Mission Partnership Teams: A behind-the-scenes look at how we support global servants! 

We know global servants are on the front lines of God’s mission, serving and caring for others. The stories of salvation, transformation, and blessings result from the cross-cultural work they do in step with the Holy Spirit. 

But as global servants work in ministry, caring for those they serve, who provides care for them? Who regularly shares in the hardships and joys and encourages a global servant? Who helps brainstorm solutions to big challenges and small, everyday needs? The answer is their Mission Partnership Teams! 

What is a Mission Partnership Team? 

A Mission Partnership Team (MPT) is a group of volunteers who have committed to using their skills, gifts, finances and time to bless a specific global servant or global servant family. 

Faye Yarbrough, an IM global servant working in South Africa, gives glory to God for her support team: “I’m just thankful for everyone on the team. God showed me how to pick who would be on the MPT,” and for Faye, that has made all the difference. 

You can think of an MPT as the root system of a tree. The global servant works directly with their partners and local community, reaching out and bearing fruit in their ministries, while the MPT is the root system beneath the ground. They provide stability and nourishment and help find resources that allow the global servant to grow strong and thrive. 

Your financial support is the life-giving water that maintains this growth and allows the global servant’s “branches” to reach new areas and people groups! 

MPTs range in the number of members, usually 4-8, but each person has a specific and vital role to fulfill on the team. Faye’s MPT has 12 members serving in six different areas. It is important to Faye and her team that each member has someone to work with toward the goals and needs in that area. 

A “convener” is the MPT’s leader, a point person and facilitator. This person is usually a family member or close friend and likely the first person a global servant chooses when assembling their team. Other roles include communications, logistics, financial advocacy, mission mobilization, and pastoral care. 

More than likely, if you regularly support a global servant, an MPT member may have contacted you about your giving or a specific ministry need. If you’ve heard a global servant speak at a church service or event, no doubt an MPT member helped make those arrangements! 

The Impact of an MPT

Just like a tree cannot survive without healthy roots, a global servant cannot do what they are called to do in ministry without a strong Mission Partnership Team and your financial support. 

Pastor Ken, from Faith Community Church in Inglewood, CA has served on Faye’s team since she was commissioned. When asked about the importance of an MPT to a global servant’s ministry, he shared: 

“Praying is so important. But giving is where the rubber meets the road. Financing our missionaries is key to getting God’s Word out across this world. [The MPT] needs to educate people on the financial needs…like when a car is donated—there’s gas, insurance, maintenance…things people might take for granted.” 

This is where our generous donors like you come in! Your financial support fills in the everyday needs— the logistics of doing ministry—which is how a global servant can serve around the world, spreading God’s Word and bringing hope to those without it. 

Not only does an MPT have a tremendous impact on God’s mission and for a global servant, but serving on an MPT can have an incredible impact on the team members themselves. 

Eunice is Faye Yarbrough’s convener and long-time friend. “When Faye was getting ready to go to South Africa, we needed to do some fundraising. I didn’t really know how to do it. I had to depend on God. It was through prayer and God building up my faith that I learned to listen and hear God speak to me as to how it would be done. I’m still amazed at what God did—the Lord did above and abundantly more than we could ever ask or think.” 

And that was just the initial fundraising needed to send Faye to South Africa. Since then, Faye and her team faced other needs and challenges, but God made a way, using the MPT and resources from supporters like you. Eunice shared: 

“Our MPT has the best prayer warriors! We’ve moved mountains because God was with us. It’s just amazing. I’m always amazed…not that He did it…but at how He does it!” 

International Ministries’ Role in Supporting Global Servants

International Ministries knows the importance of support through the entire process of becoming a global servant. Upon endorsement, a global servant is required to form an MPT. Then, the global servant works toward being fully funded for their first term of service. This process allows a global servant to focus on the ministry they’ve been called to and commissioned for. 

IM also has a member care team that is part of the home staff. This includes IM Global Coordinators David and Joyce Reed and Debby Witmer, who all have firsthand experience serving in global mission. David and Joyce encourage global servants through spiritual care and facilitating workshops and retreats. Debby supports families and works with missionary kids (MKs) as they navigate their unique role in mission. 

When you give $25 or $50 today, you are partnering with us to provide the depth of support global servants need as they do the work of proclaiming the Good News and being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ across the world. 

We know that serving in God’s mission is done most successfully in partnership. This is why at International Ministries, global servants have a support team behind them through MPTs, IM’s member care team and staff, ministry partners, and you, our faithful donors. 

A gift of support for IM’s General Fund through the link here provides vital support to global servants as they serve in God’s mission worldwide.

Thank you for your faithful giving, your prayers, and your partnership in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations.