CGCS Mission Trips Policy and Procedures Manual

Transcription

1 1 CGCS Mission Trips Policy and Procedures Manual SEBTS Short-Term Mission Trips The goal of SEBTS mission trips is primarily to equip students to fulfill their lifetime roles in the Great Commission, and secondarily to assist IMB and NAMB missionaries in their strategic tasks. Southeastern Seminary seeks to coordinate its faculty and students mission efforts in order to make the best use of the resources God has given us. Southeastern s short-term mission trips support the mission of Southeastern: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary seeks to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping students to serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission. The Center for Great Commission Studies (CGCS) sponsors several mission trips each year. We literally go around the globe. Some of the trips will focus on evangelizing the lost, while others will focus on discipling national leaders to reach their own nations. Some trips will be to unreached people groups, while others will be to fields that are yielding a great harvest. At the center of this variety, however, is a unifying focus: that healthy, reproductive churches will be planted among every people group of the world. Participants Southeastern students and their spouses are eligible to participate in short-term mission trips, but trip leaders make all final decisions regarding who may or may not join their mission team. All Southeastern short-term mission trips will be led by qualified Southeastern faculty. They will work primarily in conjunction with the International Mission Board or North American Mission Board. The faculty and/or adjuncts provide standards for academic accreditation and are an integral part of providing focus, structure, and content to short-term mission trips. Proposing a Trip While the Center for Great Commission Studies arranges a few mission trips each year, the remaining trips are led and organized by SEBTS faculty members. Faculty members are encouraged to fill out and submit a Mission Trip Proposal Form. Each Spring semester, the CGCS Director and Associate Directors will review trip prospectuses as they consider the schedule for the next academic year, and they will make decisions to approve or alter any proposed trips at that time. Trips will be assessed in the order they are received based on the prospectus. Priority will be given to those trips whose prospectus best reflects SEBTS overall mission strategy and date of submission. The Mission Trip Prospectus Form is included at the end of this manual.

2 2 Faculty Workload Once a mission trip has been approved by the CGCS, the trip will need to be added to the leader s faculty workload. Faculty leaders will need to discuss their upcoming trip with their own Associate Dean order for that AD to approve their overall workload requirements. Once the leader s AD has approved the workload, the trip will then need to be sent to the P Area Associate Dean, who will add the trip to the Faculty Planning Tool and who will request the Registrar to add the class to the schedule. It will be assumed that the faculty member who proposes the trip will be the professor of record for the trip. If two faculty members or team leaders wish to split the stipend, this must be clearly specified to the CGCS. Guidelines for the Team Leader Advertizing Once a mission trip prospectus has been approved by the Director, the team leader is free to advertise the trip. Each fall, a General Missions Trip meeting will be held to provide basic information to students concerning the upcoming trips for that academic year. Trip leaders will be asked to present some information about their trip at that time. Additionally, the CGCS will advertize all mission trips through a wide variety of means throughout the school year. Trip Fundraising Students are not officially on a mission trip team until they have paid their trip deposit. The deposit is calculated at about 10% of the price of the trip. These deposits are nonrefundable as they are deposits for airline tickets. Each Southeastern student can send out fund raising letters to help raise the needed funds for their trip. The CGCS will provide the student with the initial letter. A sample of this letter is found at the back of this manual These letters instruct the donors to give directly to SEBTS missions endeavors. These gifts are tax deductible and, as such, will be processed by the office of Financial Development. Team members will turn in their donations to the CGCS or at mission trip meetings. CGCS will be responsible for recording the funds and depositing them through the office of Financial Development. All funding for mission trips will be routed through account INC - AID FUND SEBTS MISSION FUND. All expenses related to the trip will be routed through EXP AID FUND SEBTS MISSION FUND. Team Meetings In addition to this general meeting, each trip leader must have at least four trip specific meetings to adequately prepare the students. These meetings are held once a month for four months immediately preceding the trip. In these meetings the professor, or other trip leader, should cover areas such as culture (general and specific to location), spiritual

3 3 formation, trip logistics, and provide time for interaction and for questions and answers. The student is required to attend all meetings and if one is missed they must be in touch with the team leader to acquire any missed material. Please let the CGCS know the dates of each of your meetings so a representative can be there to collect money. It is recommended that the team leader gather a notebook of pertinent information for each team member. This ensures that team members have been given all of the information that they need and will minimize repetition. Students want a cost sheet, the course syllabus(es), flight itinerary, cultural insights, ministry agenda, travel schedule, preparatory instructions, spiritual guidance materials, and packing suggestions. The CGCS can assist in the collection of this material. Airline Tickets Southeastern students and faculty will travel to and from the trip destination as a group. All airline travel arrangements for SEBTS sponsored short-term mission trips will be made by the Associate Director of the CGCS through Mission Travel Services (MTS). Professors should not contact MTS Travel or any other entity concerning airline travel for mission trips. Record Keeping The CGCS will manage the students paperwork and fundraising. Students will come to the CGCS to fill out their application, liability form and waivers. They will also come to the CGCS to turn in a copy of their passport and all donation checks. Team leaders may request a report on these aspects of the team at any time, especially prior to a team meeting. The CGCS will rely on the team leader to make announcements and to take final responsibility for their team turning in the necessary funds and documents. Travel Insurance The CGCS will purchase travel insurance for your team six weeks prior to the team s departure. Upon purchase of insurance, the travel agency will send a medical information document which the team leader will need to distribute to his team. This document should be filled out by each team member and kept with them during the course of their trip, in case of emergency. Passports Any student who does not have a passport will need to apply for one, and students with a passport must make sure that it is valid for 6 months beyond the dates of travel. Passport applications may be made at any US Post Office. Thorough instructions and forms are available at The CGCS and the team leader will need to work together to make sure all team members have a valid passport before they travel. Visas Each team leader must know in advance whether or not it is required to obtain visas for their particular country. For specific country requirements, visit Visas must be applied for 90 days prior to departure. SEBTS will use Travisa to obtain all visas needed for mission trips. To obtain tourist visas, follow these steps:

4 4 1. Go to 2. Click on the Visa tab 3. There will be a list of countries; Click on the country of your destination 4. In the upper left corner of the particular country site, click on Visa Instruction Sheet 5. The Visa Instruction Sheet will give you all the requirements needed for obtaining the visa including visa applications 6. Each student must fill out a visa application. Notify students to read carefully and fill in application correctly. 7. Some countries will allow you to print the visa application and others only allow you to fill them out online. It is best to be able to print the application and have students fill them in all together at a meeting. If the country only allows for them to be filled in online, please have detailed instructions for the students and remind them to print the application once it is completely filled in. 8. Have students bring the completed application, passports and other needed documentation to the CGCS. 9. After putting together the visa applications, and all other documentation needed, the CGCS will send the passports, visa applications, other documentation, and a check for the appropriate amount to: Travisa st. St. NW Washington, DC Tel (202) Tel (800) Fax (202) Missionary Contact Personnel The team leader is responsible for communicating with IMB/ NAMB contacts on field. All logistics and plans need to be worked out in coordination between the missionary and the trip s team leader. Make sure to keep the team members informed about pertinent plans and visions. Concluding Report At the conclusion of a trip, the team leader will provide to the CGCS a draft letter communicating the highlights of the trip and the names of all students that participated in the trip. The information in the draft letter will be used by Financial Development to distribute a thank you letter to the donors for their support of the trip. It will also be included in the bi-annual reports to the Board of Visitors. Mission Trip Finance Policy The following policy is in place for the purpose of making the faculty leader responsible for as few field expenses as possible. 1. When a faculty member submits a mission trip prospectus, he or she should also turn in a cost estimate breakdown. This cost estimate becomes the basis for student fundraising and liability for trip expenses as well as the basis for fund distribution.

5 5 2. The CGCS will arrange for airfare, insurance, and wherever possible, visas. 3. Expenses related to meals on the field will be handled as a per diem food distribution to team members. At the airport prior to trip departure, the faculty leader will distribute an allotted food allowance to each student. Students will sign for that money and become responsible to pay their own meals in country. The students signatures serve as an adequate receipt for that particular cash advance. No receipts are required for their meals. 4. The faculty leader will need to make arrangements with their field missionary contact regarding method of payment for as many on-the-field expenses as possible, particularly lodging costs. Possible means for such payment include using a credit card to pre-pay the hotel bill or wiring money to the missionary, allowing cash payments for various field expenses. 5. Once the faculty leader has determined how to pay for these expenses, then he or she will submit a payment request form to the CGCS including all pertinent payment details. There must be enough information for the CGCS to be able to make the payment, wire transfer, or other method of payment. 6. The remaining field expenses should be minimal. Those costs will be used in the generation of the International Check Advance form. The Check Advance form requires the signatures of both the faculty leader and the Director of the CGCS. Therefore, once the CGCS has generated the Check Advance form, a meeting will be scheduled to review the remaining expenses (including a certain amount of buffer money for unexpected expenses) and to sign the form. The International Check Advance form requires two sets of signatures. The first set is necessary for Accounting Services to write the check for the faculty leader. After the leader returns with any remaining cash and receipts for all expenses paid, then a second set of signatures will be necessary on that same International Check Advance form in order to reconcile the money with Accounting Services. 7. A few days after the International Check Advance forms are turned in to Accounting Services, the CGCS will pick up the leader s check. That check and the Check Advance reconciliation form will be placed within a CGCS-created cash envelope. 8. At the meeting wherein the International Check Advance form is initially signed, the Director will review the CGCS cash transaction policy with the faculty leader: While on the field, the leader will be required to keep all Mission Trip Fund cash in a CGCS-provided envelope. This envelope will provide a grid for recording all cash transactions and serve as a reconciliation document. Cash for the trip is not to be merged with the faculty leader s personal money.

6 6 Any time money is removed from the CGCS envelope, the purchase must be documented on the envelope itself, and the money must immediately be replaced with a receipt. Upon return to the US, the leader will have the remaining cash and all receipts in the envelope, and the leader will be held responsible for written documentation of every transaction on the envelope provided. 9. If money is transferred to the field missionary in advance, the faculty leader will need to get a signed receipt of funds from the missionary. The CGCS will provide a receipt document for the faculty leader to take with him and for the missionary to sign. This receipt will be included in the leader s cash envelope. Upon arrival, the leader will get the missionary s signature acknowledging their receipt of a wire transfer, and the leader will return the signed receipt to their cash envelope. 10. Upon return from the mission trip, the faculty leader will schedule a short follow-up meeting with the CGCS. In that meeting, the cash transaction envelope will be handed in for a quick overview. While a CGCS assistant looks over the money, receipts and transaction record, the faculty leader will give a brief report on the trip to the CGCS Director. Assuming that the finances reconcile properly, the faculty leader and Director will sign the Cash Advance Reconciliation form, and the leader s financial responsibility for the trip will be complete.

7 7 SEBTS Mission Trip Prospectus Form Each year the Center for Great Commission Studies (CGCS) sponsors several mission trips. We go, literally, around the globe. Some of the trips will focus on evangelizing the lost, while others will focus on discipling national leaders to reach their own people. Some trips will be to unreached people groups, while others will be to fields that are yielding a great harvest. At the center of this variety, however, is a unifying focus: that healthy, reproductive churches be planted among every people group of the world. The goal of SEBTS mission trips is primarily to equip students to fulfill their lifetime roles in the Great Commission, and secondarily to assist IMB missionaries in their strategic task. In light of that, professors are encouraged to organize trips in conjunction with IMB and/or NAMB personnel. Those wishing to organize trips through other means must seek approval for, and offer justification for, such trips in the mission trip prospectus. Faculty and adjuncts can submit a proposal for a trip fitting the overall goals and focus of SEBTS mission trips. The following prospectus form should be filled out and submitted to the Director of the CGCS. All mission trip prospectuses for the upcoming academic year are reviewed by the Director and the Associate Director of the CGCS at the end of the previous Spring semester. Therefore, professors must submit their prospectus to the CGCS by the end of the Spring semester. This timeline allows professors and students to plan for the trip, for SEBTS to advertize the trip, and for travel agents to find acceptable ticket fares. Any questions about how to prepare this mission trip prospectus may be addressed to the CGCS. MISSION TRIP PROSPECTUS Estimated Date and Location of the Trip: Estimated Number of Students and Faculty: Estimated Cost of the Trip (the CGCS will research the estimated airfare for your trip, as well as the travel insurance; you need only estimate the in-country expenses including hotel, food, local travel, and ministry costs. You should also check into possible visa fees and immunizations where necessary):

8 8 Justification of the selected location and target audience (explanation of how this trip reflects SEBTS focus and goals for global missions). Include an introduction to the target audience: If not working with IMB or NAMB personnel, justification for alternate arrangements:

9 9 Explanation of the trip s purpose (e.g. evangelism, discipling national leaders, etc.): Strategy Outline (e.g. personal evangelism, street preaching, literature distribution, sport evangelism, etc.):

10 Attach a Course Syllabus. Note that a mission trip that offers three credit hours at the Master s level must require, at minimum, 500 pages of reading, a 3-5 page reflection paper which integrates the academic and personal aspects of the trip, and a prayer journal. 10