Spiritual Direction
Missionaries spend a lot of time teaching, preaching, talking and doing. This constant activity coupled with the felt pressure to justify their support in reports home, predisposes missionaries to the danger of not listening -- to God, to significant others, to their soul. For this reason, Gary and Frances have both completed certification in spiritual direction. Time spent with missionaries is commonly time spent helping them listen to the gentle voice of the Spirit to determine how the Father is touching their lives. This means that visits are often filled with periods of guided reflection, stillness, and contemplative prayer.
Mentoring
The broad experience of the Greens from work in multiple cultures, academia, and specialized training, gives them the ability to speak into numerous situations that missionaries encounter. The Greens stay in frequent contact with missionaries all over the world to offer guidance in such areas as church planting, team dynamics, family life, cross cultural stress and much more. The Greens believe that an essential part of mentoring is a dynamic ongoing relationship; therefore, they spend considerable amount of time on skype and email when not traveling.
The broad experience of the Greens from work in multiple cultures, academia, and specialized training, gives them the ability to speak into numerous situations that missionaries encounter. The Greens stay in frequent contact with missionaries all over the world to offer guidance in such areas as church planting, team dynamics, family life, cross cultural stress and much more. The Greens believe that an essential part of mentoring is a dynamic ongoing relationship; therefore, they spend considerable amount of time on skype and email when not traveling.
Visits
There is no better way to understand what a missionary is facing than to "walk a mile in his/her shoes". Whether its spending time together going to the grocery store, sitting in traffic, walking the kids to school, discussing family issues over coffee at the breakfast table, or a thousand things that sound mundane in one's home culture but are stressful in one's host culture, a visit to a missionary's home is invaluable. For this reason, the Greens spend 10-15 weeks per year visiting missionaries in such varied locations as Australia, Argentina, Brasil, Costa Rica, Chile, Peru, South Africa, Thailand and more.
There is no better way to understand what a missionary is facing than to "walk a mile in his/her shoes". Whether its spending time together going to the grocery store, sitting in traffic, walking the kids to school, discussing family issues over coffee at the breakfast table, or a thousand things that sound mundane in one's home culture but are stressful in one's host culture, a visit to a missionary's home is invaluable. For this reason, the Greens spend 10-15 weeks per year visiting missionaries in such varied locations as Australia, Argentina, Brasil, Costa Rica, Chile, Peru, South Africa, Thailand and more.
Renewal retreats
Jesus told his disciples to "come away". The opportunity for a missionary to get away from daily life for a breath of fresh air at a renewal retreat can bring amazing healing. The Greens help plan and lead five renewal retreats per year in four different countries. These retreats are a prayerful balance of rest, teaching, fellowship and good food that touch over 200 missionary men and women annually.
Jesus told his disciples to "come away". The opportunity for a missionary to get away from daily life for a breath of fresh air at a renewal retreat can bring amazing healing. The Greens help plan and lead five renewal retreats per year in four different countries. These retreats are a prayerful balance of rest, teaching, fellowship and good food that touch over 200 missionary men and women annually.