Americas Connect Information

Welcome to a recording of our April 2022 webinar with IMB leaders of Americas Connect. Americas Connect is a pre-packaged mission trip that appeals to those with no missions experience, and that almost anyone can go on.  

The video is below this abridged transcript of the Webinar. 

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Americas Connect Webinar Notes -- Find out how your church can be involved in deeper missions engagement in the Americas!  

Contact information to make inquries about Americas Connect is at the bottom of this page. You will also see links to IMB "Americas Connect" trip listings (this is not exhaustive) and an IMB Americas Connect promo video. 

Timestamp 0:00  Introduction:  The field wants to help Arkansas Baptists reach out in missions!  

Timestamp 1:40  Jeff Herrington – Costa Rica; This fits any church. Brief overview of Americas Connect:

  • Five weeks of online training before the trip. 
  • On the field, team members work with an IMB missionary and a local indigenous church.  Prayerwalking, sharing the gospel, possibly helping a new church do a survey, encouraging local church members to be intentional in taking the gospel to their area, and much more. 
  • On the field, team members are trained in the core missionary tasks. 

Timestamp 6:11 Tim Louderback – Panama;  Panamanians love Arkansas!   Probably 350 right now in Univ of Arkansas, because the Panamanian government will send students to UA Fayetteville for free! 

  • 'Every age can serve’  -- Example: A church called wanting to see their church increase of 10% to 20% of their membership having served internationally in the last five years. Strategically, let’s send our youth group. Strategically, let’s send families (husband/wife; mom/daughter; senior adults).  Any AGE! 
  • Americas Connect is a great next step that is close (to the USA). It is a little bit of culture shock, but not SE Asia culture shock.  You can send anyone down. They will make an impact and be impacted as they learn and do the missionary task. We are training each person from day 1.  And then we debrief that. 

Timestamp 10:00 Questions  (see more timestamps as you read through this)

 

  1. When do these trips happen?  (And costs) 
    Panama – All year round.  Fly in on Saturday-fly out next Saturday.  Cost $925 per person  – covers all in-country costs (lodging, transportation, ministry supplies, food, eating out, etc.)  except for souvenirs and PCR test for returning to the USA. 

Costa Rica – Hosts teams from February through beginning of December.  Trips in Costa Rica are Tuesday-Tuesday. (Explanation in video).  Cost $925 – covers all in-country expenses.  

(note: additional cost is mandatory travel insurance; background check system; passports) 

Brazil – same as above  $925 per person in-country costs. 

 

  1. Do teams wire money in or bring it in cash? The new IMB mission trip system, “Go Method”, allows for expenses to be paid up front before going on the trip.     

 

  1. 15:00  How do you match USA churches with ministry sites/local churches?  (see video – LOTS of great info here)
     
  2. 20:00  Is this a one-and-done trip?   Not exactly – it is designed to help folks understand and apply the missionary task.  We also help churches find where they will serve next.  Churches send new folks on following trips. Great impact on strengthen the core back home.   

There are churches that send different teams of people each year.  They often have partnerships somewhere, but new folks who might not want to go across the ocean can use Americas Connect as a person’s first step/first trip. 

 

  1. 24:50 – How much lead time before a team can come?   Some trips are customized for a church.  Some are online.  Four to six months out is best.  Online trips stay live until 8 weeks before the trip.    Pre-trip training takes 5 weeks.  
     
  2. 27:55 What countries are part of Americas Connect?  FOUR  - Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala.  Your church gets to decide.  
     
  3. 28:23  What is the optimal size of a team? 
     
    1. Panama – 6 to 10.  Can even do 20-25; or even 3 to 4, who can come down and go home and cast vision.  
    2. Costa Rica – 6 to 10 ideal team size. We have tried to limit our team sizes to 10.  Sometimes we have multiple churches on trips. 
    3. Brazil – any size – we can make it happen. 

 

  1. 31:25  More details on the pre-trip training.  (Some details given; it is online, simple, user friendly, video and text driven, place to take notes, set up team agenda, self-study then meet as a team; the field can interact with the team as well)

    34:07 – Jamie Naramore added that he can help an Arkansas team learn storying strategies.  

Questions?:

Tim Louderback – Panama  timlouderback@gmail.com

Jeff Herrington – Costa Rica  jherrington@imb.org

Jill Thompson – jthompson@imb.org

 

Or, call the ABSC Missions Team 501-376-4791 EXT 5137

 

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Video Link:  https://vimeo.com/702990764/4ced4b4153  (you can watch the video in one browser window and switch back and forth to the transcript to see the time stamps.)

 

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Americas Connect listings on IMB site - this is NOT exhaustive. You may also contact the missionaries above and deal directly with them.  But, check these out to get an idea:
 https://www.imb.org/opportunity-finder/?affinity_group=AG800&search=americas%20connect

 

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Americas Connect Video by IMB -- http://bit.ly/WhatisAmericasConnect

 

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