MODULE 3 - Section 3
Orientation & Debriefs
10 Minutes to complete section and related assignments
In this section you will learn:
The important elements of STT orientation
The value of debriefing
How to lead daily debriefs
How to lead a final debrief
Orientation
Orientation is a crucial time to share both information and perspectives regarding the people, places, and work within your community and ministry. This pivotal space frames the posture we want the team to embrace while they are in the community and coming alongside the vulnerable, while giving them additional understanding and information to help them do so.
To varying degrees, team members can be prepared prior to arrival (i.e. the STT Community Guide you will have created specific to your community). However, this does not negate the necessity of orienting team members once they have arrived at your location. You will want to reiterate certain critical aspects again. In addition and just as importantly, this is a fantastic opportunity to welcome the team to the community, help them feel like a part of what is happening, and to help set them up for success as they work alongside you.
Orientation should happen within the first 24 hours of the team's arrival. This is a time driven by you, the host-coordinator, to encourage team members to see and understand your country/state, community, ministry, staff members, and the work God is doing. You will also inform them of important boundaries (culturally, rules, etc.) to be mindful of during their visit.
Key Topics to Include in Orientation:
Orientation to One Collective
Ministry orientation
Country/Community info
Cultural insight
Brief overview of schedule
Basic language phrases
Rules and logistical details
Safety and security
Medical and health
Tips
This may be the first time team members meet you. They will be looking to you for leadership, but, being in an unfamiliar environment, they will also need the assurance that “you’ve got them.”
This is a great time to lean into the role of a healthy STT coordinator. Be confident, welcoming and, when applicable, firm, about various rules, etiquette, boundaries and the importance of showing up with a listening, flexible posture. The team needs your guidance so lean into that space.
You’re encouraged to welcome a trusted local person to play a small role in orientation if they understand how to interact with teams. Their presence will immediately grab the team’s attention and begin getting the team interacting with the community.
Keep Orientation to about 90 minutes from start to finish - enough time to cover everything, but not so much that you lose people’s attention.
Set expectations for the time (focus, no cell phones, engaged, learning posture) and let the team know what they can expect from the orientation.
And be sure to lean into the role of Storyteller. This is your time to shine!
The role of debriefs
Often, when team members arrive home, they are faced with the reality that their life looks very different from the life they just experienced while in the community. Many times, they do not know how to integrate the two realities. Debriefing helps team members consider their inner contemplation through outward conversation. In doing so, not only do they experience healthy integration, they also experience more of God working in their life, as well as the life of the community.
In turn, we hope they will also have a greater perspective of and compassion for the vulnerable. Lastly, a debrief encourages team members to put their experience into action and continue taking steps to be prayers, givers and goers alongside the community.
In the process of debriefing you create space for team members to expand their ability to see, connect with and experience Jesus and the vulnerable in new and life-changing ways. What a powerful way you get to come alongside the team!
Daily Debriefs
The daily debrief is a time set aside each day for the team to process and digest what they saw, heard, and felt.
This time is also important for your own reflection. They will see and imitate how you process as they absorb your insightful perspectives of the community from your experience/training. This time is crucial to paying attention to where God has been/is moving and to help the team see into the deeper layers of the community they wouldn’t be able to see on their own (i.e. Storyteller).
It is a powerful time to build relationships and forge chemistry with the team while the team does so amongst themselves. Inviting locals, if appropriate, to the debrief can occasionally be beneficial for all involved.
Before debrief, connect with the team leader to get a sense of how the team is doing. Are they tired? Struggling with something they experienced or saw? Feeling energized after seeing God move? This will help you know how you can best tailor the time that day.
It is expected that you, the host-coordinator, lead the daily debrief. If you do not have that capacity, talk to the team leader and empower them to lead it. Regardless of who leads it, a daily debrief time is required.
Sample Debrief Activities
High/Low: What were the high points and what were the low points of your day?
One Word: If you could sum up your experience for the day/so far in a single word, what would it be? Have each person go around and just say their word. Offer the opportunity for others to expand on their chosen word if they would like.
Thumbs: Have everyone put out their thumb (at the same time… no cheating) to express how they are feeling anywhere on a scale of thumb all the way down to thumb all the way up, then go around and explain why.
2 Minutes: Have the team partner up. The first person will spend two minutes talking about the day, their experiences, thoughts, and feelings, while the second partner listens without interrupting. Then the second person takes 30 seconds and repeats what they just heard. After that, the partners switch roles.
Art (Praying in Color): Put a bunch of markers, colored pencils, crayons, etc. in the middle of the circle and give each person a sheet of blank paper to process through art, words, or whatever comes out. You can also facilitate this with Scripture verses (John 15, for example).
Journal: Take time to process through individual writing. Whether or not you choose to do this as your formal debrief assignment, encourage your team members to journal every day or during any free time, on the bus, before bed, etc.
Encouragement Staff: People pass a staff (or other handy object) to another team member and express their encouragement/appreciation/ways they’ve seen God moving in and through that person.
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Set aside a specific time each day for team to debrief their experiences.
Incorporate 5 important elements.
Prayer
Allow team members to ‘check in’ somehow
See activity list for ideas
Take time to notice where God is moving
Engage questions/challenges/observations
Notice any celebrations and share encouragement
Encourage vulnerability and growth.
Between you and team leader, decide who will lead debrief.
If you are leading the debrief, conference with team leader each day before debriefing in order to tell them what you will be doing, address any concerns, and ask if they want anything mentioned
Set ground rules for the daily debrief on the first day.
Encourage, but do not force each team member’s participation
Vary participation (ie: round robin, popcorn, partnering, etc.)
Create a safe place for debrief.
Consider using a ‘talking piece.’ Only those who are holding the piece get to talk.
Expect the possibility of the irrational. People are processing a lot and things are being stirred. Try not to be shocked or surprised.
Affirm vulnerability/honesty.
Don’t be afraid of silence. Allow for silence and wait longer than you think you should. This is often when people begin to speak up.
Pray to close, then give an overview of the next day’s schedule and let the team know how to prepare.
Final Debrief
The purpose of the final debrief is to help the team notice how God has moved throughout their visit and within lives and to integrate what they have experienced as they return home.
This pivotal space is not only important for the team to process, it’s also the opportunity to feed into your relationship with them one more time, to say ‘thank you and good bye,’ and include opportunities to stay engaged in the community.
You will have access to the STT Handbook that will not only provide for you a Final Debrief to lead the team through, but also a Next Steps tool that will help you provide those opportunities for team members to consider (please inquire of the STT Dept for more on these resources).
When creating your schedule, be sure to build in 2-3 hours within the last 24 hours of the schedule to engage the final debrief as it is critical that teams do their final debrief while still in-community and have a space to process without interruption (both internal and external).
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Inevitably team members will return home and share their stories of their time in-community. This normal, exciting and should be encouraged. We want others to hear how God is moving across the globe and the remaining need for others to get involved in coming alongside the vulnerable.
Remind the team the importance of telling stories that bring dignity to the people of the community. The needs and challenges of the community should not be the sole focus of their stories.
Rather, the assets and resources of the community and its people should be equally highlighted, if not more so. After all, people are not simply their circumstances. They have God-given worth, value and abilities. Let’s be sure teams represent that as they head home.
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Every team member will be bringing a variety of emotions home with them, especially first-timers. Team members may be experiencing confusion around the level of inequality they are now aware of. Others may feel sad to leave their new friends or even angry at the injustice they see. Some may have questions around how to do healthy development work all the way to why does God allow these things to what difference can I make?
Remember what it was like the first time your eyes were opened. Let team members know these emotions are normal and are healthy to work through. Offer any info you can to help with this, while answering questions as able.
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A short-term team member can feel like a bubble experience - something that is real, yet so different from what is normal they don’t know how to process it. One of the hardest parts for a short-term team member is taking something that happened ‘over there' and making it real in their lives as they return home.
You have been through these same experiences yourself. Offer some ways - both internal and practical - for them to make this time in your community more of a part of their lives moving forward.
Next Step Opportunities - While the team is there, their passion is stoked, and their eyes open, there is no better time to invite the team to take some practical next steps in staying connecting with your community.
While the Short-Term Teams Dept will be sending a follow-up email after the team returns with community-specific opportunities, now is your time to make the needs of the community known. That may be prayer, signing up for your newsletter, giving need for a project, an invite to explore needed internship, mid or long-term roles in your community and so on. You never know who may be ready to take that next step. All they need is the invitation.
Here are a few things the team should discuss during their final debrief.
