THE BIG PICTURE
To fully understand why we have Belize Mission Teams, you must first understand the BIG PICTURE of what we're trying to do in Belize. Our goal is to establish self-sustaining Churches in Belize that are completely run by Belizeans. This is accomplished by our 3 part Church Planting plan:

1. PIONEERING
We go into villages that do not have a Church. We tell the people about Jesus, leading a handful to Christ and discipling them. Then we begin teaching and holding services in a grass hut. This phase requires constant oversight and receives all its funding from us.

2. PARENTING
This is where the Church begins to become like a“teenager”. It’s growing, getting larger, learning to do more on its own. It now has a Pastor and a permanent building. However, it still requires a lot of oversight and receives half of its funding from us.

3. PARTNERSHIP
At this stage, the Church becomes self-sustaining. It has its own building, a Pastor, it runs its own programs like Sunday School or VBS. The Church is now part of a network of Churches for accountability and encouragement. However, it is also autonomous and self-sustaining. It no longer receives any funding from us and gives 10% of its offerings to help start new Churches.

SUMMARY
Our Belizean staff does all the work in the PIONEERING and PARTNERSHIP phases. We use Belize Mission Teams to help with the PARENTING phase. When leading Mission Teams, our goal is to help a PARENTING phase Church become a PARTNERSHIP phase Church and self-sustaining, by opening hearts to Jesus, showing God's love, sharing our faith and building new Churches.