Guest Pescador Guidelines
(Recommendation from Policy Committee; Not an Essential)
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Overview
Tres Dias is experiencing rapid growth as communities sponsor new communities. Many Pescadores are traveling to other communities to assist as guest team members. When people from different communities serve together, the phrase often heard is, “But we do it this way… ” When this happens, we learn to appreciate the diversity within our larger worldwide body of believers, while sharing the same Essentials. International Secretariat believes this is healthy and desirable, and wants to encourage communities in fostering this cross-pollination within this ministry.

There are three ways Guest Pescadores can strengthen other communities:

1) Established Local Communities can allow Pescadores from other communities to serve on their weekends. Since the primary purpose is to experience how other communities run their weekends and to bring back information to their home community, a person from another community may ask or be asked to serve, or a rector, with Secretariat approval, may ask someone from another community to serve. This is healthy.

2)New communities are in need of experienced team members willing to travel to help the new Pescadores gain needed experience to grow a strong new community. Often a sponsoring community will allow individuals from the new community to be candidates or team members on the sponsoring community’s weekends. This exchange of experience helps build well-grounded Pescadores with diverse experience to assist in strengthening new communities. This is desirable.

3) International communities often cannot afford to put on weekends without financial support from sponsoring communities and/or outside team members who pay a substantial team fee to support and encourage the international community. Our hope is for international communities to become strong and self-supporting; however this may be difficult in some foreign economies. Worldwide growth for Tres Dias is healthy, desirable and exciting.

This document is intended as a guideline to communities and not a policy. It is not mandatory. It describes the role of Guest Pescadores in Tres Dias. It can apply in any of the options listed above. However, although there are obvious differences in terms of distance, expense or language, the role of a Guest Pescador on new and international communities closely parallels traditional team implementation.

A Guest Pescador entering a weekend in an established community requires some additional coordination.  Typically, weekends within a community initially take on the characteristics of their sponsoring community. Over time, weekend activities other than Essentials begin to take on the unique personality of that community and its members. This is a richness that Tres Dias International wants to encourage, as long as the Essentials and Dynamics are maintained and the Guest Pescador doesn’t interfere with the running of the weekend. Although they are not Essentials, Mananita, Serenade, Forgiveness Ceremony and Agape have all become very special and meaningful to the communities where they are practiced. Sharing in these events, understanding why they have become so special and observing other factors such as how a community works with unusual and varying facilities helps promote understanding and information transfer between communities with widely differing traditions and environments.

Initiating a Request
To initiate sending a Guest Pescador to another community, the appropriate leadership of the local Secretariat should contact the designated Secretariat contact person of the other community. Often these names are available on a community website. Requests should go through the local Secretariat and not directly to a specific Rector. Communities may choose to establish a local guideline to supplement this document. They may choose to accept all such requests, a specific number per year or deny all requests. This guideline is not intended to place a burden on any community either financially or functionally. No community is under any obligation to implement the Guest Pescador program. Although encouraged, it is a local option.

Guest Pescadores
Guest Pescadores should be active members of a community and sufficiently familiar with their community and with enough weekend experience to make a visit beneficial. Former Rectors, leaders of the local Tres Dias School and officers of the local Secretariat with weekend experience sufficient to qualify as Rectors, would be ideal and would provide maximum gain for both communities. Once an individual has been presented and accepted as a Guest Pescador on a specific host community’s weekend, he or she should be considered as a team member. A word to Guest Pescadores; please remember that you are a guest on the weekend. You are not there to critique a community or its weekend. Your interface is the Rector, or their designee.

Financial Considerations
It is suggested that the Guest Pescador pay his or her own travel expenses. Their community may choose to supplement this or pay the entire amount at their own discretion, as may the host community. Team fees are generally intended to offset the expense of a team member on a weekend. Payment of these fees should be agreed to by the two communities prior to the weekend. Housing will normally not be a concern. However, these arrangements need to be included in the up-front discussions between communities. Host home(s) are one possible solution. Such arrangements should not be left until after the Guest Pescador arrives.

Host Community
Communities, Guest Pescadores and Rectors should keep in mind that a Guest Pescador is not there to pry into their weekend or “look over their shoulder”, but is an experienced Pescador and is there to benefit from their weekend and what makes it unique and special to their community.

It is strongly suggested that for maximum information transfer, a Guest Pescador have a flexible role on the weekend allowing them to observe Rollo room activities, view behind the scene activities, participate in team meetings on the weekend, etc. Rarely would a Guest Pescador serve as a Rollista in an established local Community. If they do, the talk would need to be critiqued.

Finally, although in most cases it will be financially prohibitive, the Guest Pescador should try to make one team meeting prior to the weekend. It is, however, important that the Rector introduce the Guest Pescador concept at a team meeting and remind the team at the last meeting that this will be happening, reiterating the purpose, the Guest Pescadore’s name, creating a name badge, etc. The Guest Pescador may wish to send a note to the team in advance, introducing themselves with their background in Tres Dias and perhaps include a personal photo. These help bridge communication and build team unity. A Guest Pescador should above all follow the ideal and model Jesus through loving service.

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