Parent FAQ

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Engage the Nations! ETN is an opportunity for people in any season of life to experience Jesus and His heart for the unreached of the earth. As hard as it may be to believe, there are more than three billion people around the world who have never heard the story of Jesus.

Engage the Nations focuses on mobilizing people for summer internships to partner with long term Antioch teams. Interns will both support the work of our full time church planters as well as be developed as disciples of Jesus.  

Summer can be a time of incredible transformation in the lives of young men and women who choose to give their time, energy and resources to serving as a part of the worldwide Church. But, this isn’t only for them. We believe this opportunity is an invitation for you as a parent to join in on this journey of faith. Naturally, you may have questions, fears or concerns, and we want to address those for you.

We want to be a resource for you in this process. We are here to be a support and encouragement for you. To find out more about Engage the Nations, read through our FAQs and, if you still have questions, feel free to email us at [email protected].

What is Engage the Nations?

The primary vision for ETN is that interns will 1) support the work of the long term team and 2) be developed as a follower of Jesus. Our hope is that interns will be equipped in the basics of making disciples – how to engage the lost, simple tools for evangelism, and helping people encounter Jesus through the Word. Day by day, Base teams will live out the book of Acts – seeking Jesus with community through prayer and worship, and then going out to share that love with those that have never heard. While there may have different platforms to create those interactions – from English clubs to sports ministry to praying for the sick- all will be aimed at finding people that are spiritually hungry who can, in turn, reach others in a way that leads to a movement.  

Is Engage the Nations part of a local church?

Yes- Engage the Nations is an initiative of Antioch Community Church based in Waco, TX. Antioch was established in 1999 by our Senior Pastor, Jimmy Seibert, his wife, Laura, and a group of friends who shared the call for a missions-based church. Before the church was formed, this same group of people started a missionary training school, planted churches in Russia, Mongolia and Uzbekistan, and formed an international missions organization called Antioch Ministries International (AMI).

Over the years, we have grown from one small service to several services for more than 4,000 people. Now, through planting churches, tens of thousands of people have come to Christ and are meeting together in the U.S. and around the world. Antioch Ministries International has more than 140 full-time workers around the world, and we are part of a growing family of churches called the Antioch International Movement of Churches. While it’s not about the numbers, every number represents a person who has encountered God. Each church plant and ministry means more people are experiencing the love God and making His love known throughout the earth.

Whether in Waco, around the U.S. or in the remote parts of the earth, our passion is to see the Church advance the Kingdom of God around the world through evangelism and discipleship. The vision doesn’t stop with planting churches. Our dream is for each of our church plants to become a church-planting movement that influences thousands of people. Our teams are dedicated to training nationals to reach their people and lead their own movements. As these movements grow, we believe the number of unengaged and unreached people groups will decrease and the name of Jesus will be glorified.

 

What does Antioch and Engage the nations believe?

Our vision and beliefs center around a passion for Jesus and His purposes on the Earth – Loving God, others and those who don’t know Jesus.

Our passion and purpose has always been and will always be JESUS. The One who takes away our sins, binds up the broken hearted, gives hope to the hopeless, heals the sick and delivers the captive. The One who is LOVE.

We believe the church is the hope of the world and want to see more of Jesus in our city, our nation and the nations. Practically, that means we are a local church with a global mission.

We believe church doesn’t just happen on Sundays. In the Bible, the first church was commissioned to live in community, to worship, to share meals, to praise God together and to reach out to others. We live out this mission daily here in Waco, in coffee shops, church pews, on soccer fields and street corners.

We believe everyone has a meaningful part to play in the Kingdom of God, called to proclaim and demonstrate the Gospel to the world. As we respond to needs, from one end of the earth to the other, we plant churches and impact communities with God’s love so we might see His Kingdom come and His will be done.

To see more about what we believe, please visit antiochwaco.com

Is Engage the Nations safe?

We at Engage the Nations take the responsibility and care of our participants very seriously. The reality is the world can be an unsafe place. However, that truth is not limited to overseas travel. While we cannot make guarantees, safety and security is a top priority for our program, and our staff works hard to set up the necessary protocols to minimize risk for all participants. Our leadership team and staff monitor safety concerns and issues in the nations where we work, including organized protests, political uprisings, medical alerts and natural disasters. We maintain active communication with our international contacts, and our set processes include changing locations if we believe the risk level in an area is not appropriate for our participants.

 

What if my student becomes sick overseas?

We have well-defined procedures related to seeking medical attention, including the expectation that interns will quickly seek care if they are sick and not immediately getting better. While we are people of faith, we hold our Base leadership accountable to help interns to make wise decisions, particularly when it comes to healthcare. While it may be disconcerting for a parent to hear that their student has visited the hospital, please remember that a hospital visit overseas may simply be the normative place he or she goes to see a doctor. Where appropriate, the base leader is involved in treatment and follow up plans. In the cases of severe illness, the top levels of ETN leadership become involved. Whenever possible, we ask the student to convey information about illness to his or her parents. At times, this will be after the incident is resolved. If your student is incapable of communicating the seriousness of his or her situation, ETN will notify the individual’s emergency contacts.

Please note: emergency contacts are part of your student’s application and may not always be the parent(s).

 

Will Engage the Nations let parents know their travel schedule, their ministry location and the fact that they have arrived safely? How much will I be able to communicate with my child while he or she is overseas?

We are asking all our participants to spend minimal time on social media/online. This will impact the amount of your interaction. Additionally, while on the field there will be times when communication could be difficult; internet can be spotty and slow in some of the places we work. There will be times when we encourage your student to press more deeply into the Lord and he or she may choose to fully abandon “distractions”, including Facebook, Instagram, FaceTime and other means of communicating back home for a period of time.

As possible, participants will update family, friends, mentors and churches back home; this may be through email by a designated team member. With limited communication ability in some areas, it is likely you may get the short and condensed updates from the field.

 

How careful do we need to be when talking about their presence overseas?

The chances of compromising something or someone are somewhat remote, but it’s best not to take chances. The risk is greatest for our local ministry hosts and partners, as well as long-term church planters. We are asking everyone to err on the side of caution. Please refer to your child’s location by how it is listed on engagethenations.com. Thank you for your help in this!