Field Notes: Insider Advice on Five Mission Issues

The mission specialists at Brotherhood Mutual not only help ministries navigate global evangelism, but they also have experience serving in the field. Gabe Brown is the assistant vice president for special markets at Brotherhood Mutual. His heart for missions has taken him to Africa and Central America. Derek Gard is an international program manager for special markets at Brotherhood Mutual. He served as a missionary for several years in the Dominican Republic. Their experience is a helpful tool for ministries to lean on as they seek to spread the gospel. They reveal five issues and how ministries can respond to protect their people and organizations, furthering mission work for decades to come:

• Communicate the reality of risk. Before sending employees or volunteers out to the mission field, it’s important to communicate the reality of the risk. “People are willing to go, so be fully transparent about the situation on the ground,” said Brown. Ministry leaders often understand the totality of the risk, but a ministry can run into trouble if they don’t fully convey those risks to their employees and volunteers. “If a ministry minimizes the reality of the risk when communicating with workers, there could be a lawsuit, especially if something bad happens,” added Brown. Volunteer travelers or ministry workers could sue your ministry claiming negligence. Brown advises ministries to give an accurate picture of the risk and accommodations when recruiting volunteers.

• Watch out for surprise liability. Providing financial support to an organization in a foreign country could lead to what’s known as vicarious liability. For example, supporting a school can create liability if a teacher is accused of something improper. “Even if you’re only sending money, but you’re the primary source of funding, you could be held responsible for whatever goes on there,” said Gard. Counseling activities, leadership issues, accusations of misconduct and many more issues can derail ministry efforts. As a leader, you’ll want to make sure your insurance carries over to long-term foreign operations. Even if your organization or people are innocent, there are still costs and complexities associated with navigating the legal system in a foreign country.

• Be prepared for accidents. The risk of getting injured increases the longer a worker is in the field. Without appropriate care, even minor injuries from a fall or cut can become life-threatening, requiring medical evacuation or hospitalization. “The risk ministries take by not adding accident insurance is that their mission worker, and possibly their ministry, will need to raise funds to offset the costs, and on top of that, your ministry could face a lawsuit claiming negligence for failing to adequately care for the worker,” said Brown. If the mission worker is an employee, you could be facing a workers’ comp or employers liability lawsuit, too. Accident insurance helps cover medical expenses like hospital bills, emergency room treatment, medical or surgical treatment and more.

•  Protect against abuse. Your domestic child protection guidelines apply to long-term foreign operations, too. Whenever a ministry is working with children or youth in a foreign country, there is a risk of a claim of abuse. And if the worker is arrested, it only complicates the situation. Make sure any long-term operations involving children or youth have a child protection plan in place. The plan should include requirements for training and supervision, background screening and reporting incidents of abuse. To protect the ministry and defend innocent workers, it’s important to make sure your liability coverage extends internationally and provides coverage for sexual acts liability. “This is when occurrence-based coverage is really important,” said Gard. Occurrence-based policies are designed to provide coverage long after an event, as long as an alleged incident took place while the policy was in effect.

• Protect your people and your mission. A recent study by Missio Nexus and Brotherhood Mutual found that 63% of mission volunteers and workers will go anywhere, regardless of the risk, but they also want to know there is a plan in place to protect them. One way to provide protection is through insurance. Having insurance coverage specifically designed for long-term international missions protects your people and organization from the financial impact caused by injuries, lawsuits, property damage and more. “When developing our unique Global Mission Protection program, we saw that ministries were getting foreign liability insurance from commercial carriers that didn’t understand the specific risks of Christian ministries. We found a way to help ministries extend their domestic coverage with Brotherhood Mutual to protect against risks in foreign countries,” said Brown. He recommends that ministries seriously consider additional coverages like kidnap and ransom, workers’ comp and medical evacuation coverage for any worker serving overseas. “The coverage is typically inexpensive and protects workers against financial hardship. Providing care through coverage also protects organizations against liability,” added Brown. 

While ministries with a Brotherhood Mutual policy may already have some international liability coverage for short-term trips, speak with your agent to make sure all your foreign activities are covered, especially any long-term efforts.