• Learning about both the theory and the practical side of missions.
• Learning the language – to become fluent in it. One of the reasons people are unreached is that they don’t understand English. It takes between ten months and two years of sustained, concentrated effort to learn a language well enough to be able to make disciples in that language.
• Learning the culture – “culture” is not just how you look or dress. Culture encompasses everything you do: how you think, how you react to things, how you learn, and most importantly, how you respond to the Gospel. It is immeasurably important to understand the people.
• Making good friends with the people and learning to love them as Jesus does.
• Learning to understand their religion so that you understand how to introduce them to Jesus.
• Sharing the Gospel once you are able.
• Learning how to start multiplying fellowships (Church Planting Movements / Disciple Making Movements).
• Learning how to lovingly make disciples of Jesus who in turn make other disciples.
• Learning more about what Jesus meant when he said, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me”.

Single people will stay together, as will each family or couple. You will start off with learning the language of the people. Never done this? No worries – you will have learned how to learn a language in The Nations Course.

Every week the team will get together to worship, pray for one another, and encourage one another.

As you progress in learning the language from the people, your WO Team Mentor will send you assignments to guide you in learning more about certain aspects of the culture. All the time you will be on the lookout for the best way to share the Gospel with the people. You will start loving the people.

Once you are sufficiently fluent in the language, you will start sharing the Gospel with the people in a culturally appropriate way. By the grace of God, we believe you will see people become born again children of God – perhaps the first ones ever for your area! And you will have played a part in making it happen!

While all this is going on, you will be reading more about missions, working through the syllabus on a variety of subjects such as Prayer, Anthropology, Language Learning, Spiritual Warfare, Bible Storytelling, Evangelism and Church Planting, and Disciple Making.

The Lord will be with you during the two years, guiding and encouraging you through the Holy Spirit.

• You must love Jesus and trust him. Be able to hear his voice, and be eager to obey him.
• You must love and respect people, even if they are unlovable.
• You must have a solid relationship with God and a good prayer life.
• If you are married, your relationship must be stable, and both of you must be in agreement about your involvement in missions.
• You must adhere to our Statement of Faith.
• You must have a clear calling to missions.
• You must be physically, emotionally, and spiritually in good health.
• You must be slow to judge and quick to forgive, and not be argumentative.
• You must be willing and eager to learn, flexible, and prepared to embrace new experiences.
• You must be prepared to persevere – with joy, even in the face of setbacks.
• You must be committed to stick it out for the entire duration of the two years.
• You must be ready to see God do miracles – including providing your financial support.
• In some places a degree may be required in order to get an entry visa for the country.
• It would be an advantage if you can ride a motorcycle.

Your first faith challenge will be to proactively go out looking for ministry partners who will support you financially. Trust God for the results.

Droves of World Outreach personnel have been faithfully supported by ministry partners for more than eighty years. You will also be. Ministry partners are people who are involved in your ministry from a distance – by committing to pray for you and/or committing to regularly send money towards your support. In this way they are full partners with you. You are responsible to report back to them all that you and the Lord are doing.

The funds you raise from your ministry partners will cover:

• Your flights to and from your home country.
• Other flights and travel you may need to do over the two years (depends upon which team you join).
• Course fees and accommodation for The Nations Course at the start of the two years.
• You will need to raise 100% of your financial needs for the two years, with a commitment from your ministry partners to send their pledged donations.
• There is a 10% levy to World Outreach on all funds raised. This is used to help cover our costs of supporting the team.

You must trust God that the above will be completed at least three months before the team leaves for the field. At that time, you will be required to have bought your flights, and have deposited the money for your return trip and The Nations Course costs with WO.

If you are interested in joining a team, count the cost with prayer and faith. Remember, the Lord is able and willing to provide for you. Once you have gone through the three to six-month application process, and have been approved by World Outreach, you will receive an endorsement letter that you can show to prospective Ministry Partners. We have found that it takes six to twelve months of intentional effort to raise the required support. So start early!

You could also consider reading Funding Your Ministry: An In-depth Guide for Successfully Raising Personal Support by Scott Morton or Funding the Family Business by Myles Wilson.

World Outreach will:

• Endorse your support-raising effort once you have completed the application process and been approved by the Applications Committee.
• Provide you with an experienced missionary to assist you and serve as your mentor while you raise support and prepare to go.
• Provide six weeks of intensive missionary training at the start of the two years.
• Open up the way for you by finding ways to get visas in the country of service, accommodation, etc.
• Provide accountability by being in regular contact through a designated WO leader. This leader will coach you and the team along the path of learning the language and culture, sharing the Gospel, and if the Lord permits, planting the first church!
• Guide you through a reading and study programme.
• Provide additional training to the team as necessary.

• To commit for the entire two-year faith journey.
• To apply to be accepted by World Outreach early on. This must be started ideally more than twelve months (but at the very least six months) before the team leaves for the field.
• To be willing to be guided in your preparation by a WO mentor. They will be there for you – they are godly people who have your best interests at heart.
• To raise your own support. (Your WO mentor will help show you how.)
• To form an integral part of a team that is passionate, healthy, collegial, and committed to a meaningful mission. As others on the team cover your back, you will cover theirs.

• Do I need to have completed Bible school?
  It would be ideal if you did, but it is not required for Alpha Team Members. If you wanted to stay on long-term, World Outreach requires the equivalent of one year Bible school as a minimum. There are many online or correspondence options.
• Is Alpha Mission Teams (AMT) a “year of your life” or an “outward bound” kind of programme for young people?
  It is preparation for effective life-long cross-cultural ministry among unreached people groups.
• Why two years? Why not just one year?
  To be able to make disciples among a totally unreached people, you have to be able to communicate with them. Most such groups do not understand English well enough to understand the Gospel. This means we have to learn their language. Experience has shown that it takes at least a year to reach sufficient fluency in a language. The team would need another year to start making disciples.
• Given the above, is two years enough?
  In most cases, no. But we hope that at least some of the AMT members will decide to remain with the people long-term.
• Why can’t World Outreach pay me a salary?
  WO personnel have always relied on the Lord’s provision through the generous gifts of donors. Not even the International Director receives a salary from the organization.
• What about my children and their schooling?
  This depends on the situation you are going into, your country of origin, the age of your children, and so on. There may be a suitable international school where you are going. Many missionaries elect to home school their children. WO can give advice on this.
• Why don’t you say exactly where the teams are going, instead of just “Africa” or “South East Asia?”
  Most unreached people groups are in places not well-disposed towards the Gospel. Jesus said, “I am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16, NET).
• I would like to focus on orphans or children’s ministry. Can I do this on an AMT?
  AMT’s focus is to reach entire families, including the children. If kids are your primary focus, AMT is not for you. World Outreach has some excellent children’s ministries where you could serve. To read more, click here.
• I am interested in relief and development efforts. Can I do this through AMT?
  Alpha Team members assist the poor and needy as they come across them, and will help with relief efforts if any need comes up in their area. However, if your primary interest lies in this area, you can get involved with one of many World Outreach humanitarian aid projects. To read more, click here.
• Do AMTs promote social justice?
  World Outreach cares deeply about issues such as poverty, sex trafficking, and hunger, and has significant projects that address those kinds of problems. Alpha Team members assist the poor and needy as they come across them, but the primary focus of these teams is spreading the Gospel. “The greatest social injustice in the world is that people don’t know Jesus” – Rev. David Clark, Steeple Church, Dundee