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HOME > HELPFUL ADVICE

Helpful advice

There’s nothing like learning from others’ mistakes – it can save a lot of energy, time and tears. Building a relationship with a church or project overseas can be a rich and rewarding experience for everyone involved – but there are also plenty of pitfalls to beware of. 

Tearfund has 40 years’ experience of working with churches overseas, and we’d like to share some of what we’ve learnt with you, to help you.

Here are some key areas for you to think about: 

Good projects

What makes a good project? Well it's hard to say, there are so many questions to address. Join us in considering this.

More tips

More tips on good projects. Don’t rush into solutions – spend time listening to the local church and the local community first, to identify what the real needs are.

Culture matters

If you’re going to build a successful relationship with a church or community in another part of the world, it’s essential to understand their culture and be sensitive to it. If you don’t, you can damage the relationship by your words or actions without even realising it.

When you’re in a different culture, some of the differences are obvious – dress, food, hairstyles, etc. But some are hidden beneath the surface – and if you don’t know about them, they could wreck your work and relationships faster than you’d think.

Keeping safe and healthy

If you’re travelling overseas, it’s important to keep yourself safe and well. If you’re taking members of your church with you – especially if they are not experienced travellers – good advice can help prevent the trip being spoilt.

Child protection

Ensuring the safety of children is not something that applies only at home: children are vulnerable everywhere. In your relationship with an overseas church you need to make sure that child protection measures are in place.

Health Tips

Looking after your health is particularly important when you're travelling overseas. Here are some basic tips to help you stay well on your trip.

Safety tips

As a visitor overseas it's easy to put yourself at greater risk by not knowing or doing some basic things to protect yourself. Read our tips to keeping safe.

Managing the finance

Money is a mixed blessing: with the best will in the world, a relationship between your church and another overseas can flounder on issues of finance. It’s best to establish shared understanding and to put reliable measures in place at the outset, to prevent damaging problems arising later.