We provide and develop member care resources
to support mission personnel and their organisations.

We connect and contribute across sectors
to support the wellbeing of all people and the planet.

Featured Resources
Update September 2026
See archives HERE

Global Member Care Volume 3:
Stories and Strategies for Staying the Course
ChinaSource book review, June 2026

Special Bundle Offer from William Carey Publishing
30% reduction when you buy all three volumes!
More information and updates are on the book series website: Global MCA

Resources from MCA

Episode 24–July 2026:  Going and Growing Together Among All Peoples.
In this episode, #24, we conclude our two-year series of monthly podcasts focusing on our latest book, Global Member Care Volume 3: Stories and Strategies for Staying the Course. In this series we have interviewed authors and shared some of their presentations and those of the consulting editors as well as featured several of our own presentations and podcasts. It has been wonderful trekking and tracking with these committed colleagues from around the world, following Jesus Christ together into member care and mission. We weave together our thoughts with excerpts from the book’s Preface and Afterword. We share perspectives about member care, overview the Global Member Care book series, and presenta few heart felt yearnings to help shape and support member care practice now and into the future.  Audio HERE  (12 Minutes). Script HERE (three pages).

Global Integrity Day-9 June 2026 (GID). This year’s theme is Breaking the Bonds of Exploitation: Solidarity Against Corruption and Crime. How can we support the collaborative efforts between civil society and govenments to fight corruption and crime?  How can we  participate in these efforts to protect and restore people and the planet from exploitation? Kelly and Michele coordinate this special day and year-round effort, now in its seventh year. Overview of GID 2026 & other global initiatives here: Power point video (13 minutes) and audio (13 minutes). Power point slides/notes HERE.

See the GID website for more information about this year’s two spotlighted items: 1) webinar on 9 June: Leadership for Integrity Course in, in partnership with the Center for Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School and the Faith and Public Integrity Network. More information on the course is HERE. 2) Global Anti-Corruption Training Platform, curated by United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).  The platform is “an online learning hub designed to equip relevant stakeholders with the knowledge and tools to prevent and combat corruption.” 

Special MC and MH video and audio! Integrating Psychology, Culture, and the Church Community: Highlights from Global Member Care-Global Mental Health; Clinical Interventions: Cultural and Community Psychology Course; Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy (2 March 2026). Power point and handout. Video and audio. Note: primary focus was Global Member Care. (45 minutes)

Special MC video! Korean Member Care Counselors: Foundations and Directions for Good Practice Korean International Association of Member Care Counseling (16 January 2026). Sharing reflections, research, and resources related to the historical foundations and future directions for member care—to encourage & further equip the Korean community and global member care community. Access: video in English, video with Korean subtitles, power point (for review and resource links etc.). (1 hour)

Resilience: Lessons from the Global Geneva Trenches 
Special men’s gathering in the greater Geneva area (15 January 2026)
Handout with core notes-quotes organized via a resilience grid  (C2S2)
C2S2: Character strengths,  Coping strategies, Social connections, Spiritual core
–also add Staff Care program by organizations including organizational culture and management

Overview training article reflecting much of our work–and hearts! O’Donnell, K. & Lewis O’Donnell, M. Wellbeing for all people and the planet: Into the global fray as mental health professionals. Christian Psychology Around the World. Number 24, December 2025 (pp. 84-103). (pre-published version HERE with links in-text and in the reference section)

Member Care Updates
—February 2026 (Issue 202): Taking a Break (17 years)–Words of Encouragement
—January 2026 (issue 201): Celebrating and Indexing 200+ Issues

Global Integration Updates
December 2024 (Issue 102): Taking a Break (10 years)–Words of Encouragement
November 2024 (Issue 101): Celebrating and Indexing 101 Issues!
October 2024 (Issue 100): Being Global Integrators–Foundational Perspectives to Guide and Goad

New and ongoing–Our podcast series Staying the Course in Member Care and Mission features interviews with and materials from contributors to Global Member Care Volume 3 (GMC 3). 24 episodes (2024-2026. Examples are A Trio of Podcasts in which Kelly shares about his journey into the missio Dei,  exploring global integrity, global mental health, and global integration.
January 2026: A Psychologist’s Journey into Global Integrity (interview)
February 2026: Global Mental Health in the Missio Dei–Seven Foundations & Directions
March 2026: Global Integration–My Journey into the Missio Dei Frontiers

Recent Resources from Colleagues

New! Sexual Misconduct in Missions: Breaking the Silence. AFRIGO. (Volume 11, Issue 1. 2026).
“Sexual misconduct in missions may be physical, emotional, or spiritual. In Africa, where respect for spiritual authority is deeply ingrained, such misconduct may go unreported. Sexual misconduct is not rare, but mission organizations often respond with silence or spiritualize the issue, urging repentance without accountability. This culture of secrecy allows abuse to persist and victims to suffer in silence. In this issue, leaders from across the continent explore the topic in-depth, sharing practical steps and stories to assist missionaries and organizations in addressing misconduct from a biblical viewpoint.”

New! On Losing Humanitarian and Journalist Friends
“You’ve got to learn to take steel”
Edward Girardet (28 August 2026) Global Geneva magazine
“…Death, I would tell myself, is simply part of life, the sort of gung-ho fatalism so many reporters covering conflict and humanitarian crises adopt as a form of self-preservation. Or, as the New Zealander Terrence White, one of the few foreign correspondents who stayed on in Kabul throughout Afghanistan’s brutal civil war of the 1990s, until severely wounded by an exploding mortar, used to say: ‘You’ve got to learn to take steel.’ When I turned 75, my much younger wife insisted we celebrate what she considered a genuine landmark. ‘You’re still here, with your friends and family,’ she said, “and that’s something.” I agreed to a gathering on one condition: that we also remember those who did not make it.”

New! Missions and Mental Health, Spritual First Aid (June 2026). 24 pages, overview, helpful to get the big picture about sustainable, supportive member care. We note that that many mission workers/senders do not have the supportive resources described in this helpful overview.

Remembering then and now. From the introduction in Listening to Our Global Voices (chapter 2 in GMC Vol 1. 2011: “Several mission/member care leaders share below about their experiences—the joys and sorrows, issues and insights—of working in difficult settings. Their voices, and at times their cries, collectively recount the  struggles and sacrifices of mission/aid workers, along with their incredible resiliency, the organizational responsibilities for care, helpful member care programs, and discrepancies in resource allocations. These are just a sampling of the multitude of voices within the mission/aid community. I am especially interested in those senders/workers who are relatively new to the mission/aid world, and have grouped these together in terms of what I call the A4 Regions: African, Asian, Latin American, and Arabic-Turkic. I specifically included photos that reflect the nobility and challenges of A4 people. These photos speak volumes in and of themselves! Have a look at the brief examples in Box 1 as a prelude to the longer A4 accounts that follow.” 

Recent! And the World Was Shaken (Februrary 2026), by Doug Lucas and Tina McCormick, “is a 30-day devotional built around true stories from Team Expansion workers serving among unreached people groups across the globe. From remote villages to refugee neighborhoods, from dreams and healings to quiet acts of obedience, these accounts reveal a God who still answers prayer – and often does so in surprising ways. Each day invites readers to reflect on how God works through weakness, persistence, and faithful obedience. These stories are not polished success narratives, but honest testimonies of prayer, waiting, sacrifice, and breakthrough. If you have ever wondered whether your prayers matter – or whether God still moves today – this devotional will remind you that He does. And that somehow, His answer is you.”

Watson, R. A., Westmaas, C. R., Wuysang, H. T., & Watson, T. S. (2025, November 21). Pathways to effectiveness: An initial investigation of core competencies for mental health and missions practitioners.  Mental Health and Missions Conference, Hurst, TX. USA [Conference power point presentation and summary chart of 5 Factors, 16 Clusters, and 51 Competencies].

Remembering Marjory Foyle (1921-2025)–pioneering psychiatrist in mission and member care. See the Tributes section on the main MCA website for more information on her life and work. Marjory’s foundational book is Honourably Wounded /Overcoming Missionary Stress (1987, updated 2001) and her autobiography is Can It Be Me? (2006). Watch the archived memorial service from 6 June 2025 at All Souls Church in London.

Special issues on member care: Lausanne Global Analysis (March 2024) (four articles on self care, two articles on burnout, and one article on shame); Evangelical Missions Quarterly (April 2022). Member Care Journal (March 2026–Issue 5) from Global Member Care Network. Love as Mission Motivator–Special theme of Mission Frontiers magazine (November-December 2025). See also Special Issues on Member Care: 20 Journals and Magazines (1983-2017). Member Care Update, January 2017.

New and Recent Books–see also the 100+ MC Books section
—Updated link! Member Care in India: From Ministry Call to Home Call (2012)
—Soul Tending: Leadership for Strategic Human Flourishing (2025) by Virgil Tanner
—Sending Culture: Caring for Missionaries in Hard Places (2025) by Nik Ripken and Ruth Ripken

Events–Conferences–Training 2025-2026
Mental Health and Missions Conference
Theme: Effective Mental Health Responses to Emerging Issues for Global Workers
 Hurst Conference Center, Hurst, Texas USA (19-22 November 2026)

Church Mental Health Summit. 7-9 October 2026. “A global online gathering for ministry leaders who want to care with confidence, wisdom, and compassion. Join thousands of pastors, care teams, counselors, and church volunteers who are building cultures of care in their churches and communities.”

Pastoral Training in Member Care Conference
Theme: Settled. Ridgecrest Conference Center, North Carolina USA (6-9 October 2026). Barnabas international.

Primer Congreso Latinoamericano de Cuidad Integral del Misionero (5-9 October 2026). COMIBAM, Guatemala City.

NCF Counseling and Member Care Seminar. Eretria, Greece–4-16 October 2026
“Provides a rich opportunity to grow personally and spiritually as well as professionally through education and training, elective workshops, networking, and confidential consultation and counseling with staff.”Discovery MK Camp. Organised by Miila Consulting and GIVA Global for MKs aged 13-1Bangalore (19-23 May 2026). Information and registration HERE

Children in Mission Families: Stories of Pain, Hope, and Resilience (5-7 February 2026) in person or online; Asbury Theological Seminar in Wilmore, Kentucky USA, hosted by the Ralph D Winter Research Center

Multi-Sectoral Member Care (MS-MC)
–See the MS-MC section on this site and in the monthly Member Care Updates for 2025

—From staff burnout to human security: Stress governance in humanitarian systems. Raymond Saner and Lichia Saner-Yiu,^, Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development, Geneva, Switzerland. GHES 2026, 4(2). (12 June 2026). See their 2024 articles also: Work Stress of Humanitarian Delegates and The Effects of Stress on International Committee of The Red Cross (ICRC) Delegates. 

–Special episode of ‘Awake at Night’ podcast (30 June 2026). “In this episode, Elpida Rouka reflects on grief, loss, and mental and physical scars, and shares why the exact wording of the preamble of the UN Charter has helped give her the strength to heal….Humanitarian workers are routinely exposed to primary and secondary trauma. Yet stigma and survivor’s guilt can prevent aid workers seeking timely help for post-traumatic stress. Watch the video here. New episodes every Tuesday.

More Key Resources

Global Member Care–Missio Dei Model
Seven Spheres for Good Practice (2024 update)

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