Security For Mission Travel?

Security training is crucial for Christians traveling abroad!

Having lived in some of the world’s hot spots and having experienced a 6 month hostage crisis involving a two US volunteers, I can attest to the relevance of this topic.  You may not be able to prevent a life-altering accident or incident, but there is much that can be done to prepare team leaders and volunteers.   There is certainly much that can be done to minimize the risks and and increase survivability if an incident occurs.

If you are a pastor or church leader, you need to be concerned about the high likelihood of litigation if anything goes wrong on your church property, or even on a mission trip around the world.  Experts say the best we can do is demonstrate that we have made every effort to provide for safety, adequate warning and preparation.   The following tool is a way to do exactly that.

I recently viewed several hours of an excellent DVD produced by Fort Sherman Academy.  This is a tool that is user-friendly and it would be easy for you to require every team leader and even every team member to go through. Honestly, my experience is that the greatest risk to volunteer teams is accidents that could easily be prevented.  As Americans we are not aware that some of our behaviors increase our risk of simply being caught in the wrong situation at the wrong time.

The following is a press release about this tool.

(Nashville, Tennessee, September 22, 2008) – Fort Sherman Academy has released a DVD-based curriculum that provides safety and security training to Christians traveling abroad. The curriculum, which is an extension of their intensive weeklong live training events, is now available utilizing new technologies and training methods.

The curriculum contains six sessions of video training with printable instructional support led by Fort Sherman Academy’s president, David Dose. An authority in hostage survival and anti-terrorism training for civilian and faith-based audiences, Mr. Dose has consulted not only in training, but also in the recovery efforts of persons detained or kidnapped outside the United States

“We have seen a significant increase in the number of kidnappings, illegal detentions, carjackings, home invasions, and other violent crimes against people traveling internationally,” said Dose. “These acts underscore the growing danger and the call for security training to address these specific issues. As we are called to go, just staying at home to be ‘safe’ is not a realistic option for many of us.  We must find innovative new ways to reasonably continue going where we are called, and that means being better prepared to travel and respond to challenges appropriately.”

An informal survey conducted last year among Christian organizations sending out short-term teams showed some interesting trends for short-term travelers.  First, the number of short-term volunteers is increasing each year across America.  From 2005 to 2006 alone there was a 66% increase in volunteers going abroad for 1 to 4 weeks. Unfortunately in those same two years there was a 300% increase in the number of incidents reported.  Over 200 of those incidents reported in 2006 involved health and accident-related problems, and over 110 of the reported incidents were either criminal or political in nature.  Most were avoidable to some degree.  All had the potential to stymie future volunteer trips and stall missions programs.  Several posed a serious threat to individual safety of the volunteers.

After completing the training, Ken Holden of Georgetown College now feels more comfortable traveling abroad. “Traveling to Tanzania in August, I felt more prepared for my trip than ever before,” he said. “The world is not a more dangerous place because I went through the training, but I became a much more informed and aware traveler.”

“The vast majority of all short-term mission teams will never experience a major security crisis,” said Dose. “But unfortunately, these situations are occurring more often. So we believe that it’s a good precautionary step to provide training just as you would buy insurance. Not to plan for the accident, but rather to be prepared if and when it happens.”

Since its foundation in 2001, the Academy has trained over 12,000 people from over 47 government, commercial, church and mission organizations. To date over 62 of those graduates have since endured and survived incidents like those covered in Safe Travel Solutions.

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Located in northern Idaho, Fort Sherman Academy is one of the largest providers of advanced travel security courses, crisis management instruction and high-risk hostage survival training to civilians in the world. For more information about this topic, an article, or to schedule an interview with David Dose, call 615.758-2179; email  alan@safetravelsolutions.org; or visit www.safetravelsolutions.org/press.
Contact: Alan Vermilye
Phone: 615.758.2179
Email: alan@safetravelsolutions.org