1. Matching your interests and gifts with real needs on the field - To help you and your team prepare to go on a mission trip, CALMS begins with a survey to help assess your experience level, your group gift-mix and expectations. With this information, we try to match your group with an existing mission project (See "Short-term mission opportunities" page under the GO section of this website.) If we are unable to determine a good match, we dialog with different Central American partners in order to discover an appropriate match.
2. Getting you confirmed on our short-term calendar - To assure that you are able to go at a mutually agreed time, we make sure your Central American partners are committed to receiving you at a specific date. To hold your spot, we request that you to send us a non-refundable "hold-the-date" fee of $150. This amount is deducted from your team's logistics invoice if you go forward with your plans. It is not returned if you for some reason you decide to cancel.
We ask that you give us as much warning as possible before canceling to allow another team to take your place. We also encourage you to chose a time that is at least four months from the agreed upon departure date. In that way, you and your team will have enough time to prepare properly and CALMS and our Central American partners will have enough time to prepare for your group.
Since we encourage long-term relationships, some teams lock in a specific time with CALMS and one of our Central American partners for the coming year. This is especially encouraged with our clinic ministry in Guatemala which seeks continuity. Thus, for example, a team may choose the second week of February each year and that is noted on our calendar for several years in advance.
3.Preparing your team outcomes, schedule and "Good Faith Estimate" - To help you and your team and our Central American partners prepare, CALMS puts together a document describing your team's desired outcomes. This document describes what it will look like when you have worked effectively with your partners in Central America. We also prepare a detailed schedule that helps you chose the best options for transportation, housing, meals, and any tourism you may desire during your group's trip -- usually at the end of a service project. A helpful tool to help you and your group prepare financially is our Good Faith Estimate (GFE). This Excel report coincides with your schedule and shares all the costs and explains any numbers that might not be immediately clear. With experience we have gotten very good at estimating the costs so that you can be assured that there will be no unexpected surprises. The final expenses are almost always within $50 to $100 of the GFE in which case we either refund any funds that are due to your group or invoice you for any additional amount due at the end of the trip.
4. Sending your team funds to the field - In order to make sure that you have funds in the local currency for your team project and to pay your team expenses along the way, CALMS wires funds to a special account in each country. Most of your trip expenses are paid by a CALMS' representative in the specific Central American country where you are assigned. Exchange rates are determined at the time they are wired to our account. You will be told by CALMS at what point you need to send us your funds. Except for the "hold-the-date" amount, you will be asked to send your funds about six weeks to a month prior to your departure date. Note: Those constructing a house for example will need to send additional funds to cover the cost of materials. These funds are generally needed around six weeks before your departure so that the construction process can begin on time.
5. Before you go to the field - CALMS' logistics coordinator, Dawn Timm, will contact you regarding health issues, food allergies, rooming lists and other logistics. You will also be asked to send us a notarized form releasing CALMS from liability. We take every precaution to make your trip as safe as possible, but there are some risks with short-term trips. We take your health and safety very seriously, so we also provide mandatory trip insurance which covers emergency care and even air evacuation in the case of serious illness or accident. This insurance is very reasonable and a blessing in case it is ever needed. CALMS also provides telephones in some countries to assure that you can receive emergency calls and make calls as necessary. In every case, we provide emergency numbers so that a family member can reach you if necessary. CALMS shares these numbers with team leaders so that this information can be passed along to team members and their families.
6. Training - CALMS provides some excellent resources to each team leader to help him/her get her team ready to serve effectively. We encourage new leaders to participate as a team member with an experienced leader prior to leading their own team. This has proven to be the very best way to prepare and to understand a new culture. CALMS executive director and other trained leaders also facilitate regular "learning events" for those interested in leading a future team. These are held several times in the spring and fall. The purpose of these trips is to expose future leaders to a Central American culture, share important information about the church and its leaders, do hands-on cultural analysis, learn how to communicate the Gospel in a cross-cultural setting, and to understand the logistics involved for a specific project and what is involved to get from one place to another. CALMS also provides regular orientation and training for team leaders through webinars and conference calls. Where practical, we also are available to help prepare teams through face-to-face workshops.
7. In the country where you will serve - In each country, a CALMS short-term team coordinator will take care of making your hotel reservations, coordinating with CALMS' partners, obtaining translators, local transportation and other details. This coordinator will stay with you during your entire visit-assuring that your experience is a positive one. Also, in each country where we work, CALMS works hard to insure that you develop close relationships with Central American workers, lay members and those with whom you are serving. We emphasize not only the importance of doing strategic work, but developing lasting relationships. You can also expect a helpful on-site orientation with your CALMS' logistics coordinator and other local partners.
8. Time-frame for your trip - Most teams serve for six or seven days with one or two days of tourism-usually at the end of their time of service. In most countries we have a number of good tours that we suggest, and we have reliable tour guides who can help us plan special tours for your whole group or for individuals who may wish to do some additional tourism after their service. Please discuss your tour interest with us prior to departure since travel costs can be affected by unplanned, on-the-spot decisions. Also, we want to make sure you have insurance coverage for your entire trip.
9. Upon return - CALMS likes to learn from each short-term experience in order to improve our short-term trips and assure that groups continue to go to Central America in partnership with us. To help us evaluate, we contact each team leader shortly after his/her return to discuss what went well, what needs improvement, etc. We also evaluate with our Central American partners and on-field coordinators.
10. What next? - Since we really care about God's mission everywhere, we also want to help short-term teams continue to make a difference after they return to the United States. We are ready to provide on-going consultation and advice to mission-involved congregations in the United States to help you connect to Central American and other ethnic groups living in your community in the USA.
