What areas of the world Crosslinks is involved in? We have SMILE placements in Tanzania, The Gambia, South East Asia, Serbia, Uganda, Morocco and others, though locations do change and we’re always seeking to add opportunities. Crosslinks itself operates in many countries worldwide – too many to list.

What skills and professional training would be useful for Smilers? Our placements often involve some kind of teaching, though are certainly not restricted to this. We don’t generally ask for professional qualifications, though for some opportunities something like TFEL would be useful. Also anyone with ministry experience and perhaps theological education could be very useful.

What professional work could they experience (such as medicine, agriculture, building)? Our projects often involve supporting long-term missionaries, so it’s really a question of what the mission partners are involved in. We don’t tend to undertake building or agricultural projects, and placements of a medical nature are reasonably rare. Those with relevant professional skills can sometimes be greatly used.

Practicalities: flights, money, jabs, prayer support? We organise flights, insurance, health checks and advice (including what jabs you will need - but you have to pay for them), orientation and debriefing. Whilst you should organise your personal prayer support, we will put your prayer requests on our website and commit to praying for you regularly. We ensure that you are placed somewhere where there is pastoral support from your hosts and there is always someone here to contact if things are not going well.

Orientation? This is an important pre-departure element, and its length and breadth will vary dependent on the duration of your trip, but will be between half a day to four days. We’ll cover areas such as – The Biblical Foundation of Mission – Gospel and Culture – What is the Gospel – Other religions – How to share your faith – Health – Brief Language training – Maintaining your spiritual life – How to Teach – and more.

Why go as a Christian rather than just as a secular volunteer? See “the benefits of smile” on the ‘about’ page.

Who goes with Smilers on placements? If you go as part of team then you’ll have older and more experienced Team Leaders. Individuals usually go in same-sex pairs but individuals have been sent in the past where there is need for only one person and they are mature enough to cope on their own. There will always be people providing oversight in all our placements, and people will be met at the airport by their hosts and given an introduction/orientation in to the local area and culture.

Supervision? Supervision is by their hosts (usually long-term mission partners) who will keep an eye on the volunteers but it will not be constant surveillance! Our short termers generally need to be self-starters, flexible and willing to get stuck in.

Who is responsible for the Smiler? Crosslinks

What if your parents don't like your going? This depends on the age of the Volunteer. If you are just 18 and your parents are dead set against the idea then we’ll have to see, though we will try to explain what happens on a Smile placement, and we’ll introduce ourselves and try to calm any fears or prejudices that they may have. However, in the end if it is going to be a huge issue and a bad witness then we would recommend the person does not go. If they have left home and are say 25, then that is a family issue and not something we want to get involved in.

Links with the local churches overseas? Crosslinks is keen that our placements help serve the local church wherever possible, and we believe that the local church is the key to mission. The practicalities of this relationship will be determined by your hosts and yourselves when you arrive.

Exposure to different cultural and church situations? This is a natural part of going abroad! We’ll try and help prepare you as much as we can, but part of the joy and challenge of short-term mission placements is to experience very different cultures and people. We ask you to be sensitive and loving to those around you, acknowledging that Christians in other countries may well have different views to you on what constitutes godly and acceptable behaviour.

Selection procedure? Application from and references followed by an interview or selection day.

Debriefing and future guidance? – Usually a day or two day retreat for debriefing – a time of reflection, discussion and prayer as we talk about your experiences, emotions and plans. 

Is it fun? It isn’t a holiday, but it certainly should be fun! There will be times when it will feel like hard work since our volunteers do go out to be useful, but our experience is that they do have a lot of fun time at the same time. Generally Smilers will have a holiday scheduled into their time away.