Unit 5 Objectives

  • Develop a personal plan for continued service.

Unit Length: up to 10 weeks

Unit 5 Breakdown

Here is a suggested program that your facilitator can work through with you – you may think of ideas and resources that apply to your specific situation as well!

Spiritual Disciplines

  • Continue with your daily Bible reading plan, making note of your thoughts and what you have learned during these devotional times, answering the following questions:
    • How is God calling me to think differently?
    • How is God re-ordering my affections, what I love?
    • What is God calling me to do today, how can obey Him?
  • Regularly share some of your reflections with your prayer partner.
  • Continue memorizing prayers found in the Bible. Incorporate them into your own prayers
  • Pray about God’s continued leading, while trusting in God for future provision.
  • Revisit the theology of suffering. Read and discuss Risk is Right by John Piper (Resources)
  • Read one book on humility and make note of insights, including how humility affects your interactions and relationships.
    • Humility – C.J. Mahaney (Resources)
    • Humility – Andrew Murray (Resources)
    • The Blessing of Humility – Jerry Bridges (Resources)

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. What’s bringing me life/refreshing my soul these days?
  2. Where is my spiritual nourishment coming from?
  3. What spiritual disciplines am I practicing regularly?
  4. What fruits of the Spirit seem to be evident or lacking in my life?
  5. What have I been learning about God, others and myself from my Bible reading?

Personal Development

  • Read at least one article on re-entry.
  • Review your PCP – think about how it might look differently moving forward.

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. What am I doing to keep healthy physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually?
  2. What has culture stress meant for me? Who am I talking to about it?
  3. What am I learning about myself from my new experiences?
  4. How am I affirming, listening to, encouraging and respecting others?
  5. How am I demonstrating the priority of relationships over daily tasks?
  6. What do I find the most rewarding, and the most challenging?

Language Acquisition

  • Persevere in your language learning schedule and goals.
  • Consider having another assessment (at the one year mark).
  • Evaluate how you feel your lingua-culture learning progressed. What would you change? What would you like to repeat in the future? Which tools worked well for you, which did not?

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. What will motivate me to continue in language learning until I go back to my home country? What goals do I want to meet before I move to my next assignment/stage of work? What will be my lingua-culture learning goals as I move on?
  2. How much time am I devoting to language learning each day? Each week?
  3. What community contacts have I made through practicing what I have learned?
  4. What progress am I making?
  5. What am I enjoying most? What am I struggling with? Who should I talk to about this in order to get help?

Cultural Discoveries

  • Explore local understandings around concepts of saying good-bye, and leaving, including grief and loss.

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. What am I doing to actively seek out cross-cultural relationships and experiences?
  2. Who do I consider a friend in my host culture?
  3. How am I building relationships through gender appropriate ways?
  4. How am I actively seeking and acting upon cultural advice from local relationships?
  5. What do I find the most rewarding, and the most challenging about living in this new culture?

Team and Intercultural Identity

  • Watch and discuss the LMS training on Interculturalism/multiculturalism
    Read and discuss what you’ve learned. Cultural Intelligence

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. What have I learned about the other cultures from teammates?
  2. What common ground do I share with each of the teammates?
  3. In what ways am I honoring and showing respect for teammates’ cultures?
  4. Am I insisting on my own way? How open am I to doing things differently?
  5. What organizational values am I exhibiting?

Partnerships

  • Continue participating in local fellowship.
  • Read and discuss a book or article about various financial models with future planning in view.
  • Continue with regular communication with prayer partners.

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. How often am I praying for my local fellowship and its leadership?
  2. In what ways am I actively participating in my local fellowship?
  3. In what practical ways could I participate with the local fellowship to demonstrate the love of Christ to others?
  4. How am I communicating with and praying for my prayer partners?

Discipleship Models

  • Begin to think through your own personal philosophy on CP and equipping others. Discuss how this may or may not affect your future plans.

Reflective/Accountability Questions:

  1. What does it look like to live out my faith effectively in a culturally appropriate way? How have I done this recently?
  2. How am I modelling Christ to those around me?
  3. What does it mean to be a servant of Jesus in my new culture?
  4. How am I helping, enabling, equipping others to become more like Jesus Christ?

By the end of Unit 5, team members will have:

✔ The ability and tools needed to be a self-motivated and life long lingua-culture learner.

✔ Gained insights related to serving one another in humility.

✔ Developed a plan for continuing service.