4. Orphanages, Mission Trips, and Child Development with Todd Guckenberger

Welcome to Season 1, Episode 4 of the Think Orphan podcast. In Episode 4, Todd Guckenberger, Executive Director of Back2Back Ministries, joins Phil and Kelly to discuss issues surrounding orphanages, mission trips, and a 5-Point Development Plan for every child in B2B’s care. B2B works in Mexico, Haiti, and India.

In this week’s episode you will discover:

The Role of Short Term Mission Trips in Orphan Care
Trauma Competent Awareness and Training
Back2Back’s Holistic Orphan Care model and Strong Families Program
The Family Based Environment across the orphan spectrum
The Greatest Need for Orphan Care Organizations
The Orphanage Debate

Links from the show:

Connect with Back2Back Ministries at Twitter and Facebook

For the following resources, please contact Julie Cooper at Back2Back

Back2Back Partnership Agreement
Back2Back 5 Point Child Development Plan
Child Status Index
Supporting docs to the TCC training.

Todd’s Podcast recommendations: Craig Groeschel, Andy Stanley and Entreleadership

Books mentioned in the show:

One comment on “4. Orphanages, Mission Trips, and Child Development with Todd Guckenberger”

Brandon Stiver May 14, 2016

This episode was really thought provoking to me and I will definitely give it a second listen. I saw what Todd was saying with pendulum swinging from where it was eight years ago. I certainly have thoughts on the orphanage conversation and have written and spoken on it myself, but my question pertains to the short term missionary aspect.

Trauma training and making sure that the team falls in line with the greater picture of ministry are a good baseline, but I want to know what teams do practically and how that benefits and advances the care of the orphans. We know that our ministries need financial support often and I think that short term visitors present that as a potential benefit. However, I’ve seen in Tanzania that those people that contribute or are involved in any facet afterward are few and far between.

Our parent organization does bring on short term teams and I struggle to come up with anything to involve them with in our orphan care ministry (or the other ministries for that regard) that are both effective and mutually beneficial. I’d really like to hear what specifically the teams do and how that aids the orphan care community.

Thanks for another great listen. I’m really enjoying the series.

Brandon Stiver May 14, 2016

This episode was really thought provoking to me and I will definitely give it a second listen. I saw what Todd was saying with pendulum swinging from where it was eight years ago. I certainly have thoughts on the orphanage conversation and have written and spoken on it myself, but my question pertains to the short term missionary aspect.

Trauma training and making sure that the team falls in line with the greater picture of ministry are a good baseline, but I want to know what teams do practically and how that benefits and advances the care of the orphans. We know that our ministries need financial support often and I think that short term visitors present that as a potential benefit. However, I’ve seen in Tanzania that those people that contribute or are involved in any facet afterward are few and far between.

Our parent organization does bring on short term teams and I struggle to come up with anything to involve them with in our orphan care ministry (or the other ministries for that regard) that are both effective and mutually beneficial. I’d really like to hear what specifically the teams do and how that aids the orphan care community.

Thanks for another great listen. I’m really enjoying the series.