Member Care Updates Expanding the global impact of member care
Working together for wellbeing and effectiveness
Special News—October 2025Global Pearl: 10Being Protected by Jesus Christ  Image from cover of GMC 2Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold everything that he had and bought it.
Matthew 13:45-46-------------------- OverviewGreetings! In this issue (#198) we continue our 12 part series called Global Pearl to help shape and support good member care practice around the world. Throughout the series we emphasize Jesus Christ—the Global Pearl of Great Price (MT 13:45) as we collaborate to engage in mission among all peoples—the global treasure of great price (MT 13:44).Featured ResourcesCore Book--Member Care in India: From Ministry Call to Home Call (2012). J.N. Manoharan, Jacob Ninan, J.J. Ratnakumar, and Soundararaja "Conceiving, editing, and printing a book is a tedious process like giving birth to a child. This book was an aspiration for many leaders and a felt need in missions in India. The grace of God, His wonderful guidance and marvellous providence made this publication a reality. We are grateful to all contributors who did their best with a lot of limitations including time pressure. The book is divided into 13 sections with about 44 contributors providing significant insights into various issues of member care." (opening quote from the editors, page i) "This valuable volume of diverse member care experience remains highly relevant for effective mission in India and around the world. (Kelly, October 2025)Podcast--Raising MKs Well. We present two episodes on Third Culture Kids (TCKs) from Jonathan Trotter's Digging In the Dirt podcast (2024): Don't Call Your Kids "World Changers" and One Simple Way to Bless TCKs (about 20 minutes total). "In this podcast, we'll delve into the disasters, the darkness, and the deluge, and offer some comfort, presence, and a gentle invitation to hope." (podcast description from the site) Johnathan is one of the joint authors of Tough People in Tough Places--chapter 16 in Global Member Care Volume 3--and the author of Digging in the Dirt: Musings on Missions, Emotions, and Life in the Mud (2023) and co-author with is wife Elizabeth of Serving Well: Help for the Wannabe, Newbie, or Weary Cross-cultural Christian Worker (2019).Multi-Sectoral Tools--- Geneva Peace Week. T heme: Peace in Action, Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (13-17 October 2025), free and held in person and virtual. "[This five-day event] is a leading annual forum in the international peacebuilding calendar through which organizations in Geneva and their international partners come together to share knowledge and practice on a diverse range of topics related to peace across contexts and disciplines." Note the staff care and the mental health and psychosocial support-related presentations events!Blog Post-- "Pursuing Trans-Cultural Ethics" is an excerpt from chapter 10 of Global Member Care Volume 1. "...not all mission/aid workers actually have “senders.” At least many may not have an ongoing long-term sender as they may work from contract to contract and from agency to agency. Other workers do things much more on their own without a sending group per se. Their charitable work and Christian witness are done as part of their lifestyle in a host culture. Many mission/aid workers surely wish that a sender would be able to support and manage them in ways that are recommended in [these guidelines]!"See these UpdatesBeing the People Our World Needs–Reflections on Living In Peace (July 2024)Loving Our Mission Workers: Staying the Course in the Missio Dei (May 2022)Unreached Peoples: Reviewing and Renewing Our Roots (April 2019)Jesus Christ: The Lord of Member Care (September 2015)
News and NotesMember Care Journal (Issue 4, September 2025), Global Member Care NetworkNCF Counseling and Member Care Seminar “Grow personally and spiritually as well as professionally through education and training, elective workshops, networking, and confidential consultation and counseling with staff.” Eretria, Greece (5-17 October 2025)Mental Health and Missions ConferenceTheme: With Grace and Truth: Pathways for Humble and Effective Service/Care
Texas USA (20-23 November 2025)World Mental Health Day (10 October)International Day of Care and Support (29 October 2025)See our framework for engaging in the world as followers of Jesus Christ:Following Jesus Globally: Engaging the World through Global Integration, Lausanne Global Analysis (2020) and the expanded version (chapter 2) in Global Member Care Volume 3: Stories and Strategies for Staying the Course (2024). ----------------- Warm greetings, Kelly and Michèle   --See more resources on our MCA website and MCA Facebook page --Send us your ideas and resources for future MC Updates
--Forward to your colleagues and networksMCAresources@gmail.com
Featured Resources
Global Pearl: 10
Being Protected by Jesus Christ
 Image from cover of GMC 3
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish;
no one will snatch them out of my hand.
John 10:27-28
--------------- Resource One--Special Book
Member Care in India: From Ministry Call to Home Call (2012).
J.N. Manoharan, Jacob Ninan, J.J. Ratnakumar, and Soundararaja 
"Conceiving, editing, and printing a book is a tedious process like giving birth to a child. This book was an aspiration for many leaders and a felt need in missions in India. The grace of God, His wonderful guidance and marvellous providence made this publication a reality. We are grateful to all contributors who did their best with a lot of limitations including time pressure. The book is divided into 13 sections with about 44 contributors providing significant insights into various issues of member care." (opening quote from the editors, page i)
"This valuable volume of diverse member care experience remains highly relevant for effective mission in India and around the world." (Kelly, October 2025)
This book's 50+ chapters are organized into 13 sections:
I. Introduction to member care
II. Biblical basis for member care
III. History of member care
IV. Missionary Upholders Trust (UT) study, analysis and findings
V. Developing member care
VI. Member care issues and challenges
VII. Care givers and their role
VIII. Rest and retreat member care
IX. Member care and the church
X. MUT and its contributions
XI. Additional resources
XII. History of MUT with photo gallery
XIII. Profile of the writers
Endorsement from back cover by Kelly O'Donnell
"We are delighted to welcome this timely resource into the growing, global library for member care. Our colleagues in India, as reflected in this book, have certainly helped to lead the way through their challenging, pioneering, and faithful work in member care. We want to highly commend Missionary Upholders Trust (MUT) in particular as they joined together with colleagues over two decades to persevere in providing and developing member care in India. The MUT staff, board members, and volunteers are an ongoing source of encouragement to so many of us in the global mission and member care community. Their work has not gone unnoticed! This book, with its dozens of topics and contributors, is a prime example of the fruit of their labour. Mission organisations and member care groups, training institutions and churches, and all those with member care responsibility around the world will greatly benefit from studying this volume. Prioritise it! May others follow suit as they contextualise and creatively offer member care in their settings on behalf of the diversity of workers and in light of the challenges facing humanity."
See also: Planet India, Member Care Update (June 2012) and Doing Member Care Well in India by Isac Soundararaja and Lancelot Paul, chapter 10 in Global Member Care Volume 3.
 This podcast, Raising MKs Well, is the latest episode (October 2025) of Staying the Course in Member Care and Mission (STC). It features two podcasts on Third Culture Kids (TCKs) from Jonathan Trotter's Digging In the Dirt podcast (2024, about 20 minutes total). We find Jonathan's material on cross-cultural, marital, and family life to be insightful, challenging, encouraging, and relevant for member care and mission! We think you will too, and like us, will want to dive deeper into his podcasts and written materials--many done jointly with his wife, Elizabeth (see below).
Digging in the Dirt podcast description: "Welcome to ground level, to the dirt and the mess. We like green grass under a clear blue sky. We like victory and breakthrough and answered prayers. But sometimes it rains, the shadows deepen, and life turns muddy. Sometimes God seems quiet. What then? What happens when depression descends, or anxiety hangs like a sword overhead? What happens when loneliness suffocates, the thief steals more than stuff, and you get blood on your shoes? In this podcast, we'll delve into the disasters, the darkness, and the deluge, and offer some comfort, presence, and a gentle invitation to hope." See also: Jonathan's book, Digging in the Dirt: Musings on Missions, Emotions, and Life in the Mud (2023); the co-authored book with Elizabeth Trotter, Serving Well: Help for the Wannabe, Newbie, or Weary Cross-cultural Christian Worker (2019); and Celebrating, Protecting, and Nurturing CHILDREN–World Children’s Day, Member Care Update (November 2022).
Note--STC podcasts (video and audio versions) feature our interviews with and materials from several of the 50+ contributors in Global Member Care Volume 3 (GMC 3). GMC 3 is a collaborative book with 20 chapters full of stories and strategies, and reflections and resources from colleagues around the world. It is inspired by the vision to see member care further develop globally to support mission among all peoples.
STC Podcasts—Featuring GMC 3 Chapter Authors
--Overviewing Global Member Care Volume 3 (August 2024)
--Prioritizing Frontier People Groups (September 2024)
--Developing Member Care in Indonesia (October 2024)
--Mental Health as Mission–Trauma Training and Care (November 2024)
--A Team Model for Pastoral Coaching (December 2024)
--How Is Coaching Different? (July 2025)
--The Unseen Journey: 50 Years of Gospel Advancement (August 2025)
--Caring about Global Governance for the Sake of Human Flourishing (September 2025)
--Don't Call Your Kids 'World Changers' and One Simple Way to Bless TCKs (Oct 2025)
STC Podcasts—Featuring GMC 3 Consulting Editors
--Trauma and Tragedy on the Mission Field (January 2025)
--Trauma and Soul Care (February 2025)
--Sharing My Father with the World (March 2025)
--What We Wish Mission Workers Knew—Counselors' Perspectives (April 2025)
--Resilience, Trauma, and Post-Traumatic Growth (May 2025)
--Asia MC Network Conferences and the MC and Counseling Seminars (June 2025)
Resource Three--Multi-Sectoral Member Care
Geneva Peace Week. Theme: Peace in Action
Geneva Peacebuilding Platform 
"[This five-day, free event, is a leading annual forum in the international peacebuilding calendar through which organizations in Geneva and their international partners come together to share knowledge and practice on a diverse range of topics related to peace across contexts and disciplines." Note the staff care and mental health and psychosocial support-related presentations and events!
See also: Arming the World–Pursuing Positive Peace: Facts for Advocacy and Action, Global Integration Update (September 2022); Staring War in the Face: "We the peoples of the United Nations determined…”, Global Integration Update (April 2022); and New Year’s Yearnings: Peace on Earth–Sharing our Stories and Strategies, Global Integration Update, January 2022.
Global Member Care--12 Pearls
Twelve special blog posts to explore good practice
I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven
from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband....
The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl.
Revelation 21:21
 Image from cover of GMC 1 This set of blog entries from 2011 explores member care by using brief quotes from the book, Global Member Care Volume 1: The Pearls and Perils of Good Practice (GMC 1). There is one excerpt from each of the book's 12 chapters. Each excerpt is like a huge pearl—a pearl gateway—that allows us to enter more fully into the global field of member care. Below are quotes from chapter 10 of GMC 1.Pearl Ten--Pursuing Trans-Cultural Ethics"Where There Are No (Well-Resourced) Senders
There are a couple important counterpoints for the guidelines suggested [for sending groups]. First, not all mission/aid workers actually have “senders.” At least many may not have an ongoing long-term sender as they may work from contract to contract and from agency to agency. Other workers do things much more on their own without a sending group per se. Their charitable work and Christian witness are done as part of their lifestyle in a host culture. Many mission/aid workers surely wish that a sender would be able to support and manage them in ways that are recommended in [these guidelines]!
Second, for some sending groups themselves, these guidelines may seem overly idealistic at best and inappropriately constrictive at worst. Senders coming from philosophically different, or less-experienced, or financially-limited settings may not be on the same page about what is “needed” to do mission/aid and member care well. For instance some senders may default to the practice of sending out “naked” mission workers who have no apparent resources other than to follow the biblical injunction Christ gave his disciples to go without an extra coat, staff, or money. These folks embody that commitment, without an expectation of returning to their home country for furlough or retirement. This may seem extreme, but it does reflect the other end point of the sender’s continuum for providing “comprehensive” member care.
On a related note, in her concluding chapter in Sharing the Front Line and Back Hills (2002), Danieli describes how some potential contributors to her edited work dismissed her effort as 'preposterous or obscene.' The reason was that she was focusing on aid workers themselves—the protectors and providers—rather than on what was perceived to be the far more needy victims who needed help." (pages 173-174 in GMC 1)Reflection and Discussion--Recall one aspect of your life/work that relates to the quote above.--Connect the above quote with a current international area that interests/concerns you.--Discuss the quote with colleagues.See also: Sender Care for Our Workers Around the World, Member Care Update (December 2019).
--------------------- For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
Member Care Associates
MCAresources@gmail.com
Member Care Associates Inc. (MCA) is a Christian non-profit organization working internationally and across sectors. We focus on personnel development for mission, humanitarian, development, and health workers and their organizations; global mental health; ethics and good practice; and integrity/anti-corruption. Our services include consultation, training, research, developing resources, and publications. MCA is shaped by the Global Integration framework and the Missio Dei model of global member care (updated in Global Member Care Volume 3 in 2024). ----------
Our Special News-Updates 1) promote the wellbeing and effectiveness (WE) of staff and their families and sending groups and 2) support the diversity of colleagues with member care responsibilities. The focus is on the mission sector with applications for/from the overlapping health, development, humanitarian, and other sectors.
Global Integration (GI) is a framework for responsibly and actively engaging in our world--collaborating locally through globally for God's glory. It encourages connecting relationally and contributing relevantly on behalf of human wellbeing and the issues facing humanity, in light of our integrity and core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, human rights, faith-based). See more perspectives about GI HERE. |
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