full of surprises. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

It has been six months since my wife, Jenny, and I boarded a plane in Chicago and moved to Guatemala City. Our lives have changed dramatically since then. In the last year, we both stepped away from full-time jobs, liquidated everything we owned, and said good-bye to the place we called home for the seven years. We left behind the best friends we have ever made. And we did so while Jenny was six months pregnant. It’s been a wild ride. We’ve learned a lot of lessons in six months about missionary life. Here are some of them. And we…

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3 Ways Millennials See Missions Differently

milennial christian
Millennials are changing the missions landscape and taking on challenges in ways previous generations have not.

The highways of online media are strewn with attempts to explain millennials, my hard-to-pin-down generation that’s currently somewhere between the ages of 14 and 34 — and even that range is a little squishy. Churches, marketers and, yes, missions agencies, would love to know exactly what makes millennials tick. But most attempts to put us in a box fall short. Millennials — even millennial Christians — are not monolithic. They defy unifying definitions, aside from superficial observations (“Those millennials and their iPhones!”) that often apply as much to other generations as they do to 20-somethings. There is little doubt, however,…

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What’s So Great About TEAM?

We believe missions agencies should work together with local churches and national believers to advance the kingdom of God. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

We usually aim to be more informative than self-promotional on this blog. But occasionally, we do both at once. This follow-up to a recent post about how to choose a missions agency explains a few things that we believe (in our humble opinion) make TEAM a special place to serve. Our mobilization team recently shared this with our U.S. staff. There are plenty of great missions agencies out there. We believe we’re all on the same side, working toward the same goals and serving the same God. For more than a century, TEAM has been placing passionate people on the…

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How To Choose A Missions Agency

Which way to go? With so many options for overseas service, asking yourself the questions below will help steer you in the right direction. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

Technology, accessible travel and global banking have made it easier than ever to pack up and move overseas. So it may seem like an easy choice to go abroad as an independent missionary without being attached to a missions agency. But while the freedom and flexibility of going it alone can be a benefit for some missionaries, the majority of missionaries find that the positives of journeying with an agency far outweigh any drawbacks. Whether you’re deciding between missions agencies, considering your church as your “agency,” or contemplating going out on your own, ask yourself these questions as you weigh…

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Everyday Prayer

TEAM missionaries and local language experts work on translating the Bible for the Kwong tribe in Chad. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

At the first of every month, we publish a monthly prayer focus, which delivers specific, up-to-date ways you can pray for TEAM missionaries on the field. Now, how many times do we say, “I’m praying for you” in response to an email or Facebook update from a missionary? When we’re honest, in the hustle and bustle of our days, we know it’s easier to say it than do it. Even during our regular prayer times, it’s hard to remember to pray for missionaries if we don’t have regular contact with them or can’t quite recall the specifics of their ministry….

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A Tale of Two Photos

The photos we choose to share in missions photography should represent subjects as the treasures they are, made in God's image. Photographs by Robert Johnson / TEAM

Robert Johnson, TEAM’s Creative Director and Editor-in-Chief of Horizons magazine, shares about subjectivity and how we portray people in images. Her collection of doll parts filled a storage shed behind her house. Plastic arms, legs, heads, and bodies spilled from overstuffed bags onto the concrete floor. Maria Delfina Hernandez had built a small business with these doll parts salvaged from a dump in Guatemala City, cleaning them up, piecing them back together and selling them at low cost in the market. She’s been doing this for years. A gospel analogy using baby doll parts, Hernandez’s story is inspiring to me…

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