Living and serving cross-culturally will present unique challenges and trials, as well as potential for great joys and rewards. Orient Pre-Field Training is designed for anyone planning to serve in long-term cross-cultural work who wants to gain skills and insights for longevity and effectiveness in ministry. Our pre-field training is engineered for those who desire to learn crucial cross-cultural skills such as navigating conflict, building trust, discerning personal and cultural values, adapting with flexibility without sacrificing righteousness or identity, entering with clear and realistic expectations, and more.

We encourage participants in Orient Pre-Field Training to attend between 2-6 months prior to their planned departure date. This allows you the margin in life to absorb the training and sufficient time afterward to process and begin to implement what you have learned. It also puts the training close enough to your departure date that momentum and clarity are not lost. This is, of course, only an ideal window, and we strongly believe that it is better to receive training at a time that falls outside this window rather than none at all.

Registering early will help to ensure your place in a training. For Orient Pre-Field Training, the soft deadline is 60 days prior to the start date and hard deadline is 30 days prior. This helps us to plan and prepare for class size and age ranges of children. It is important, however, that those registering be as certain as possible of their participation. This helps avoid late cancellations, which in turn helps avoid the cancellation of childcare workers hired to staff a projected need based on registrations received.

A non-refundable deposit of $150 per adult is due to secure your place in the training. Should you need to reschedule, we can transfer your deposit to another date. If TRAIN International changes an event and you choose not to attend the alternate date, your deposit will be refunded minus any electronic convenience fees.

For Orient Pre-Field Training, Springfield, MO airport (SGF) is the most ideal. From the airport to the facility is approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes. The next closest airport is St. Louis (STL), and the distance to the facility is about 3 hours.

We train whole families and highly encourage those moving cross-culturally to plan to include their children in training. The beginning portion of Orient Pre-Field Training includes an outdoor wilderness experience which serves as an experiential platform for much of what we unpack in the rest of the training. Please plan to include your children ages 10 and over in the wilderness portion, while children younger than this join afterwards for the classroom-based components, as age-appropriate training for them is part of Orient. Please contact us with questions.

In Orient Pre-Field Training, days are full and evenings are free. Breakfast begins at 7:00 am, with morning sessions, and interactive elements from 7:30 am until lunch at 12:00 noon. Afternoon sessions continue with interactive elements and coffee breaks until dinner at 6:00 pm. Refreshments are served morning and afternoon, and the coffee never stops flowing.

For Orient Pre-Field Training, housing and meals are included in your costs. Participants are housed on-site and breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served each day.

We are an independent and unaffiliated training organization.

We have the privilege of serving a great variety of agencies, churches, and denominations.