1. TRAINING
Meetings: You are expected to meet regularly as a team to build unity together and prepare for your ministry responsibility. High functioning teams typically meet 6 to 8 times together in advance of the trip. The guiding principle is once per month for teams meeting 5 or more months leading-up to the departure date and twice per month for teams meeting 3 or 4 months in advance.
Attendance: You are expected to be at all meetings, either in person or ZOOM or FaceTime, unless cleared in advance with the team leader. Missing 1 meeting is usually acceptable. Team members who miss 25% of the meetings may be asked to step down for the current year's team.
Remote attendance: Special exceptions can be made for team members living outside the Seattle area to remote into the team meetings. As a guiding principle, 1 or 2 meetings in person is critical to bond with the team. Since team chemistry is critical, this decision will depend on the team make-up and will be at the discretion of the team leader.
2. SPIRITUAL
Prayer Team: You will need to identify 2 or more people who will commit to regularly pray for your team, the missionary, and the outreach.
Personal Growth: You will need to be meditating on the promises of scripture, to know key truths that you will rely on during this experience and that will shape your prayers. Short-term trips will stretch you beyond what you think you can do so your spiritual walk with the Lord is critical.
3. FINANCIAL
Personal contribution: Individuals going on the trip will provide a minimum of $500 with 20% or $100 due at the first meeting; the remaining balance can be paid at anytime but is to be paid in full no later than six weeks prior to the departure date. Families give a maximum of $1,000. These contributions are tax deductible.
Church contribution: The elders of the church approve of up to 1/3 of the cost of approved trips to be funded by the General Fund.
Fundraising contribution: The team will work together to raise the remaining cost of the trip. If the team doesn't raise enough money by a pre-determined deadline before departure, additional fundraising activities or cancellation of the trip will be considered at the discretion of the Global Outreach Pastor.
Support letters: The most effective way to fund-raise is a direct and personal request. We focus on support letters as the primary raise funds. A letter can explain how the donor is partnering with the team through their prayer, encouragement and finances. Each household will provide 50-75 names and addresses of friends and family who you will send support letters to ask to contribute to your team. Children of parents going will not be expected to send out letters. However, families should recognize that this will make fundraising more of a challenge. Every donor will receive a personal thank you and an invitation to a celebration lunch.
Non-refundable donations: all funds received are for team expenses and will not be refundable to the participant or donors should they not be able to participate in the trip, unless the trip is cancelled.
Fundraising alternatives: Additional fundraising activities outside of support letters are allowable, but must be approved by the team leader.
4. TRAVEL & DATES
Airline Tickets: The posted dates of the trip are approximate. Actual dates may be shifted by a few days before and/or after the posted dates to secure the best airfare. Your plans should remain flexible if a slight change in dates is required.
Personal Travel: The team experience begins and ends at CBC. Airfare is purchased on a group basis. Individual travel arrangements outside of the planned team itinerary is not permitted, except when reviewed and authorized by the Minister of Global Outreach prior to the purchase of the team tickets.
Debriefing: Each team will spend 1 or 2 days at the end of the trip together, processing through what they learned from God and how they will live differently when they return home. This time is critical for the team to effectively re-enter their "normal" routine.
