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Volunteer personnel will play a key role in implementing our strategy. Check these pages for more information. A volunteer is a person who through a personal faith in Jesus Christ has become an active member of a Southern Baptist church and is available to the International Mission Board for a short overseas ministry. This period may be as short as a few weeks or as long as two years. The volunteer has skills, talents, abilities, knowledge or spiritual gifts which can be used overseas as a witness to his or her personal commitment to the Great Commission. Local Christians who know the needs of their areas initiate requests for volunteers through the national Baptist convention or Mission (group of Southern Baptist missionaries) in their country. The VIM Department communicates these needs to its constituency through its missions education journal, The Commission magazine and other promotional media--including this Web Site! It accesses the names of qualified volunteers through its massive computer database. Over 11,000 short-term volunteers serve in foreign countries each year through this program. Volunteers are adequately informed about the culture, religion, geography, climate, available lodging and food services--and about healthcare facilities in the area where they will serve. Volunteers normally go to serve at their own expense. They respond to requests made by missionaries or fill a strategic role in an overall mission strategy for global evangelization. The volunteer is going in response to a real need and becomes part of the people of God on mission. Because of this global strategy and the cooperative nature of the mission, the volunteer works under the direction of International Mission Board representatives. In most cases, this will be the Mission (organization of Southern Baptist missionaries) in the country where the ministry is performed. Southern Baptists who go overseas to serve as volunteers come from all walks of life and from a variety of ethnic and economic backgrounds. Most have never seen themselves as having the ability or skill to fill needs around the world. Nearly all are surprised at the profound sense of satisfaction and fulfillment this kind of involvement brings. |
