Short-Term Teams and Security Analysis

Stewardship requires shrewdness. Neither are passive. Active risk assessment and mitigation is good stewardship in Gospel advancement.

How do you make decisions on risk when it comes to a team? What are the "trigger points" for when it is deemed too much of a risk to go?

Here are some questions to guide your decision making for your short-term teams to consider:

1. Are the expatriates on the ground still asking you to come even with the current State Department (or your country's Embassy) warnings?

2. Are the locals on the ground telling you it is okay for foreigners to come? They also are risking quite a lot by receiving you and helping you.

3. Even if the UN and State Department Personnel are being required to leave, are the missionaries staying? What are the high-risk tolerant organizations doing in that location? Have they changed their security profile?

4. “What is the cost-benefit analysis of the trip? Given the situation, is the students participating in the trip, gaining the experience, and accomplishing what they are there to accomplish worth any potential negative outcome? What is the cost-benefit analysis of not going? (security manager of large NGO)

5. Where during the trip will you be the most vulnerable? What can you do to mitigate against that? (Flying vs. driving, or if driving, making sure you are in a "regular" vehicle, not a humanitarian vehicle or visibly as a “foreigner”).

6. What crisis contingency plan of which organization can you be part of if a crisis happens while you are there?

7. One security professional asked the following set of questions:

• Is the primary beneficiary those who live there, or those who will travel there (its OK - even desirable in some cases - that the latter be the case - we just have to understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it).

• To accomplish the objectives, does the trip have to happen at this time?

• To accomplish the objectives, does the trip have to happen to this place?

• To accomplish the objectives, does this particular group of people have to participate?

8. Is your spouse in agreement for you going?

9. What guidelines have you given your teenagers for what to post on social media regarding your trip? It is not wise to proclaim short-term mission trips, and certainly few details.

10. Have you shared with your young children that you are going to a slightly dangerous place? Share what is appropriate.  Don't make the mistake of NOT sharing - too little communication is more dangerous for their souls than too much.

11. Have you left passwords and organized legal details before departure?  Do you have an updated will, life insurance policy, and death plan to ensure your children are taken care of the designated plan should you not return?

12. Do you have travel, medivac, evacuation, and other special insurance appropriate to the danger level of the country you are visiting?

13. Do you have multiple back ups for communication, downloaded appropriate apps, gotten emergency contact numbers?

14. Do you have enough cash on hand to get yourself out of a situation?

15. If you are part of a short-term team of a church or organization, has each team member signed a "hold-harmless" agreement?

16. There is a globally understood NGO standard duty of care best practices. Has each member of the team been informed of all known health and danger risks and signed that they have been informed?

17. Have you identified "thresholds” for early departure from the trip/field? These should be different if there are minors on the team, but also identified “thresholds” for an adult team. There are plenty of places teenagers can go for a cross-cultural experience and engage in evangelism without being exposed to mobs, riots, burning tires, and being the target of anger against America.

18. What is your media profile? I would strongly urge all Western Churches to STOP live streaming and publishing the details of the short-term teams online.  There is no reason for this, other than the church's SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT.  If people want to go, and they see a general advertisement for a country, they will inquire. Mitigate against all sorts of risk by requiring all participants and their family and friends to not post specifics about the trip on their social media profiles.

19. Get all members of the team with smart phones to have Signal. Do not use WhatsApp or Telegram. Governments cannot monitor Signal, but they can monitor everything else. Get a solar cell phone charger.

20. Get back up communication - a satellite tracker is a cheaper tool then a satellite phone. When unrest occurs, it is not uncommon for governments to shut of internet.

21. Risk Mitigation is all about mitigating against the severity and impact of a crisis.  90% of crisis management occurs BEFORE the crisis. This includes if the plane is going down and I/we die, and the impact on our children.  What responsible risk mitigation needs to be put in place ahead of time for the place the short-term team is going? What is the evacuation plan? Is there a written crisis contingency plan?

22. Is there a clear decision-making structure on who makes the decisions to evacuate?

23.  You'll notice that the State Department's Advisory is not listed here as a tool for analysis.  That's because in general the places needing evangelism the most are also the most dangerous.  The State Department and any country’s Embassy warnings are typically given through a political lens for what is best for the representative government. In general, someone who hasn't been outside of the country and has little exposure to risk is probably not the best candidate to go to a dangerous place first.

Finally, and most importantly, in what ways is this team being invited to risk as worship for the sake of the Gospel and the very clear risks by going at this time? As a team, having a clear sense of calling together will help their unity should a major crisis occur.  He is worthy of whatever happens, and we risk for both short-term and long-term gain, so facing the negative and positive consequences and working to minimize the negative and maximizing the positive is called both shrewdness and stewardship for Christ’s sake.