Note: This information can be downloaded in pdf format: Personal Preparation.pdf 

Building good team relations

Regardless of how mature the team is, personal differences will undoubtedly surface and cause stress when trying to enter into strategic work as a prayer team. Spend time as a team talking and praying together and fellowshipping around meal times and other special occasions. Be prepared to spend this time together and individually with each other praying and talking through any issues as they arise.

Share experiences and comment on both the good and bad aspects of each and how they affected you. It’s important to build a good spirit of friendship and camaraderie and mission purpose in the team, so dedicate yourself to always do this regardless of the difficulties.  It is also a good idea to share specific team responsibilities as this will promote team ownership and help build unity. It’s important to encourage and protect team co-operation with team leaders and to actively seek team harmony.

Because conflict is inevitable even among the best teams, it’s important to resolve conflict from a biblical perspective (Matt 18: 15-17) and where appropriate let the team discuss the different ways they will approach interpersonal conflict.  Encourage each other to work towards a biblical and loving resolution quickly and to be reconciled regardless of the conflict or hard feelings experienced. This is key to maintaining good team harmony and powerful intercession.

Pre-departure preparation

• Pre-reading: strategic prayer journey research information and prayer strategy along with list of information and questions.
• Prayer: encourage people to start specific prayer and seeking God now for what He wants to do in and through each person in the entire process.
• Exercise: encourage each person to walk daily if possible to be in physical shape for the Prayer Journey.
• Support: arrange to have personal prayer support in place.
• Plan to prayer walk: take time if you have never done a focused prayer walk, to now commit to doing a 90 minute prayer walk in your town or nearby city at least once before departure. 

Being spiritually prepared for the pending Prayer Journey is vitally important, and could be more important than knowing how to pack, understanding other travel details, or speaking the local dialect. Praying together as a team is faith building and develops great team building relationships. Therefore spiritually begin the following in prayer:

• Focus on the target city
• Uphold all on the team
• Pray for the team leader or leaders
• Pray for yourself and ask God to grow your church in its life and mission.

Understand that there is a close relationship between worship and spiritual warfare and this is key for effective global mission. Therefore, familiarise yourself and the team with specific scriptures that deal with spiritual warfare. Read one or two appropriate books from the team recommended book list (if given) in order to grow and deepen understanding of strategic intercession, prayer walking and warfare over nations.

Cross-Cultural Orientation

Regardless of the time, two weeks or two years in another nation, a Prayer Journey expedition can and usually does go through a wide variety of cultural shocks and emotional stress. Things like cultural differences, climate extremes, food, difficulty with foreign currencies, unusual bathroom structures and sometimes inadequate facilities for hygiene and accommodation can, if not anticipated well before hand, cause much stress and anxiety. We must learn to handle the unfamiliar.

We must help each other on team not only survive this new cultural experience, but to learn to appreciate and absorb the best of the cultures encountered on the Prayer Journey.

Limiting stress

The key in handling potential stress is to be flexible and adaptable, ready for the unexpected regardless of how good the Prayer Journey has been planned. Things like transport not being on time or even available when needed can occur, or a whole day could be spent sorting out lost luggage or some visa or local government regulation the team was unaware of. It is vital not to allow distractions to shift you from the purpose and objective of this Prayer Journey. Remember that you can always pray no matter where you are or what you might be doing.
Always be ready to try some thing different or out of the ordinary as you will often encounter many unplanned for situations as you seek to serve the Lord on your Prayer Journey.

Practical suggestions in handling the cultural stresses encountered

• Consider journaling thoughts for later consideration
• Discuss your situation with the team leader or another mature member on the team; pray with someone on the issue, learn to apply faith and hope in the midst of the difficulty and seek to discover God’s best along with the team.

It is vitally important to understand something about where you will be conducting the Prayer Journey, as this will greatly assist you to acclimatize when you reach the target nation. You and your team will then thrive once you are in the host nation.

Security

In the 10/40 window nations, most authorities have the power to open and read personal papers.  Believers and expatriate Christian workers live under this reality daily. Be aware that your SMS or phone call and mail can be intercepted and might just give the authorities an excuse to use this against expatriate workers living and working there. In extreme cases they might choose to revoke their visas, expel or even imprison them. This is the constant threat that believers live under in nations in the 10/40 window. Therefore don’t do anything that could jeopardize their work or security and be very careful how you refer to those doing kingdom work in these nations. Don’t refer to them in Christian terms like church planter or missionary or pastor even if that is what they are. Be sensitive to each situation as different workers in the same city or nation may refer to themselves or their work in a variety of ways. Rules differ from place to place. So follow the security guidelines of your team leader and host nation personnel, as we don’t want to jeopardise their valuable work.

Onsite Journaling

Many find this a real help as they process through the different stages of the Prayer Journey recording their insights and prayers. If you choose to do this we suggest that you find time to do this daily.

Note things like:

• How has God led you to pray…maybe scriptures, songs, insight or specific words
• How is the team’s progress in the assignment
• The location or circumstances you prayed in
• Did you pray specifically for somebody?
• Your impressions (spiritual, emotional…) as you prayed
• Other items of importance, logistics, feelings, dreams etc….

Upon return

The team will meet a variety of reactions from family and friends to this trip. Some may even see it as a holiday and not fully understand the strategic nature of your on-site prayer experience.  Remember to answer the normal short questions in a polite way and keep it short. It’s often helpful to prepare several kinds of answers like, a 20-30 second synopsis, then a 2 or 3-minute overview or summary and a full report that might take 10 minutes. Take if from me, with over 15 years of leading Prayer Journey as well as other international travelling, that not everyone will care as much as you do about your Prayer Journey. Share with passion, creatively and vividly using simple straightforward language. Become good stewards of your shared experience and understand that things at home may be the same, but your perspective may have changed. Most experience some kind of emotional let down after this kind of prayer experience, so be prepared ahead of time and don’t panic should this happen. Talk in over with a trusted friend and have them pray for you.

Debriefing

At the end of each Prayer Journey the team will have a debriefing process facilitated by the team leader.  This is to help the team process personal and corporate experiences and pray together as a team before dispersing. Debriefing can be as short as half a day or as long as one to two full days depending on the specific local situation and nature of the Prayer Journey, and on the team and travelling requirements. Sometimes debriefing occurs outside the target nation due to local security restrictions.

The kinds of things that we seek to accomplish in this time are:

• To help each team member process what occurred.
• To work through any unresolved interpersonal or team issues.
• To spend time praying for each other. (Debriefing prayer time is not primarily about the host nation, it is for team members)
• To prepare individuals for re-entry back into their home culture.
• To learn how best to communicate what has happened.

Ps Ben F. Gray
CityHarvest International Senior minister.
Australian Prayer Network founder & apostolic oversight. 

Last updated: September 20th 2007