How to follow up on your mission project

The standards of STM
excellence that our committee compiled a few years ago is a good place for
anyone interested in the subject to start.
Here is Standard
#7: THOROUGH FOLLOW-UP.

An excellent short-term mission assures debriefing and
appropriate follow-up for all participants, and is expressed by:

7.1 Comprehensive debriefing (pre-field,
on-field, post-field)

7.2 On-field re-entry preparation

7.3 Post-field follow-up and evaluation

We recognize that thorough debriefing and follow-up is a
crucial aspect of STM. As in the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30), we
seek to help all participants invest and multiply the STM experience God has
entrusted to them. Therefore in all our STMs, we strive to provide relevant
debriefing in each stage (pre-field, on-field, post-field), including on-field
re-entry preparation for goer-guests and post-field follow-up for all
participants as appropriate. We acknowledge that thorough follow-up will help
participants process the STM, apply lessons learned, and promote continued
personal growth (spiritual, emotional, intellectual, cross-cultural,
relational, and other growth). We also acknowledge that thorough follow-up can
help participants integrate the entire STM into life for kingdom purposes,
solidify transforming life change, and provide opportunity for continued
personal commitment to Christ and the people of his world. We further
acknowledge the importance of assessing our mutual efforts with one another and
therefore pledge to implement timely evaluation of the outreach to help
identify unresolved issues (if any), to amend such issues, and to enhance our
partnership’s future STM efforts.

7.1 Comprehensive
debriefing (pre-field, on-field, post-field)

We pledge to provide appropriate and thorough debriefing
throughout every stage of the mutually designed program to help all
participants process the pre-field training, on-field implementation, and
post-field challenges. We further pledge that our debriefing will be designed
to enable participants to better apply lessons learned, to nurture their continued
growth, and to bear spiritual fruit.

7.2 On-field re-entry
preparation

We pledge to provide re-entry preparation for goer-guests
prior to leaving the field to facilitate balanced re-entry into the home
culture, preparing them for adjustments and challenges they may face.

7.3 Post-field
follow-up and evaluation

We pledge to provide post-field follow-up for all
participants to help cement life change and cultivate ongoing growth and
commitment to Christ and his world. We pledge to candidly evaluate our mutual
efforts with one another as a means to enhance future programs. We further
pledge that the results of evaluations will be communicated to relevant
leaders, for the improvement of future STMs and the keeping of pertinent
permanent records. We also pledge confidentiality, integrity, and accuracy in
the evaluation and record keeping process.