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tranSend
Explore God’s calling in your life through structured opportunities for service and discipleship
Overview:
tranSend is a one- to two-year missions placement designed to help you discern your spiritual giftings and give you the opportunity to put them into practice. tranSend functions more like an internship or apprenticeship compared to our longer-term transForm program, and gives you a chance to explore your calling and learn from established ministry mentors while you consider your own future steps in joining God’s mission to the world.
tranSend has two major components:
- guided discipleship cohort – join with other tranSend participants in a collaborative training led by a discipleship coach. This element focuses on your own spiritual formation and builds your philosophy of ministry, drawing from a wealth of Christian teaching and discipleship practices from throughout the global church.
- mentored ministry assignment – this is your “field work”, where we place you with a seasoned ministry or mission worker in an established setting. Here you’ll have a chance to learn firsthand the practical work of ministry and experience the unique dynamics of your own placement as you discern your own calling ahead. Throughout your time in the program you’ll have regular coaching sessions with your discipleship coach to reflect on your experience and apply your training.
Other features of tranSend:
- Customized placements: we work with you to design a placement with one of our partners that matches your gifts and goals. These may be with “traditional” cross-cultural placements in missions and service, or with other creative missional projects in the USA and beyond. Let us know what you’re interested in and we’ll help you find a good fit.
- Paid employment: tranSend is a paid ministry internship funded partially through fundraising on your part and partially through grants available from VMMissions. We will work with you to develop a budget based on your financial needs and the context of your assignment.
- Financial aid: thanks to generous donors who are passionate about ministry formation, VMMissions is able to offer ministry grants toward your financial target during your assignment.
- Fundraising support: we have experienced staff to support you in managing your fundraising outreach and overall strategy.
Want to learn more? Feel free to contact us with any questions you have and we’ll be happy to discuss them with you.
If you’re interested in applying for the next cohort, use the button below to fill out an application before April 30:
Where will I be working?
Discipleship begins with imitation. We place you with an experienced field worker to walk alongside you. He or she will provide encouragement, accountability and insight for your journey.
Our placements also focus on being rooted and connected in a particular space. Relating to the local community and other mission workers allows for discernment as God’s call becomes clear.
VMMissions will work with a global network of trusted partners to place you into a role and location that fits the needs of the local community, your giftings in ministry, and your calling to a particular region of the world. After your application is submitted, our Discipleship Ministries Coach will walk with you to determine the right fit. Below is a listing of our current tranSend openings.
Current opportunities
Serve as a teacher’s assistant for the Joshua Center preschool, working with the Roma population of Lezhë, Albania. Work with Joshua Center director Norma Teles and other preschool teachers to educate and share the good news of Jesus with children.
Learn about international businesses that transform communities through an assignment with long-term workers that involves incarnational living, language learning, and sharing good news in the context of businesses designed to meet local needs with God-honoring work and just compensation.
Empower a long-term pioneer mission worker family through child care and home help as needed while participating in the life of the Emmaus Gemeinschaft missional community, and build relationships through service at a Christian café.
Serve as a discipleship intern at Nazareth Village and/or Nazareth Hospital, and encounter the cultures and peoples of the land as well as travelers from around the world as you share the love and good news of Jesus.
Serve with Peacebuilders Community, Inc., in a combination of office-based assignments in Davao City, Mindanao, and field work in local communities throughout the Philippines. Explore a process of spiritual formation and discipleship while engaged in peace building work in a team setting.
Join a team living and working in a major Southeast Asian city's slum where skills such as nursing, teaching, and/or social work are an asset. Serve alongside VMMissions workers, study language and culture, live with a host family, and experience the radical incarnational life of this ministry.
Dive into an immersion experience in a Muslim context with home stays, language study and mission mentoring among Muslim-background believers in Jesus. Join a team with current VMMissions workers as an intern prepared to listen, learn and minister in this context.
Join a team with current VMMissions workers and use your media and technology skills as an intern prepared to learn and serve as you enhance the outreach ministry to Muslim-background persons and connect with new believers as you study language and culture.
Do you have a heart for the unreached? Do you long to connect with what God is doing on the frontiers of the Kingdom? Join long-term workers in northeastern Thailand in the rhythms of cross-cultural pioneer church-planting among one of the most unreached people groups in Southeast Asia.
Serve as an intern with the Abide Project of Church of the Lamb, which is establishing welcoming places for their neighbors: a parish, gardens, and an abbey that unites faith with work and vocation and provides a place for spiritual formation and healing.
Disciple young people in faith at camp while serving in a beautiful outdoor setting at Highland Retreat! This assignment works with the camp director and staff to oversee the operations of Highland Retreat as it engages in faith formation for children and youth.
Participate in the life of the Huntington Mennonite Church congregation, receive weekly mentoring, explore and share gifts of music, teaching, leadership roles, media presence, and more. Based on interests, HMC will connect an intern to work with one or more partner agencies in the area.
In this one-year assignment, stay in your current job or start a new one while receiving training and biweekly connection with a tranSend cohort, learning about how to share good news in workplace contexts and approach any job with a kingdom perspective.
Minister to college students through worship gatherings, Bible studies, one-on-one meetings, and in other ways at colleges in the Shenandoah Valley: Eastern Mennonite University, James Madison University, Bridgewater College, or Mary Baldwin University.
How the Process Works
- Applicant dialogue/questions to tranSend director and staff
- Application completed
- References sent to pastor and three other persons
- Interview by director
- Director contacts national or local partner regarding placement
- Applicant profile presented to VMMissions leadership for approval
- Ministry Support Team formation (with MST Coach guidance); no funds requested until appointment
- Documents completed for work permit, visa and residency as needed for country of service
- Orientation, VMMissions retreat and training cohort launch
- Commissioning service and sending
Annual application deadline: April 30
For more information, contact:
Martin Rhodes, Discipleship Ministries Coach
(540) 434-9727 ext 307
Do you have a ministry that would like to partner with you for a tranSend placement? Contact us and let’s explore your options.