12 Tips for Short Term Success and Survival!

1. Set reasonable goals: North Americans are TASK oriented. We set high goals and then feel frustrated. Allow more time for EVERYTHING.
2. Don’t take your job description too seriously. Emphasize relationships: the vital core of true service!
3. Be committed to JOY: be thankful for the people and the resources that provided you with the opportunity to see what God is doing among the Nicaraguan church.
4. Maintain group harmony: make it a point to get to know all the members on the team, treating others as persons, not as problems to be solved.
5. Remember that you are human: you will need rest, food, and plenty of water breaks.
6. Be flexible: There is always an alternative solution!
7. Don’t take yourself too seriously: be able to laugh at your mistakes.
8. Reduce your stress levels where possible: if you accomplish one thing in a day, it has been a successful day!
9. Forgive yourself and forgive others: you won’t always get things perfectly right and neither will your team members, the Nicaraguans or the missionaries.
10. Be thankful: for the running water you do have, for lights working, for the bus not breaking down, for food in your belly…
11. Be an encourager: rather than a person who is always seeing the negative and pulling others into a complaining cycle.
12. Take courage: someone understands! Others are going through it as well!