Missions Week

Missions Week is Homeward’s annual gathering for those who spend their lives in the harvest: active and tenured missionaries and evangelists, with their families. It is held aboard a cruise ship, and participation is by invitation and complimentary for invited ministers and their families — Homeward covers core expenses, including gratuities. Invited families arrange and pay for their own travel to the port.

Invitations are extended through a Request for Invitation reviewed by the Guest Relations team. Homeward looks past platform metrics, budget and head count, and invites on humility, endurance and devotion instead. Invitations include the minister’s core family.

Preparing to travel

Most of what goes wrong before a gathering goes wrong at check-in, so the guide’s Prepare section leads with it:

Reservation and check-in — complete check-in with the cruise line in their app or on their site, print your luggage tags and reservation confirmation, and fill in the health questionnaire the day before embarkation. Finish early: website check-in closes three days before departure, and leaving it late narrows your arrival-time choices.
Documents and passport validity — your passport should be valid at least six months beyond the end of the programme. Visa holders should carry printed copies of their return flight, cruise confirmation and invitation.
ESTA and visas — Homeward does not sponsor visas. Invited guests may receive a supporting invitation letter; the guide carries the current Visa Waiver Program and ESTA guidance for the ports on your itinerary.
Flights and baggage — print your boarding passes. You do not need to report normal travel delays; the arrival plan already allows for them.
Arrival and departure days — there is a hotel welcome and shuttle arrangement the day before embarkation, terminal shuttles on embarkation morning, and a departure day with a latest recommended flight time. The guide gives the times and the shuttle tracker link.
Entering the United States — the guide lists the hotel and the ship to use as your US address on entry forms.
Packing — clothing, sunscreen, power and footwear guidance, plus what to bring to specific sessions.

Life aboard

The Ship section of the guide covers the practicalities of the week. Your stateroom card is your key, your identification and your payment card. The cruise line’s own app works aboard without buying a Wi-Fi plan, so save anything you need offline before you sail. Meals are included in the main venues and the buffet, receptions are held on the first and last evenings, and the buffet is the quickest option between sessions. Tell the staff about any allergy — they can accommodate far more than the menu suggests.

The programme

Days alternate between conference days at sea and port days. Three parts of the programme are worth knowing in advance:

Matched meetings — short one-on-one rotations that pair you with other attendees. They are for adults, childcare is available during them, and the guide lists helpful things to bring, with worked examples.
Peer roundtables — 35-minute discussion groups in three rotations, on topics the attendees propose themselves. See below.
Port days — the guide’s Excursions section lists each port’s options with type, age guidance, duration and how physically demanding each one is.

The schedule in the guide is grouped by day, with each session’s time, location and category, plus audience badges such as Family-friendly, Adults only and Childcare available. Schedules change during the week, so check the guide rather than a printed copy.

Roundtables

Roundtables are the part of the week you shape. In the guide’s Roundtables section you can:

Submit a topic — a title of up to 50 characters and a description of up to 200. You are automatically RSVPed as the first participant.
Like a topic — to show interest without committing. Hovering over the like count shows who else liked it.
RSVP to a topic, or cancel an RSVP.

Topics sort by the latest interaction, so a new topic, a like or an RSVP moves it up the board. Proposers can delete their own topic, and the confirmation warns that it cannot be undone.

Childcare

Childcare runs during services and selected sessions for enrolled children. The guide’s Childcare section holds the schedule, the teachers and their contact details, and the rules. In brief:

Eligibility — children must be within the enrolled age range and fully potty trained.
Drop-off — opens 30 minutes before a session and closes 30 minutes after it begins. On-time drop-off matters; late arrivals disturb the session for the children already inside.
Pick-up — present your Homeward lanyard. There is no mid-session dismissal except in an emergency, and early pick-up is only in the final ten minutes. A child not collected within 30 minutes is escorted to the main conference room.
What to bring — your child’s Homeward wristband, water gear for day sessions and comfortable clothing for the evening.
Enrolment — one intake form per child, sent by your Guest Relations Manager, plus a meet-and-greet on the first evening. Childcare is optional, but enrol before you sail.

Conference policies

The guide’s Info section carries the policies for the week. They exist because guests come from many cultures and many of them carry real risk at home, and Homeward asks you to honor them and to make sure your family and friends do too.

Conduct for services and worship — arrive on time with your name tag, do not disturb worship, keep phones away, do not photograph, record or stream services, and do not socialize in the service space. Seating is first-come and seats may not be held. Guests may not minister to other guests without permission.
Attendance expectations — Missions Week is a working conference for active missionaries rather than a family holiday. Services and meetings are generally required for adults, and some sessions ask you to bring prepared materials.
Photography and phones — Homeward reserves all rights to event content and releases recordings to attendees afterwards. Do not post photos of other guests or staff without their consent: some guests minimize their online presence for the safety of their ministry region.
Safety — stay within sight of your tour guides on port days, and contact the ship’s crew for medical or safety emergencies.
Media waiver — taking part grants Homeward permission to use your image for non-commercial purposes such as recruiting and education.

Who to contact for what

The Info section’s “Who can help?” grid routes you correctly:

Cruise line guest relations — the ship’s desk or their app, for stateroom, dining and shipboard matters. This is not the Homeward team.
Homeward event team — guestrelations@homeward.org, with a welcome and information point on board, for anything about the programme, childcare or your registration.
Childcare team — the lead teachers, reachable by message during the week.
Medical — the ship’s medical center and the ship’s emergency number, not the Homeward team.