We feel a responsibility to help you make the most out of their experience. You are apprenticed to the entire team, not to any one missionary. You will learn much from every team member, as we will learn from you. You will be given opportunities to participate weekly in ministry with each of the men/women on the team, as well as frequent opportunities to interact with each family.

You will have a supervisor who will meet with you weekly to pray, process the previous week’s experiences, and set objectives for the coming week.

Though your role on the team will be that of a learner, you will make increasing contributions to the ministry of the team as your cultural adjustment and language acquisition permit. As a member of the team and brother/sister in Christ, you will be asked to share and to bear the spiritual burden of the team for the Watchi people. We also encourage you to share your own burdens with the team, and we pledge to bear them up in prayer.

Joshua Bontrager was the first Watchi Team Apprentice from Fall 2004 through the Spring of 2005.

Kyleen, his wonderful wife, taught Kindergarten and 1st grade in the Tabligbo MK School for the 2004/2005 school year.

Apprenticeship Objectives

Apprenticeship Strategies

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• To mature spiritually and to gain a clearer sense of your call to ministry as well as of your spiritual gifts.
• To learn to live and function in a cross-cultural environment in a way that maintains spiritual, physical, mental, and family health.
• To learn the Watchi Team’s strategy to plant and mature churches in southern Togo through a highly participatory apprenticeship.
• To achieve competence in the Watchi language that will permit the extemporaneous presentation of lessons by the end of the apprenticeship.
• To grow in your knowledge of theological and missiological principles which will allow you to develop messages and methods that are faithful to God’s nature and Word, which respect and relate effectively to people in their fallen cultures.
• To develop skills of functioning as a part of a team, including group decision making, social interaction, spiritual, emotional, and physical support, as well as conflict resolution.

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• Daily time of personal meditative prayer and Bible reading, as well as frequent times of spiritual sharing with team members.
• Meet weekly with your supervisor for prayer and processing. You are welcome to go to any team member for counsel.
• Go out weekly with each man on the team to observe and participate in hands-on ministry situations. This would be different for a female apprentice.
• Participate in times of corporate worship with Watchi Christians on Sundays and during special events such as the men’s and all-church conferences.
• Commit a minimum of one hour daily to language learning. This should extend to two-three hours most days. This time may be spent in interactive time with a language teacher, review of new vocabulary and structure, planning additional language learning strategies, and focused practice of your language skills through interaction in real-life situations.
• Participate in social situations with team members including meals in team members’ homes, team devotionals, parties, holidays, etc.
• Contribute time and labor to projects that benefit the team and the ministry.
• Seek to develop authentic friendships with one or two nationals that are not based on patron-client relationships.
• Participate in weekly men’s or women’s prayer and business meetings (Thursdays). As an apprentice, your views in matters of strategy will be given consideration, but will not carry equal weight with those of other team members. In team discussions, you will sometimes be privy to highly personal information regarding teammates’ lives and team relations. We are confident that you will treat this information with confidentiality and sensitivity.
• Take a weekly day off (usually Mondays), as well as necessary breaks for rest, exercise, and spiritual renewal. An hour of rest in the early afternoon can help tremendously in coping with fatigue, raise resistance to disease, and it fits into the culture.

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