Welcome to The Longevity Project

Congratulations on being selected to participate in The Longevity Project 2.0 Pilot! We hope that this program proves to be a blessing to you. We are only offering participation to a total of 30 individuals, couples or families this first year. We hope you are as excited as we are to launch this pilot!

This website is intended to help introduce the program, which an entirely new initiative. The Longevity Project provides professional, relational, and spiritual support to global healthcare missionaries to enable you and your families to thrive on the mission field and extend your length of service.

The Longevity Project is a multi-component set of programs to help you thrive at every stage of service as a healthcare missionary. You get to choose which programs would be most helpful for you.

Now, let's get started with an explanation of the program.

The Program Details

The Longevity Project is a heavily-subsidized subscription service. To participate in the Longevity Project, you will pay an annual fee. Then you will receive a Grant which is approximately eight times the fee. When you use the services, the cost of the service will be deducted from your Grant. The amount of your fee will be determined by the number of people in your family and whether you are a new missionary. We have put together a package of programs that will be especially helpful for new missionaries (within first two years of service), as well as a package of programs which should be more helpful for experienced missionaries.

New Missionary Package: Pre-Field Course, Christian Global Health in Perspective Course, Coach/Mentor program, Short Debrief, Annual Check-up, Spiritual Director, Counseling.

Experienced Missionary Package: Counseling, Spiritual Director, Missionary Kid Educational Consultation, Dispute Mediation, Christian Global Health in Perspective Course, Short Debrief, Coach/Mentor program, Annual Check-Up.

The components of these packages are available for you to use as you choose.

Two components of the program, the MedRefresh Retreat and Extended Debrief and Counseling, are not included in the basic package. In order to keep the annual fee as low as possible, we chose to separate these programs and make them available for an additional fee. The fee still provides an 8:1 grant. These components do have availability restrictions.

We've created a drop down of all of the services and our partners who are offering their talents and gifts to support the program. Please see below.

Equipping: Pre-Course

Equipping: Christian Global Health in Perspective

Resilience: Short Debrief

Resilience: Coach / Mentor

Resilience: Annual Check-Up

Strengthening: Spiritual Director

Access is provided to a diverse range of offerings to foster spiritual growth in a challenging setting. These offerings include trained and experienced personal Spiritual Directors with missions backgrounds, spiritual retreats, and online courses.

Spiritual Direction
as offered by Barnabas International

Definition of Spiritual Direction

Spiritual direction (SD) is a prayerful practice that focuses on the development of a conscious awareness of the relationship between a person and God. A spiritual director helps the other to become more aware of the presence, movement, and invitation of God in everyday life. SD helps to facilitate a healthy attachment to God that may result in greater intimacy with and love for Christ.

Rationale for Spiritual Direction

Spiritual formation is a lifelong process accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This ongoing transformational process can occur through a variety of means – discipleship, bible study, worship, pastoral counseling, mentoring and spiritual practices to name just a few.

Spiritual Direction is one such practice. It involves a trained Spiritual Director accompanying another over a period of time for the purpose of helping them notice and respond to the Triune God’s personal communication as He invites them to be transformed into the image and likeness of Christ. SD is primarily focused upon the development of that relationship. Although SD conversations will likely include talking about problems or conflicts, the focus will be upon how these issues provide fodder for deepening spiritual formation of the individual.

To this end, SD is one way that Barnabas International accompanies global workers in their spiritual formation journey as they are on mission in the world. As global workers grow in their awareness of God’s presence in their lives and His invitations to them through the practice of SD, they are freer to follow His leading in their lives and can more confidently respond to His calling from a place of deep love.

Strengthening: Counseling

Restoration: MedRefresh Retreat*

*These more expensive components are available for an additional fee.

The entire family takes part in a week-long retreat with a focus on the needs of healthcare missionaries. The retreat includes an adult-learning educational program, trained debriefing, time to unwind, an outstanding children’s program, and a day of paid-for fun activities. Retreats are held both in the US and overseas. Available once every two years. Partner: Alongside

Restoration: Extended Debrief & Counseling*

Enhancements: Missionary Kid Education

Enhancements: Dispute Mediation

The Costs

The grant fee and grant amount are based on your family or unit size and your duration of service. If this is confusing, please reach out to Kim at kim@medsend.org and she will walk you through it.

Here’s how this would work. Let’s look at the situation of a new missionary who is married with no kids. Their annual fee would be $250.00, which would procure a $2,000 grant. They might choose to go Pre-Field ($700), participate in the Coach/Mentor program ($200), meet as a pair with a Spiritual Director every other month (6 x $80=$480), take the Perspectives course together ($150), both take the Annual Check-Up (2 x $100 = $200), and use two couples’ counseling sessions (2 x $100 = $200) for a total of $1930.

The following year, they might spend their $2,000 grant this way: Coach/Mentor ($200), meet individually with a Spiritual Director six times (6 x 2 x $80 = $960), and have couples’ counseling eight times (8 x $100 = $800) for a total of $1960. They might want to attend the MedRefresh Retreat in Thailand that year, so would pay the $500 fee to receive about $4,000 worth of benefit in hotel, meal, and program costs (transportation to and from the retreat is not included.)

Quick Tip: When calculating your annual grant fee, be sure to begin with the base plan and then add the fee grant fee for MedRefresh Retreat and / or Extended Debrief to determine your total grant fee for the fiscal year. Here is an example for clarity:

An experienced missionary family will pay the $525 fee to receive $4200 in services. If you wish to add the MedRefresh Retreat, the fee is $657 to attend the retreat which has a value of $5250 for a family of 4. Pay the basic plan at $525 + $657 for the retreat = $1182 total for the year. The value of the 2 grants is $9450.

All costs are in USD.

New Missionary

Family Size	Grant Fee / Grant Amount
Single	$125 / $1000
Couple	$250 / $2000
Family of 3	$328 / $2625
Family of 4	$406 / $3250
Family of 5	$469 / $3750
Family of 6	$531 / $4250
Family of 7	$594 / $4750

Experienced Missionary

Family Size	Grant Fee / Grant Amount
Single	$231 / $1850
Couple	$363 / $2900
Family of 3	$444 / $3550
Family of 4	$525 / $4200
Family of 5	$600 / $4800
Family of 6	$675 / $5400
Family of 7	$750 / $6000

The Enhancement: MedRefresh Retreat

Family Size	Grant Fee / Grant Amount
Single	$250 / $2000
Couple	$500 / $4000
Family of 3	$579 / $4625
Family of 4	$657 / $5250
Family of 5	$719 / $5750
Family of 6	$782 / $6250
Family of 7	$844 / $6750

The Enhancement: Extended Debrief

Family Size	Grant Fee / Grant Amount
Single	$445 / $3700
Couple	$700 / $5800
Family of 3	$775 / $6450
Family of 4	$850 / $7100
Family of 5	$925 / $7700
Family of 6	$1000 / $8300
Family of 7	$1075 / $8900

Frequent Questions & Answers

Can I choose to use a component from a different package?

Yes, as long as it isn’t one of the more expensive components.

Why aren’t all of the components available to all participants?

Some of the components, such as the MedRefresh Retreats, are comparatively expensive. We didn’t want to charge you the proportionate cost of the Retreat if you are not able to attend it that year.

If I use up my grant, can I purchase a second grant within the same year?

We want to offer the Longevity Project to as many healthcare missionaries as possible, so we will limit participation to one grant per year. You can feel free to contact our partners directly to arrange for further services at their usual rates.

If I don’t use all of my grant, can I “roll it over” to next year?

We want to encourage you to take advantage of as many of these services as possible on an ongoing basis. So we do not plan to “roll over” grants to the next year.

Where does MedSend get the money to subsidize the cost of this program?

MedSend works with donors who love the idea of healthcare missions and want to support you in your ministries!

Can I renew next year?

Yes, if you are a participant in the program, you will get a front-of-the-line opportunity to participate next year.

What if I just want to go to the Retreats and not use the other components of the program?

You might be able to do that. The Retreats are limited in size. First dibs for a place at the Retreats will go to participants in the Longevity Program. If seats remain available, we will open participation to others. We will maintain a waiting list for those who are interested.

How do I get on the waiting list for the Longevity Program or the Retreats?

Email kim@medsend.org

All participants in the Longevity Program must be members of one of our Sending Agency Associates. A list of those agencies can be found here.

What if I want to participate in Extended Debrief or Counseling, but don’t want to participate otherwise in the Longevity Program?

We do not offer that option. You are welcome to contact the pertinent organizations directly.

Next Steps

If The Longevity Project is of interest to you, please proceed to the GrantApplication.

If you would rather not participate, please let us know, so we can offer The Longevity Project to someone else. Please contact Kim at kim@medsend.org by June 7, 2023.

Once the application is complete, please send back to Kim at kimberly@medsend.org. She’s interested in monitoring the journey to this level of detail during the pilot. Thanks for helping! The deadline for the Grant Application is June 7th if you choose to participate.

We will certainly accept your grant application, since you’ve already been invited!

Now that you're in, the second step is the payment. You will receive a letter which outlines the steps to pay the fee. Thanks for investing with us for your wellness longevity.

Once your payment is received, your grant will become active on July 1^st. Then you can start signing up for programs. We will share the details of that process later.