This trip has been cancled.
There was not enough interest.
A Vision Trip for MK teacher Recruiters
When the educational needs of the children of missionaries (MKs) are not met, these parents are faced with the choices of abandoning their work and returning home; becoming teachers themselves and leaving their own work undone; or searching for other solutions. None of these decisions are good, and they impact spreading the Word of God to the nations. Teachers of missionary children (MKs) contribute to the Great Commission of Christ by relieving missionaries in the field of the responsibility of educating their children.
Missionary organizations recruit MK teachers to teach these children and therefore relieve their parents from having to make these significant decisions in their service to the Lord. However, at the present time, and with full acknowledgement that there are a myriad of efforts by many people using a variety of recruitment tactics among several missionary organizations, there remain approximately six hundred teaching vacancies around the world! These vacancies affect the spreading of the Word of God to the nations.
We propose a new recruitment tactic which could become a collaborative effort among several mission organizations. This tactic involves the recruitment of individuals who have an interest in missions, taking them on a vision trip to areas where MK teachers live and work and where there are missionaries whose work for the Lord depends on these MK teachers, and then using the participants to recruit teachers when they return home. The goal of the vision trip is to contribute to the vision of Teachers In Service: A Perpetual Surplus of MK Teachers.
Vision trips will be planned for a variety of locations around the world. Each trip will have a limited number of participants and will be paid for by the individuals themselves. However, we will try to reduce vision trip expenses for the first set of individuals through a grant proposal submitted through Wheaton College.
We believe there are many potential teachers lying in wait for some messenger from God to challenge them. Some have been asking God, "Where to now, Lord?" We want the individuals who participate in the vision trips to become the messengers.
The application process for recruiters will involve a variety of steps including submission of an outline of how they intend to become actively involved in MK teacher recruitment once they have returned from the vision trip. This outline will be revised after the vision trip and their experiences of talking with and seeing MK teachers in action, by meeting with parents/missionaries, and by training, including the use of the TIS web site.
Following the vision trip, participants, now armed with first hand experiences and having caught the vision themselves, will become actively involved in recruitment of MK teachers, thus extending the efforts by missionary organizations. They will communicate with and encourage prospective teachers to pray about and to consider teaching children of missionaries. Recruiters will be expected to contact at least ten potential teachers within a month of returning from the vision trip. However, all who have truly embraced the vision will be encouraged to continue with their recruitment activities.
A month after participants return from the vision trip there will be a follow-up assessment as to the degree of success in the contact of prospective MK teachers. In particular, we are interested in which recruitment techniques were successful.
Individuals for a vision trip may come from:
• Christian faculty on secular and Christian college/university campuses and others who have access to college age students (youth group leaders, campus ministry coordinators, job placement directors, etc.)
• Church and missionary groups who have working, former, retired, or prospective teachers among their members or who know teachers
• High school teachers who work with groups of Christian students
• Those who are involved with communication that will be read by teachers (paper, email, texting, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
Teachers may be recruited from:
Prospective MK teachers who show a genuine interest in teaching children of missionaries will be routed to the TIS web site where they will receive additional information about teaching children of missionaries. They will then navigate to mission organizations' web sites for specific information, or to MK school sites, or to individuals associated with MK schools. (TIS does not recommend any particular mission organization or school and is not involved in processing prospective teachers in any way. It is simply a purveyor of information and provides a place for gathering and routing.)
The initial vision trip is planned for June 2012 and will be to Kenya for about 10 days. Please watch this site for details or contact us for more information. If you live around Las Cruces, NM please call Thom Votaw at (575) 649-6296.
[A special note to former students at NMSU: When I left NMSU I went to the University of Idaho for a few years and then returned to Las Cruces where I live now. In 1997 I began Teachers In Service, Inc., a non-profit organization that extends my love for and interest in teaching to overseas schools for children of missionaries. This story begins on the home page of this web site. The vision trip discussed above is particularly extended to all of you who love Jesus. I would love to reconnect with all of you. When you see this message please pass it on to other students who were in the elementary or secondary science teaching methods courses, other courses, and Co-op students. Best regards, Thom]
All of this in the service of our Lord and towards His Great Commission.
Thom Votaw Andrew Brulle
President, Teachers In Service, Inc. Professor Emeritus, Wheaton College
