Retreats--MC/MHM: 1990, 2000

This page summaries two significant member care retreats.

Click on the dates below for the full summaries and some pictures.

These retreats were milestones for many of the participants. They helped us to further chart our direction on our member care/mental health journeys. Doubtless there were similar gatherings in other places of the world. Leave a comment below and let us all know!

Note March 2021: The Enabling the Missionary Conferences, 1990 and 1992, were organized by graduate students and convened at the US Center for World Mission, Pasadena, CA USA. See pages 350-351 in Hans Richard's article in Missionary Care (1992), The Member Care Consultation.

See also: Member Care Update, March 2020: MC Centers/Hubs–Collaborating for Global Impact and Member Care Update, February 2020: Connecting Colleagues–Chiang Mai Greetings

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1. 1990. The first took place at the end of a Mental Health and Missions Course that I (Kelly) taught at Fuller School of Psychology in California, USA in 1990. It included people from Rosemead School of Psychology USA and Fuller. Do you know who these participants are and where they are located/practicing now? You'd be surprised! Those who attended included John Grisbacher, Bettina Delgado, Steve Sweatman, and Russ York from Rosemead; and Hans Ritschard, Charlie Schaeffer, Laura Hurston, Tim English her boyfriend [note—married shortly thereafter!], Jeff and Deanna Ellis, Jeanie Folbrecht, and Tammy Ichinotsubo from Fuller, as well as myself. We were a group of thirteen.

2. 2000. The second took place after the Mental Health and Missions Conference in Indiana USA in 2000. The participants included 26 international mission/member care folks. See the photo and see who you recognize! There was a similar gathering/retreat in Asia in 2001 (hence one in the Western Hemisphere and one in the Eastern Hemisphere.)

3. The Future. Perhaps there will be similar member care-related retreats in the future. Personally, and on a related note concerning special gatherings, it has been a dream of many of us, including Dave Pollock and ourselves (Michele and Kelly), to see an international member care consultation occur. At one point in 2004 there was a project called Global Faces to help bring people from different continents together in order to attend regional member care gatherings (like Mental Health and Missions Conference and Pastors to Missionaries in the USA, and the European MC Consultation). This project unfortunately did not materialize then, but perhaps something like this could happen in the future. It might make sense to "piggyback" on a large international mission conference and conduct an international member care consultation at the same location prior to or after the mission conference. On the other hand, one could argue that the need for large MC gatherings is no longer viable, and other ways should continue to be prioritized to continue to develop this field (social networking and connecting via the internet and the many existing gatherings.)

Note June 2021. See MC: Global Letters to a Global Movement--Friendships and Consultations; CORE Member Care weblog, 24 January 2012