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While you discern living in mission, VMM wants to help you. This is an exciting, prayerful time. The Application and Discernment process provides opportunities to ask questions, explore your motivations and understand more fully the meaning of mission. Listening and reflecting are the primary tools for this process. VMM takes your interest and application very seriously and seeks to provide opportunities for the discernment of God’s movement in your life. May God bless and keep you during this discernment process.
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Steps of the Application, Discernment and Training Process
1. First, Pray...listen to your heart and talk to God about this decision.
2. Talk with VMM staff and members. The VMM staff can be reached at
(414) 423-8660 during regular business hours.
3. Fill out the Application Form if you think VMM would be a match for you. This provides VMM with further information about your life, your skills, and possible ways for you to live in mission. Once received, your Application will be thoroughly reviewed to assess how your gifts and skills might best be used in light of VMM's work and possible placements throughout the world. We will call you or meet with you to further discuss your Application.
4. A Questionnaire will be sent. This thought-provoking Questionnaire is meant to provide you with a tool that aids in personal reflection on different aspects of life that are pertinent to living in a cross-cultural situation. Once the initial paperwork is complete, the VMM staff considers you for an invitation to an Introductory Discernment Weekend which is typically held near our U.S. headquarters in Milwaukee, WI.
5. During this two-day gathering, you will spend time with VMM staff, returned VMM missioners, and other individuals like yourself who are discerning mission in their life. You will learn more about VMM and life in mission, hear the stories of other missioners, and pray together. You will be interviewed and have an opportunity to ask all those questions you’ve been wondering about during this process. At the end of this weekend, together, we will discern your next step. If it would be helpful, we will ask an experienced VMM missioner to assist you in discernment.
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6. We will begin the placement process matching you with a Project Partner whose mission fits your needs and the skills you bring. We listen closely to your hopes and aspirations and invite you to be open to the needs of the VMM community.
7. You will attend one week of VMM specific training, a training session with other missioners preparing for overseas service. After the training, the final decision is made and you are commissioned into VMM. (If you will be serving in Africa, you will attend an orientation in Europe before beginning your mission service.)
8. We ask that you contribute to the cost of your mission service through our Partners in Mission program. Through this program you are encouraged to involve your local faith community in sending you to mission. They do this through their prayer and financial support to VMM's mission. All costs are subject to VMM’s guidelines and policies and are fully discussed during the Introduction Weekend noted above.
9. Last, but not least, keep PRAYING! Prayer is a necessary component through any discernment process. VMM Members throughout the world designate Tuesdays as a special day of prayer for VMM and all who journey in mission. To know the blessings of God throughout this time of discernment is crucial. Please join members of VMM in prayer on Tuesdays, by accessing the weekly Tuesdays Reflection, written by one of our missioners, Cecily Mills (Guatemala 1996-1998; 2000-2001).
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This Application can take up to one year for application, training, and placement. However, this timeline is largely dependant upon your personal needs, as well as an availability of an appropriate project placement.
Blessings on your journey!
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