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What Is Pre-Field Training?
Pre-field training is a 4–6 week residential program designed for cross-cultural workers. It covers essential topics like:
- Language acquisition
- Culture shock
- Team dynamics
- Healthy transitions
- Stress management
- Grief and loss
- Cultural identity
- Conflict resolution
For families, there’s parallel training for children and teens that mirrors the adult curriculum, giving families a shared language for navigating hard topics together.
Want to Know more --> Read Pre-Field Preparation
Why Is It So Important?
It Invests in the Goers - Preparing to go overseas is overwhelming. Many are still working, raising support, selling belongings, finalizing paperwork, and soaking up time with loved ones—all while carrying the emotional weight of goodbyes. Pre-field training offers a pause. It’s a chance to step away from the chaos and be poured into by people who’ve walked this road. It says to Goers: You matter more than what you can do or how fast you can do it.
It invests in Families - Lauren Wells says it well in her bookRaising Up a Generation of Healthy TCKS - "It has been amazing to see the transformation of kids when they realize they too can have a toolbox of ways to learn culture and language when they move overseas. They feel a sense of purpose instead of feeling like they are just tagging along with their parents, and they have a foundational knowledge of the TCK life that they are entering into. Pre-field training is a great starting place for preventative care." (pg. 22)
It Covers What Discipleship May Miss - Cross-cultural ministry brings unique challenges. Even seasoned believers may never have learned how to grieve the loss of everything familiar or manage the stress of living in a foreign context. This work requires not just spiritual maturity, but practical resilience. A worker’s ability to navigate daily life overseas can make or break their incarnational witness.
It Normalizes the Struggles - Pre-field training helps Goers set realistic expectations for the emotional and psychological challenges they’ll face—especially in the first two years. Recognizing a struggle as normal and having tools to address it can be the difference between thriving and burning out.
It Helps Avoid Costly Mistakes - Consider the quote from a pre-field trainer “Everyone will make a million mistakes. We’re here to help you avoid the 10,000-point ones.” Cultural blunders are inevitable (and often make great stories), but major relational or ministry-damaging missteps can often be prevented with basic awareness and preparation.
It Benefits the Receiving Team - We recommend pre-field training as one of the final steps before launch. By then, Goers have likely moved out of their homes and said many goodbyes. Training gives space to grieve, reflect, and arrive on the field filled up—not depleted. It equips them with tools for culture, stress, and conflict—tools that will make the transition smoother for both the worker and existing team members.
In addition to ministry skills and strategy, cross-cultural ministry requires a high level of flexibility, interpersonal skills, and personal resilience. For someone to enter into this type of ministry environment without being equipped is irresponsible at best, but at worst can be extremely harmful to the worker and those close to him or her.
We have partnered with two great organizations that have decades of experience preparing workers to successfully make the transition to a foreign context. We require all our international workers to attend one of these trainings before launching, unless a ministry has arranged for its team to receive this training in another way.
For married couples or families with children, pre-field training will not only give you the tools you need as an individual but will equip your family with common words and language to talk about the often hard-to-articulate struggles of culture shock and life overseas. This is not just an investment in your ministry, it is an investment in the health and success of your family on the field.
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Based in North Carolina
Offers 4-week EQUIP cross-cultural training program
2-week option Language Acquisition Course
Nursery for 0-2; Age-appropriate cross-cultural curriculum for children ages 3-17.
Apartment-style housing (Some meals provided, but access to your own kitchen for meal prep)
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Based in Colorado
Offers 4-week COMPASS program that integrates cross-cultural training and language acquisition
Nursery for 6 weeks-1 year; Age-appropriates cross-cultural curriculum for children 2-17.
Dorm-style housing (All meals are provided in the cost)
A few of the Covered Topics include (Please see their websites above for more detailed descriptions and scheduling)
- Culture Shock
- Expectations
- Healthy Team Dynamics
- Stress Management
- Healthy Life Rhythms
- Tools for Cross-Cultural Study
- TCKs (Third Cultural Kids)
- Language Acquisition
Common Objections
We understand that there may be multiple reasons why you don't want to attend pre-field training. You are not the first! Here are some of the common reasons people want to opt-out. Please take some time to read through these if you have similar concerns.
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We understand that every dollar you have raised toward your ministry is important and that you want to be a good steward of the funds that both God and others have entrusted to you. We believe that investing your money into proper pre-field equipping will make your donordonors' s investment investments go further, by increasing your capacity and effectiveness in ministry and giving you the tools you need to personally thrive overseas. It can be especially expensive if you have a family, but your kids will highly benefit from the curriculum as they face their own challenges overseas. |
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We know you are excited to get to the field. We are excited for you too! Even if pre-field training means that you have to delay launching by a month or two, we believe it is the best use of your time. We have yet to hear from a long-term missionary that goer who regrets not getting to the field a little bit earlier. On the other hand, we have talked to multiple missionaries international workers who regret not launching in the right way. |
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Even if you have been on multiple mission trips or spent time overseas, we believe you will find value in attending pre-field training. One of the things we hear over and over is that it really "normalizes" the struggles that you face as a long-term missionary international worker and gives you the grace and tools to work through them. Additionally, there is a good chance that you don't know what you don't know. We ask you to humble yourself under the instruction of those who have gone before you. |
Training Partners
Reliant partners with two training facilities, which serve agencies and sending churches across the United States. It is the expectation that all international workers who are newly launching to the field for 1+ years attend one of these programs. Exceptions are considered when alternate training is provided, whether before launching or as part of an overseas training program.
| Center for Intercultural Studies | https://cit-online.org/ |
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*As a partnering organization, you will receive a 10% discount from website pricing | Based in North Carolina Offers 4-week EQUIP cross-cultural training program 2-week option Language Acquisition Course Nursery for 0-2; Age-appropriate cross-cultural curriculum for children ages 3-17. Apartment-style housing (Some meals provided, but access to your own kitchen for meal prep) Extended online learning and support are available once you are on the field |
| Missionary Training International | https://www.mti.org/ |
| Based in Colorado Offers 4-week COMPASS program that combines cross-cultural training and language acquisition Nursery for 6 weeks-1 year; Age-appropriate cross-cultural curriculum for children 2-17. Dorm-style housing (All meals are provided in the cost) |
