Leaders from several missions gathered together in early 1997 to discuss the need for this kind of ministry.  About a year later they asked Dr. Karen Carr, who had been serving as a consultant to missions for crisis situations, to take on the leadership to develop the MMCT.  Soon after she was joined by Darlene Jerome, of Wycliffe/SIL and Marion Dicke of C&MA Canada to start the first team in West Africa.  For a fuller version of the story go to Our Journey, Vision and Strategies

Yes, there is an International Governing Board which provides oversight to regional MMCT teams. Additionally, each regional team has its own Governing Board which consists of representatives from the missions community being served.  

Our mission is to provide training, consultation, counseling, and crisis response for missionaries on the field.  Our belief is that member care that is proactive and compassionate can help missionaries remain in effective service by equipping them to handle ongoing stresses as well as crisis events.

Missionaries face many types of stresses and challenges on the field. They are very likely to experience at least one traumatic event while on the field which might include evacuation, civil war, armed robbery, assaults, or severe medical illness. Additionally, they deal with chronic stressors such as heat, traffic, infrastructure challenges, financial problems, and difficulties finding adequate and affordable education for their children. Many missionaries also deal with interpersonal conflicts and cross-cultural challenges on their teams. Any of these things can lead to attrition if the missionary feels that they do not have the strength, vision, or support to continue on. MMCT services help to provide this kind of support and encouragement to missionaries and their leaders. 

Our strategy is primarily to enhance the capacity of mission communities to meet the needs of their members through training workshops for administrators as well as for peer responders and member care facilitators. These missionary peers function much like volunteer fire fighters do in small communities; continuing in their normal roles, these trained volunteers are “on-call” to serve when crisis situations arise. 

The full-time MMCT staff members serve as trainers, mentors, counselors, and consultants for the peer responders, member care facilitators, and mission administrators. The MMCT Staff provide debriefing, assessment, consultation, counseling, and referral with the ultimate goal of developing the missions community to meet its primary needs.

No, the nearest counseling centers for missionaries in West Africa are in Europe or Kenya. The missions community in the West Africa region would like to see a counseling center established. We would welcome the development of a counseling center in West Africa as it would complement the MMCT ministry.

We envision the core MMCT-WA team to be a multinational, multidisciplinary group of counselors and trainers. At present, Karen Carr (PhD psychologist) serves as the Clinical Director. Darlene Jerome (Master’s in Intercultural Administration & Training) serves as the Personnel and Training Director. Marion Dicke (B.S. Nursing, Master’s Biblical Studies) serves as the Member Care Services Director. Alan Lee (M.Div., MA counseling) serves as a counselor and trainer. Sherri Schneidermann (B.S. Nursing, M.A. Counseling) serves as an office administrator and trainer. For more information go to Staff Profile...Meet the Team.

Typically, MMCT staff are “on loan” from their mission, remaining members of their original sending agency.

We have a pool of “Associate Staff” who are committed to regular short-term service with MMCT-WA (typically 2-4 weeks a year). Several are mental health professionals who are “on-call” to help with direct crisis response for difficult situations, others serve as workshop staff to train peer responders while some have provided technical skills needed on the administrative side of things.

The West Africa team needs another licensed mental health professional.  Eventually we would like to see the West Africa team include a married couple as well as individuals from cultural backgrounds other than North America (over half of the missionaries in the WA region are from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe).  Future teams in other regions will need individuals with cross cultural experience and skills in the areas of counseling, training, coaching, mentoring, and administration. 

Each team member comes with their own personal support.  In addition, they make a monthly contribution to a group Operating Account to cover some of the overhead needs. 

Training workshop costs are covered by participant fees.  Crisis response trips for difficult situations are funded by the missions requesting the direct involvement of the team. 

All other costs such as workshop scholarships, office equipment, non-workshop travel, and conferences are covered by the donations of organizations and individuals.  For more information on funding needs go to the Projects in Need of Funding page.

You can write a check made out to MMCT and mail it to:

Deb Davis
MMCT Administrative Assistant
237 SE 111th Ave.
Portland, OR 97216

Or you can donate on line via PayPal by clicking on the Donate to the Ministry of MMCT

You will receive a receipt in the mail. MMCT is a 501c(3) non-profit organization and your contributions are tax deductible in the U.S.