The Harbor of Hope

« Mobile Member Care

Coaching Workers »

Teams

By Scott Hicks ⋅ January 1, 2007 ⋅

Email This Post ⋅

Print This Post ⋅ View comments

The Harbor of Hope has been established in Dakar, Senegal to help missionaries thrive in their pursuit of what God has called them to do in this part of the world. As missionaries with Barnabas International, my wife and I see our ministry as helping missionaries in North and West Africa. We have been in Dakar working in the area of member care since February 1997, but only recently set up a retreat ministry. As a licensed counselor in the U.S., after having worked for 10 years in various counseling positions, God led us overseas to do a similar work with missionaries; to serve those that work in West Africa.

One of the truly exciting parts is meeting the many unique and diversely gifted people God has strategically placed throughout West Africa. It is fascinating to listen to them share their stories of ministry and how God has blessed them along with the difficulties that has brought them to us. My wife and I truly feel privileged to come alongside such a wonderful group to help to better do what God has called them to do. To help describe our work, we have organized it under the acronym of IMPACT:

I – Immediate. We see ourselves as a resource that can be quickly accessed during times of difficulty. Being nearby, we also hope to establish a quality reputation with mission leaders so we are a known quantity for providing help when help is needed. Additionally, we will be able respond as a fellow laborer in this part of the world who understands first hand the local realities.

M – Mobile. We can easily either go to missionaries or have them come to us. It has proven to be faster and less expensive than trying to receive help from their passport countries (often we can respond to a crisis within hours rather than days or weeks). Since we live on the field, the chance for an extended time of face to face involvement exists if needed.

P – Preventative. Our primary ministry hopefully will be one of prevention. Through conferences and seminars, we will provide tools and resources for the mission community to use before difficulties arise. Conferences on transition, teambuilding, interpersonal relationships, debriefing and marriage are some that have been seen as helpful so far. We would also like to organize times of refreshment for the mission community, perhaps by providing a yearly spiritual emphasis week.

A – Affiliations. We know we don’t personally have all of the resources needed for a community of the size of West Africa. Another important part of our ministry will be as a liaison between other resources in the world and the identified needs here. Hopefully, because this is our primary job, we can provide the time needed to link resources with the need. This process will help us become more focused in what we present in conferences and seminars as we know the areas of struggle missionaries are having in their areas of ministry.

C – Counseling. One of the realities is one-on-one counseling will be needed. We would be available for extended periods of counseling should the need arise for such a ministry. Additionally, we would be able to understand much of the reality/symptoms/causes that surrounds a given problem.

T – Transition Care. This is provided by our small retreat center for missionaries to come and take advantage of if the need arises. We primarily see three scenarios leading to its use: (1) long term counseling if Dakar is not where they are fielded; (2) a debriefing might require a longer and safer environment than might be available in their country of ministry from which to work through the issues; (3) a missionary just needs a break from their ministry responsibilities (especially village ministry) and would come for a time of refreshment before heading back to their field of ministry. (We use the word transition because we hope to see hurting missionaries gain the strength and resolve to return or transition back to their field of service having successfully worked through the issues that caused them to seek out our services and receive the kind of attention available here).

We have received a lot of encouragement and support for this ministry from within the mission community. It has been fun to see God take a thought on our part and grow it into the ministry we have today. It will be interesting to see where God takes it.

One of our difficulties is the few colleagues in our area. Although others are doing a similar work in other West African countries, they are hours away by plane. We see each other about once a year but usually for a ministry purpose, not just to be together and dream and brainstorm or even talk about difficult situations. We are constantly looking for opportunities to confer and rub shoulders with those who are doing a similar work.

Finally, one of the things we have found true is we have to take much of the advice we give to others to heart. We really try to watch how stretched we become, and if we have a particularly busy season, to try and plan some recuperation time soon after. We realize we can’t do it all ourselves and so we try to be careful to act like it and not overscheduled ourselves to the point of getting run down.

We look forward with great anticipation to what God is going to continue to do in the area of member care in this area of the world.