New staff experience an immersive mobilization training before launching to their assignments.
“I found myself at several moments being awestruck that I was even in Southeast Asia and this was the direction God was leading me,” said Cara, a new CMM recruit. “Even when I think about the difficulties facing me—transitioning into a culture so different from my own, security risks, being across the world from family, learning a new language—I feel secure and honored in moving toward the work He has prepared for me to do.”
One of the responsibilities of the team here in College Station, besides mobilizing on the Texas A&M campus, is spearheading our recruiting efforts. We’ve found that for the frontier mobilizers we recruit, the time between onboarding and launching is crucial. Like Cara, many of them said “yes” to God knowing they would face many obstacles: support raising, language learning, and moving cross-culturally around the world.
The CMM has developed an extensive Field Staff Training to equip and prepare laborers like Cara as much as possible before they leave for the field. Cara spent two weeks in Southeast Asia learning to utilize our resources effectively, structure her work week, understand overarching principles of movement-building and discipleship, in addition to gaining hands-on training in frontier mobilization. She also had the opportunity to get to know our senior staff and leadership from all over the world and glean from their years of ministry experience.
Because the training is held abroad, she was able to practice meeting local believers and exercise her mobilization skills, as well as engage in culture-learning exercises, such as prayer-walking and interviewing locals. As leaders of the Field Staff Training, we felt our 14 participants learned almost as much from perusing a night market as they did from the classroom modules!
“It is hard to fathom why the Lord wants me involved in raising up His church in China,” says Cara, “but it is such an exciting and sweet invitation I am so glad to accept.”
Our heart is to see all of our local field teams—and each of our individual field staff—thrive on the field. We believe this is God’s heart, too! Our prayer is that Field Staff Training will continue to help our staff be confident in the Lord and the work He has called them to, to be “in full accord and of one mind” (Phil. 2:2), and to truly feel like co-laborers in the mission of frontier mobilization.