International (MNN) ― The short-term missions movement has come under recent fire about lack of impact. CURE International's Jerry Meadows says it's a legitimate concern, but their approach promotes essential communication between their hospital staff and the volunteers.
In the end, it's about relationship-building. "We want them to spend time with our staff, with our nationals, who really understand what God's doing in their culture. Our hospital staff sees it as one of their primary missions: to expand the worldview of that short-termer."
CURE follows 7 standards of excellence with every short-term mission trip. As a result, each experience will:
1. Be God-centered and reflect His Glory and excellence.
2. Empower the partnership between the Lemoyne office and the hospital.
3. Be mutually-designed as a collaborative plan to benefit the hospital staff and then the short-term volunteer.
4. Involve comprehensive administration with reliable set-up and follow-through.
5. Be led by qualified leadership that is screened and trained for their responsibility.
6. Include appropriate training for the volunteer so they complement the in-country staff.
7. Include thorough evaluation and debriefing.
Every short-termer also goes through an On-Field Orientation to help them understand CURE's mission and facilities, what to do about the cultural differences, what the "chain of command" is, and how to remain involved with the ministry after the trip is over.
Meadows says they've averaged over nine-thousand volunteer days so far this year. Their approach with the teams is a balance of work and evangelism. "As much time and excellence and effort as we put into the medical side of the organization, we're going to put that much time and effort and excellence into the spiritual side of the organization. he core value for CURE is working together with local pastors in an area for evangelism and follow-up."
CURE is now recruiting construction teams for a playground project in Zambia, an artist team for murals and mosaics for the hospitals, a team for Medical Teams International (for plastic surgery), and prayer teams. Click here if you can help.
