--Share your comments and resources on our MCA Facebook page 
--Send us your ideas and resources for future MC Updates
--Forward to your colleagues and networks
MCAresources@gmail.com
 

---

Featured Resources
Supporting Chinese Workers
Member Care for and from all Peoples

"Overseas Chinese are people of ethnic Chinese birth who reside outside the territories of the People's Republic of China (PRC), its special administrative regions (SARs) of Hong Kong and Macau, as well as the Republic of China (ROC or Taiwan)….There are over 50 million overseas Chinese. Most of them are living in Southeast Asia where they make up a majority of the population of Singapore (75%) and significant minority populations in Malaysia (23%), Thailand (14%) and Brunei (10%).” Overseas Chinese. Wikipedia. The population of PRC is 1.4 billion and the population of ROC is 23.5 million.

See also the statistics for people groups in China from the Joshua Project

----------    

Greetings from Dr. Weihong Cai
Member Care for Chinese Mission Workers

Dear colleagues in member care and mission,
 
Greetings to you in Jesus’ name! I am delighted to see the focus in this Update on supporting Chinese mission workers!
 
My name is Weihong Cai and I am from China. I am trained and work as a family therapist. About 30 years ago, I received Jesus as my Lord through the ministry of Western mission workers. Many years later I saw some of them encountering serious issues, such as broken marital relationships, burn-out, and parenting struggles. I felt sad and confused. I did not understand why these pains were happening to those who were so godly and willing to sacrifice so much to bring the Gospel to the Chinese. This experience influenced my desire to study more and consider how best to support mission personnel.

When I started my doctoral study at Biola, my initial research topic was to explore what factors impacted Western mission workers experiencing member care. However, my Chair, Dr. Leanne Dzubinski, an experienced professor and a former cross-cultural mission worker, suggested something different. She encouraged me to study Chinese cross-culture mission workers’’ perceptions of member care because after reading my literature review it was apparent that rarely have Chinese scholars studied this topic and from a missionary’s perspective.  I am honored to share some of my findings with you and other readers who are interested in helping Chinese churches, agencies, and mission workers.  You can preview my dissertation HERE.
 
Chinese cross-culture mission is at a crucial stage of development. In the process of Sino-international cooperation, sending groups--both church-to-agency and agency to agency--need to have good discernment and maturity to choose mission partners thoughtfully. It continues to be very important to evaluate carefully before making important decisions and getting involved. There are more detailed recommendations in the summary of my dissertation addressed to church leaders, mission workers, and agency leaders (available in Chinese and English HERE). I have also shared a model (meta-framework) to help guide the further development of Chinese mission and member care efforts. May we send wisely and provide member care effectively!
 
You can read the rest of Dr. Cai’s introduction towards the end of this Update.

----------
来自蔡卫红博士的问候
中国宣教工人的会员关怀
 

尊敬的宣教士关怀和宣教的同工们，
 
在基督里问候大家！
我很高兴能够在本站更新的网页上增加了关于支持中国宣教士的内容。 

我叫蔡卫红，是来自中国的一名婚姻家庭治疗师。大约30年前，宣教士将福音带给我。许多年后，我看到他们中的一些人遇到了严重的问题，例如婚姻关系破裂、心力憔悴和养育子女的问题。我为此感到难过、困惑，不明白为什么这些痛苦会发生在那些如此敬虔，愿意为了福音的缘故献上自己的宣教士身上。这一经历对我后来专注于学习和研究如何有效地改善宣教士的生活质量产生了很大影响。
 
我在拜欧拉读博士的时候，最初的研究课题是探讨哪些因素影响了西方宣教士对关怀的感知。然而我的导师，作为经验丰富的教授和前跨文化宣教士Leanne Dzubinski博士提出了不同的建议。她鼓励我去研究中国跨文化宣教士对宣教士关怀的认识，因为看了我的文献综述后，发现很少有中国学者从宣教士的角度来研究这个主题。我很荣幸可以与对中国教会、宣教机构和宣教士感兴趣的读者们分享我的一些研究发现，这是我论文的预览 链接.
 
中国的跨文化宣教正处在至关重要的发展阶段。在中外合作的过程中，无论这种合作是教会与机构之间，还是机构与机构之间，都需要有良好的洞察力和成熟的眼光来慎重选择合作伙伴。在做出重要决定和介入之前全面评估是必要的一步。在论文的总结部分我提出一些比较详细的建议，供教会领袖、宣教工作者和机构领导们参考 (附中英文内容链接)。我在那里也分享了一个模型(后设架构)，帮助指导中国宣教的进一步发展以及在宣教士关怀方面做出的努力，愿我们能更有智慧地差派，更有效地为宣教士关怀服务。
 
在更新部分的最后您可以阅读蔡博士其余的介绍内容

---

Image courtesy and © 2016 ENOD

Resources

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD.
And all the families of the nations will worship before You.
Psalm 22:27

Member Care Websites
1. China-Asia Member Care Projects (CHAMP)
Running to Win:
Resources for Chinese Workers
为得胜而奔
华夏同工资源文集

Note: many of the resources on this website are translations from articles in Doing Member Care Well (2002). There are also five case studies-personal stories by Chinese workers (written in in Chinese and English as well as audio versions in Chinese). The Pastoral Introduction, like all the materials, is in Chinese and English. The audio version is in Chinese HERE.
-----

2. Chinese Cross-Cultural Workers
An online resource toolbox to support the well-being of Chinese Cross-Cultural Workers worldwide.
English -- 简体 -- 繁體
本网站期盼能为全球跨文化华人工人身心灵健康提供一个线上”肢体关怀”资源平台
 -----

3. ChinaSource
A window into Christianity in China and the key issues that impact the church.
--Nine Best Practices for Chinese Sending Organizations
--Church-Based Models for Chinese Sending Organizations
--See also the blog series: Missions from China: A Maturing Movement
 -----

4. Center for Counseling and Growth--Asia
Serving mission workers and pastors.
以下文章均是中文，我們希望能對你有所幫助。英文原文則是由 Cross Cultural Workers 所提供。我們非常感謝, 的寶貴資源能夠讓我們使用和翻譯成中文的翻譯者。

焦慮-Anxiety, 賄賂-Bribes, 倦怠-Burnout, 同情疲勞-Compassion-Fatigue,
衝突-Conflict, 諮商-Counseling, 憂鬱-Depression…

"The above articles in Traditional Chinese are translated from the English version provided generously by Cross Cultural Workers. The original English versions are on the website."
------

5. China Member Care
A listing of core member care sites and other resources focusing on member care for Chinese-speaking workers. In progress.

6. Multicultural Mental Health Resource Center, Canada
--Chinese (Simplified)
--Chinese (Traditional)

---

Dissertation--Abstract
Chinese Mission Experiences: A Step Towards A Contextualized Member Care  Model
Weihong Cai (March 2020). Based on interviews with 25 Chinese mission workers

"随着中国教会和宣教士跨文化宣教活动的日益活跃和深入，中国宣教士的精神健康、心理 健康、身体健康和人际关系健康越来越受到重视。本研究的目的在于瞭解中国宣教人员 对会员关怀的需求。本研究从系统的角度探讨中国宣教士对会员关怀的需求。25名参与者 接受了采访。采用扎根理论方法，分初始编码、聚焦编码和理论编码三个步骤对数据进行 分析。从这项研究中得出的核心发现是：中国宣教士在四个相互作用的生态系统中的经历 揭示了发展中国宣教士关怀模式的必要性。这四个系统分别是：（1）生态系统，它由时 间系统构成，是指中国宣教所处的发展阶段; （2）宏观体系，即中国文化; （3）外系统 ，即宣教士工作的跨文化环境; 最后是中系统，也就是宣教士，派遣教会，和宣教机构之间的相互作用。这四个系统在一个相互影响的过程中相互作用，从他们的相互作用能看到发展处中国宣教士关怀模式的必要性，从而使中国宣教和宣教士能够健康和发展。本研究 通过后设架构图来检查不同系统之间的相互作用是如何影响参与者对会员关怀的需求的理 解。这一模式有助于教会、宣教机构和宣教士了解他们之间的互动以及他们与环境的互动如何影响中国跨文化宣教士对成员关怀的 知。本研究也为有兴趣发展适合中国宣教士关怀模式的学者提出了新的角度."

"With the growing enthusiasm and involvement of Chinese churches and missionaries for cross-cultural missions, more and more attention has been paid to the Chinese cross-cultural missionaries’ spiritual, psychological, physical, and relational wellness. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to understand and explain Chinese missionaries’ member care needs. This study explored Chinese missionaries’ member care needs from a systems perspective. Twenty-five participants were interviewed. Grounded theory methods were used to analyze the data using three steps of coding: initial coding, focused coding, and theoretical coding. The central understanding to emerge from this study is that Chinese missionaries’ experiences in four interacting ecological systems revealed the need for a Chinese model of member care. The ecological system is composed of the chronosystem, meaning the current developmental stage of Chinese mission; the macrosystem, meaning Chinese culture from which missionaries originate; the exosystem, meaning the cross-cultural setting in which missionaries work; and finally, the mesosystem, meaning the interactions between missionaries, sending churches, and mission agencies. All four layers of the environment interact in a mutually influential process and result in a need for a Chinese model of member care to enable Chinese missionaries to flourish. A meta-framework was introduced to examine how the interactions between various systems impact the participants’ understanding of member care needs. This model is useful in helping churches, mission agencies, and missionaries to understand how the interactions between them and their interaction with the environment impact the Chinese cross-cultural missionary’s perception of member care. This study also makes unique contributions to the scholars who are interested in developing the appropriate member care models for Chinese missionaries."

Note: You can read a six-page summary of the dissertation with recommendations and a diagram of the member care model HERE (in Chinese and English, China Member Care website) and access a preview of the entire dissertation HERE.
 

---

---

More Perspectives from Dr. Weihong Cai

In the past year, I have been looking for online resources to find out what kind of member care resources are available to churches and mission in China (because many Chinese mission workers can't access Google). In the process, I found that most resources in the Chinese language are relatively simple. As for the self-help methods provided, the mission workers would need additional knowledge and abilities to effectively use these resources. Most of the Chinese mission workers do not have enough basic knowledge to meet the needs based on what I've found through the interviews. Therefore, I spend most of my time designing courses related to mission care, some for pastors, some for agency leaders, and most of the courses for are mission workers.  The reason for doing so is based on the understanding of the special Chinese mission developmental stage and characteristics of mission workers, as well as the structure and theology of the Chinese churches.
  
This is the third wave of Chinese Cross Culture Evangelical Mission. I truly hope what we do today will bridge the Western resources and the needs of Chinese mission workers to improve their life and ministry in their mission fields. I hope all these contributions may direct Chinese mission workers to the river of relevant resources, where they can take what they need and integrate it with their own culture for the development of their work.
 
For the peoples of our world and for our Lord’s glory,
Weihong Cai
----------

蔡卫红博士的更多观点与展望
 

在过去的一年里，我一直在寻找可以方便中国教会和宣教士浏览的有关宣教士关怀的网络资源(因为很多中国宣教士无法访问谷歌)。在这个过程中，我发现大部分的中文资源都比较简单。至于所提供的自助方法，宣教士需要有一定的知识和能力才会有效地得到切实的帮助。在采访中，我意识到大部分中国宣教士缺乏一些基本的满足他们工作和生活需要的知识。因此，我花了大量的时间来设计有关宣教士关怀的课程，一些课程是为牧者设计的，一些是为机构领导设计的，而大部分是为宣教士设计的。之所以这样做，是基于对中国宣教发展的特殊阶段和宣教士特点的认识，以及对中国教会结构和神学认知的了解。
 
目前中国跨文化宣教正处在第三个时代。我真心希望我们今天所做的，能够把西方的资源和中国宣教工作者的需要连接起来，改善他们在宣教领域的生活和事工。同时也希望通过这些努力，能够引导中国跨文化宣教人员到资源的河流中汲取相关的信息，并结合自身的文化，促进宣教工作的发展。
 
愿我们的神大得荣耀，愿他的工人满得平安！
蔡卫红

---

---

Going Further--Into the Future
Global Member Care (Volume 3)
Stories and  Strategies--All Peoples
To be developed with several co-editors
Ideas welcome: MCAresourcs@gmail.com

Concept Note--Proposal (excerpts)
Book three in the Global Member Care series, Stories and Strategies--All Peoples, is part of an ongoing effort to shape and support the field of member care. It is designed to further equip the diversity of people around the world who have member care responsibility, including leaders, colleagues, friends, professional caregivers, trainers, and sending groups.

Why is this book necessary? The unique contribution of All Peoples is ethnê to ethnê member care— member care for/from all peoples (E2MC). Most of the material fits into two broad areas: a) case studies, personal stories, and ministry descriptions about member care for workers among/from the less reached people groups (LPGs); b) examples of mission/aid and other efforts to help vulnerable humans in LPG regions. What are some of the resources/practices and challenges/problems that affect “ethne to ethne” member care? The book will include previously written materials as well as new material that can help us listen to and learn from “our global voices.”

Kelly and Michèle O'Donnell

---

---

Covid Care
Reflections and Resources
Don't fear. Trust God. Do good.

Image courtesy and ©2021 JMLOD

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 NIV

Covid care: 
Promoting and maintaining resilience and wellbeing for all persons and peoples
(ranging from informal services to formal policies, local through global)
during the multi-faceted challenges of COVID-19 and beyond.
---------

---

Member Care Associates
MCAresources@gmail.com

----------
 

----------