Caring for missionaries - in conclusion

Having a mind and heart for missionaries:    

Having a mind and heart for missionaries means faithful, sustainable, disciplined care.  A thriving relationship promotes prayer.  Prayerfulness promotes communication and contact - that is, relationship.  It's a cycle.  So to get it going...

Put it on the calendar – Mark when you are going to write personally, as a group or as a church on the calendar .  We don’t naturally write letters or correspond by email these days so we need to book it in.  Plan to do it, plan to do it regularly and then act upon those plans. 

Don’t spread yourself too thinly.  Think about how many missionaries you can feasibly maintain.  A church can cover more than an individual but in all situations keep it sustainable so that it keeps on happening and doesn’t become an overwhelming exercise.

Look after your own spiritual health.  If you are spiritually dry or empty you will have nothing to share.  Keep yourself spiritually fit so that you have plenty to give.

Friends on the mission field.  Used with permission.
 

 

Caring for missionaries #4 - creative encouragement

Creative ways to encourage a missionary

besides finances, prayer and written communication:

Talk with them directly by phone or by Skype.

Donate frequent flyer points to them, if this is appropriate for their situation.  This might be something you can do for them while they are on home assignment or help them to get away to somewhere other than their place of work on some annual leave while they are on location. 

Purchase an iTunes gift card for them.  You can either mail it to them or just email the activation code to them.  Make sure this will actually be of use before you do it.

Make a movie of friends, family, their church family, familiar locations and so on for them and send it or put it on Vimeo or Youtube.  There are secure ways of uploading movies onto the Internet but be very careful if you have a missionary in a secure location.

If your missionary isn’t serving in the middle of the jungle, use the Internet to find a local florist or food outlet and get them something fantastic delivered to the door...goodies from a bakery, pizza delivered to the door, a box of groceries...

Find out what they are really missing or what items are really hard to find in their new country and send something to them.  Be prepared for a big bill at the post office so go ready to be sacrificial at that point.  (Just think of their faces when they open their gift.  That will help with the post office pain.)  That said, you don’t need to send an abundance of something...even just a small offering of some favourite thing will be appreciated.  (No used tea bags!  Did somebody really do that??)

Before sending anything, check with your missionary. Sometimes there are restrictions on sizes of parcels that can be received and it can be an expensive exercise for the missionary to retrieve it from the local authorities if they can retrieve it at all, which rather takes the edge off a gift.  Communicate and work with your missionary on the best way to get things through to them.  In some situations it may be better to send nothing.  Clear communication and clear guidelines make for a better experience all round.

Organise them an Amazon gift voucher.  All electronic and it gives them the joy of choosing.  Check first to see if that is going to be useful and accessible.

Organise a magazine or journal subscription for them.  Again, check with your missionary before you do this for security, content, postal and/or email/Internet access issues.  (Some missionaries are only able to receive very short emails without attachments so check, check, check.)  But if it will work, go for it. 

Get in touch with their family back at home and find out how they are doing.  If they are Christians pray with them and if not, pray for them.  And then report back encouraging news.  If there is something you can do to help a missionary’s family members back at home – mow the lawn for their elderly parents for example – do this.  What a gift to a missionary.

If there are children, remember them.  Stickers, colouring pages, coloured craft paper...these sorts of things are easily popped into letters.  If their location and your budget will allow you to send more, do so.  Send a care package especially for the children.
 

Caring for missionaries #3 - getting the church excited

Promoting missionary care in church:

 

*   Be linked to a missionary and make sure they visit your church when they are on home assignment.  Make their visit an event – interviews, a meal together...hands on.  It’s your event...organise it well.  And be generous with them as they visit you.  Make it an opportunity to care for them as they serve your congregation.

 

*   Take ten minutes from a service four times a year (March – before Easter, July, September and November – before Christmas), hand out A5 paper and pens and write short letters.  In church!  It is amazing how much you can write in ten short minutes.  On Monday morning go to the post office and send off your parcel of encouragement.

 

*   Publish fresh prayer points in the church newsletter every month.  If you have nothing specific that is new and current then work in some of the general prayer points. What is important is to provide people with new, regular prayer points to keep them praying.

 

*   Pray through those prayer points from the front of the church – in its own dedicated spot during the service or during the service prayer time.

*   When a prayer letter arrives from a missionary, don’t just stick one copy up on the pin-up board.  Photocopy it and hand it out with the newsletter for everyone. 

*   Midway through a missionary’s tour, hold an event at your church to refresh everyone’s memory.  Have a national meal, give news, pray, maybe have a Skype link up if you can set it up or even just a live email exchange and spend ten minutes writing letters – or at the very least, send around a card that everyone can sign.

 

Incorporating missions into the children’s programme:

*   During each of the school holidays, run a kids’ mission session with the Sunday School children.  Tell them what the missionary has been up to lately and show photos if some are available, spend some time learning about the country (and try some food from that location if you can), pray for the missionary, write letters and draw pictures. This works especially well if you can link your Sunday School children up with a missionary family.  The children may find this a bit abstract to begin with but if it is done every holidays, and if the missionaries make contact back with the children, a relationship soon forms and it becomes quite a natural thing to do.

*   Take up a “kids’ collection” during Sunday School and direct it to a missionary.

 

Incorporating missions into a Bible study group:

*   Have the missionary’s prayer card on the table each week – a visual reminder.

*   During the prayer time share prayer points for the missionary and make sure they are prayed for each week, alongside the members of your group.

*   Four times a year (or once a month even!!) write a letter – individual ten minute letters on A5 paper or pass around an airletter during the study for people to add a few lines, pass around a computer and add to an email or write a short note in a card.

*   Take up a “spare change” collection (this can add up to quite a sum of money over the course of a year) and save it to give to your missionary for when they are on home assignment for a few luxuries – or direct it to their missionary support.

Caring for missionaries #2 - writing letters

How to write to a missionary:

In the opening letter you write to a missionary, especially if you are unknown to them or have met them only once...

*   Introduce yourself.

*   Explain your connection or how you come to be writing to them.

For all subsequent letters, assume that they then know you. 

Things you can write about...

*   Personal news.

*   News from your church; local, state and federal news; the weather, sports news, political news, the price of things (petrol, housing, bananas...anything you think they might be interested in), new buildings going up in town – the sorts of things of daily life at home.

*   Words of encouragement – how you are specifically encouraged by their ministry, what you are reading in the Bible at the moment and how it is encouraging you, a Bible verse that will encourage them, the fact that you have prayed for them.

*   Encourage them not to feel burdened to reply, so actually tell them they don’t need to write back.  Your letter is a gift...so don’t ask lots and lots of questions, which begs for a response.  This is when your letter is sent as a “ministry of encouragement.”  However if you have developed a close relationship with them that includes regular specific prayer and perhaps even a level of accountability then you must ask questions every time...especially “How can I pray for you at the moment?” and “I was praying about such and such, how is that going now?” and “How are you doing with...?”

And what not to include...

*   Unless you have a very close, mutually prayerful relationship, don’t include a list of your own personal woes.  Letters to missionaries are for their encouragement.  They can’t help you in your difficulties and they may feel frustrated being so far away and unable to assist, which won’t help them to do their work.  Unburden closer to home and send words that build up and encourage offshore.

 Writing to people in secure locations:

Do not include...

*   Christian language – Bible, Christian, Church, congregation, prayer/praying, baptism, converts, Sunday, Christmas, Easter...

*   Bible verses or reference to the Bible.

*   The name of the organisation they work for or the key people who work in it – anything that might be found in an Internet search.

 

 

Dear ____________

 

It is good to be writing to you again.  I wanted to let you know that I have been thinking of you every day.  And the people we meet with every week also keep you in their thoughts.  I was speaking to state head of your company and he said that your work was going very well at every level, that you have many opportunities to do your work and that you feel well supported by the one we love the best.  That is wonderful news.

 

Love _____________

 

You need to keep it very general.  Check it carefully – and get someone else to check it – before you send it because it is easy to slip up.  In some locations it is vital to be this cautious.

Check on the website of the relevant missionary organization for your missionary for further advice, including advice specific to their organisation.
 

Caring for missionaries #1

Last weekend I ran a small workshop on how to care for missionaries over the long haul.  That is, how to pray and care for them for their WHOLE tour of duty and not just when they are fresh out from home assignment, about to return home or at Christmas time.  What follows in this and four more posts is the amalgamation of the words I said and the words I handed out on paper. 

And please know that I was convicted by my own workshop!  I am as erratic at this as the next person.  But if you are interested in loving and caring for missionaries, I hope these posts will be helpful.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Who are the people easiest to keep in our prayers?  Those in our immediate vicinity, of course.  So that makes praying for missionaries quite tricky for many people, because our missionaries are only in our midst for a few months every three or so years.

And sadly, most missionaries will tell you that the longer they are away from home, the less they hear from people at home.  There are is flurry of contact immediately following home assignment but as the months and years wear on the contact, except from a faithful few, wears thin.

If we pray best for the people with whom we are in closest relationship, then the trick to keeping our missionaries in our prayers is to maintain a close relationship with them – which means regular, faithful, disciplined contact to keep the relationship alive and present. 

What follows (in this and four more posts) is a variety of ways to keep in touch and to keep praying on a regular basis.

Prayers you can pray for every missionary,

even if you are unsure of their specific circumstances:

You can pray for...

*   Opportunities for them to share the gospel, courage to do so and wisdom in doing so.

*   Personal spiritual health – daily prayer and daily personal Bible reading that is encouraging and refreshing.

*   Safety and for good health - physical and psychological.

*   Family life - for a strong marriage and for their children - or for dealing with singleness on the field.  And pray for the missionary’s family left back at home.

*   That they won’t be homesick.

While not specific, time spent praying these things for missionaries will be time well spent for the Kingdom.

Books about hard places # 1

I've just finished reading a couple of great books about life in hard places - Pakistan, Afghanistan and North Korea. 

The first one was Shoot Me First by Grant Lock.  Grant and his wife Janna spent 24 years working with a mission organisation close to my heart in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  They came to the task as successful cattle breeders in South Australia but spent their years overseas supporting micro-hydroelectric schemes, teaching English as a second language, overseeing a massive eye-care programme and caring for all who crossed their paths. 

Shoot Me First is masterfully written.  In spots it's laugh out loud funny.  Right in the opening pages Lock describes trying to register his family with the Pakistani government on their arrival.  The man he is dealing with doesn't seem to think Lock is a sufficiently suitable surname.  Too short.  Too pedestrian.

His intense gaze is making me uncomfortable.  I thought I'd articulated it clearly, but I'll try again.  "Lock," I repeat slowly.
He still looks disdainfully puzzled.  Suddenly a light of descriptive genius flashes in my brain.  I rotate my hand as though I'm turning a key.  "Lock!  You know!  Lock, as in door."
His face changes.  He gives a satisfied sigh, as though his lips have just sampled the rich blend of spices in a superior mutton karahi.  "Ah yes, that is a good name, Sahib.  That is to be a very good name."  Under Matthew's watchful gaze he completes the entry with meticulous care.  Then he looks up and addresses me warmly. "Welcome to Pakistan, Mr Lokazindore."

(From chapter two of Shoot Me First.)

But if some parts had me laughing, other parts were read through tears.  These are truly hard places in which to live.  The Locks lived and worked amongst the ordinary people of Pakistan and Afghanistan and it was tough.  Grant and Janna Lock showed amazing, AMAZING compassion, care and love for those in their contact.

Shoot Me First reads like extracts from the journals of their years away.  But it is so much more than a collection of stories from their time overseas.  Through their tales Lock seeks to educate.  What is it really like in these countries that are so torn, stretched and oppressed by political, social and religious tensions, especially for the poor and the outcast?  Grant Lock explains, illustrates, teaches and cuts through all sorts of myths - and as it turns out, we in the west don't always come out as right. It is hard to garner an accurate picture of "normal" life in these countries.  But I am confident to accept Lock's testimony given they spent a of quarter of a century living in amongst and serving the ordinary people of Pakistan and Afghanistan - and I am glad to have a clearer and even handed view of these nations which now enables me to pray better for those I know who currently work there.

A Christian biography?  Well, yes.  But in a very understated way.  There is no doubt that Grant and Janna are people of deep and abiding faith and trust in God.  But throughout the book their faith is mostly implied rather than stated.  I assume they have taken a low key approach for security reasons, given that some of their programmes are still up and running.  But it works for us too, making this a great book to share with friends and neighbours, showing faith in action without going overboard.

This is a wonderful book.  Really wonderful.  So worth a read to learn about life in these hard places and to be inspired and moved by this compassionate and faithful couple.

And here is the Shoot Me First website.

Holiday reading

Two weeks of school holidays.  Four books from three different Australian writers.  And a whole lot of housework pending to show for it.  But it was fun getting into such a mess.

I started with The Spare Room by Helen Garner.  This is a story about Helen (it isn't autobiographical) who prepares her spare room for friend Nicola, who is coming to the city to undergo three weeks of experimental treatment she believes will cure her advanced cancer.  I've read some excellent reviews for this novel.  And it is well written.  Garner uses her words economically and creates believable characters in easy to picture settings.

Her powers of description are so good however that as it turns out, I didn't really enjoy the book.  It's a hard subject.  And the descriptions of this desperately ill woman with more emphasis on bodily fluids than I can manage (I'm the person who, when pregnant with our first child, prayed earnestly that I wouldn't give birth to a vomity baby!) and the hopelessness of the situation (it's not a Christian book - but to face death without the hope of eternal life found in Jesus is a desperately sad thing indeed) just made it all too bleak for me.  In and of itself it's fine prose...but I was glad I hadn't saved it to take as holiday reading to the beach.

I moved onto Land's Edge: A Coastal Memoir by Tim Winton.  Ahhhh...Tim Winton - prize winning West Australian author.  I love his earlier material.  My favourite big novel of his is The Riders which I read compulsively quite some years ago over three big days and nights, interrupted only by needing to go to work and needing a few hours sleep to prevent my eyes from falling out of my head. I haven't enjoyed his more recent offerings - far too much information and far too much pushing of the boundaries for me, I'm afraid.

I referred to The Riders as a "big novel" because my absolute favourite YOU MUST READ THIS work by Tim Winton is his novella Blueback.  This is the story of a mother and son who live on the coast and fight to protect their little piece of marine paradise from developers.  Winton's powers of description take you to that bit of beach and that beach shack - and it is there that a very tender and beautiful story unfolds.

Land's Edge is like Blueback, except that while Blueback is fiction, Land's Edge is Tim Winton's own experience of coastal existence.  He loves the coast.  He lives for the coast.  And he can describe it like none other.  He captures the sting of the sand on your legs on a windy day, the smell of the ocean, eyes watering from the salt and the glare, the windswept vegetation, the peace and tranquility, the danger, the colours, the feelings evoked.  It's all there. He captures it and bottles it on a page. 

Land's Edge also taught me that if you want to remain standing in rough surf, it is better to stand side on rather than front on in crashing waves.   I remembered that little piece of information after my first unceremonious dumping at the beach during the holidays...and was subsequently saved from further unplanned somersaults in the crashing foam!

Finally, feeling like possibly the last person in the world to read these books, I moved onto My Seventh Monsoon and No Ordinary View by Naomi Reed.  Two great reads as she describes life as a cross-cultural worker in Nepal with her husband, both physios, and their family .  There is much to love about these books.  Early on in the first book she wrote,

We arrived back in Khammam in June with a renewed vision and purpose.  We would use any opportunities that came our way to love and pray for people.  Beyond that, we would rejoice in God and in the place where he had put us.  
(My Seventh Monsoon, page 39)

This was the Reeds' fresh resolve after some really hard months in India, enroute to Nepal.  If they couldn't do anything else for lack of language, cultural awareness, resources or real opportunity, they could do that.  And that resolution to be content was evident throughout the remainder of My Seventh Monsoon and No Ordinary View.  These books exemplify Christian contentment - the deep joy of being a child of God that runs at the foundation of all of life, irrespective of what life throws at you.  It doesn't mean always being deliriously happy.  It means being anchored.  Their lives in Nepal were not easy, by any stretch of the imagination.  But in seeking to serve God, honour Him and be content in and dependent upon Him, they thrived and their ministry to the people of Nepal bore fruit.

I read these two books while away at the beach.  We stayed in Youth Hostel accommodation which is good but basic - definitely not what you would call fancy.  Had I not been reading these books at the time, the fact that the drains in the bathroom (toilet and shower) that we were to use at the end of our verandah were blocked, smelly and out of action could have had me feeling very sorry for myself.  But really this was nothing compared with the conditions in Nepal.  I had access to another bathroom where there was running water - hot and cold - and good drainage!  And we had electricity, refrigeration, good food and no threat of civil war. 

Naomi Reed's amazing godliness and contentment in the face of all sorts of hardships and her capacity to see not an ordinary view but treasure around every corner is inspiring.  It works because she has written with integrity.  This isn't someone putting on a happy face or looking back with rose coloured glasses.  It's real, authentic and growing faith in action.  And these aren't the sort of books that might make you feel inadequate.  There is genuine encouragement, in the true sense of that word, to press on  to "use any opportunities that [come] our way to love and pray for people" and to "rejoice in God and in the place where He [has] put us."

And take a peek here for a great set of emails from 2009 between Naomi Reed, now back in Australia, and Rachel Connor, serving with her husband and family in Vanuatu.

That's it for holiday reading.  I am slowly retrieving the chaos of the house and returning to term time routines.  And I have made a start on A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and his Letters by Don Carson.  I don't think the title of this book, at least the first bit, is especially helpful.  But the book itself is great.

Lists too Good not to Share # 4 - Blessing Missionaries

This is my last list and no, it isn't Monday. But tomorrow I have something else I need to post.

Do you know any missionaries? Or at the very least, do you know of any missionaries? They are ordinary people who eat, sleep, have families, do a job, try to work hard at their relationship with God and at their relationships with one another under God. But as it happens they work in a foreign setting. Sometimes their work is a direct ministry. Sometimes they do a mainstream job and seek to be Christian in how they work and live. Another feature of missionaries is that they have left their homes, families, friends and churches to do this. It is good work but it can be isolating work. So here is a great list from the Desiring God website of 13 ways to bless a missionary without paying for postage - which will surely appeal because I know there are some of you out there who don't like writing letters!! And the good thing is that you don't have to wait until Christmas to have a go at one of these...each of them will work and be gratefully received any time of the year.

This list is again presented to you with full permission and as per their request, I have copied the article in full which was originally from here.

Were you unable to send a Christmas present or care package to some missionaries you love this season? It’s okay. You can still bless a missionary this Christmas.

[Update: It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway—even though Christmas is past, these ideas can still encourage our friends overseas. Let's keep serving them all year long!]

Here are 13 post-office-free ideas to get you started, most of which you could do right now from your desk:

1. Pray specific Scripture for them and their ministry, and then email it to them.

2. Call or email their parents—Christmas might be just as lonely for the ones at home as the ones away.

3. Purchase phone minutes for an international calling card through an online service like OneSuite and email them the account number.
4. Donate frequent flier miles to them.
5. Purchase an iTunes gift card for them. Have it sent to you and email them the account number.
6. Commit to pray for them on a specific day of the week for a year.
7. Write a song or poem or story for them. Email them the text and a recording of you reading or singing it.
8. Get friends and family together to create a holiday video greeting for them using Google Video or YouTube. Include lots of people you know they miss.
9. Make a year-end gift through their missions board or agency.
10. Western Union—the fastest way to send money.
11. Call their local florist (not everyone is in the jungle these days) and have flowers delivered, or their local Pizza Hut and have pizza delivered—with corn and shrimp as toppings!
12. Donate to a charity that means a lot to them.
13. Make a monthly commitment to support them financially.
If you have your own ideas, respond to this post and let us know what they are. Maybe next year we can offer 50 suggestions, or 100.

(Remember to use discernment in written or video communication if your missionaries work in security-sensitive locations.)
" Copyright 2007 Desiring God. Used by permission."

And here is another similar list, this time from the Gospel Coalition Blog, which does include a visit to the post office!

Out of Africa

I would like you to meet two friends of mine. Both work in Africa.

J, who I have mentioned before, works in a west African country. This week she sent me an email that started like this.

This comes with fresh greetings from a location where the air is clean from summer rains. While the downside might mean more litter washed into one's yard and less electricity (supplies perhaps 30% of the time), it is good to have the trees so green and the air dust-free.

Imagine if we only had electricity for 30% of the time...

The other is R, who works in a landlocked country in the south east of Africa. This is what she wrote in her blog earlier this month.

Remember my 'experiment' last year?

$1 a day (or was it $2?) no power, carry my own water for a week (or was it 2?) oh yeah - i remember- and no matress. lol

Well, I'm upping the ante. I've been given the opportunity to live in a village for a few months... and I moved out there last Friday! It's not about living on the edge or feeling good that I'm doing it tough- it's about getting as much language and cultural interaction as i can.

I'm looking forward to blogging all about it ...soon. But for now- First impressions?

- stinging eyes from lighting and cooking over a smoke fire
- the sheer time investment into every chore
- from boiling water for a cuppa to pumping water and carrying it up the hill to my house
- amazing generosity and friendliness of my new neighbourhood. They've visited, shared their food, invited me to family events (sadaka) and cleaned my pots....

but they're all stories for another day!

I'll write when I can- in the mean time, please pray that I'll get to the next level with language, make some good friends and stay well.

What J and R do takes my breath away.

J and R don't live choose to live in these circumstances so they can be seen to be living the politically and environmentally correct lifestyle.
J and R don't live like this to store up impressive stories to tell at dinner parties.
J and R aren't trying to show off.

Rather...

J and R are two humble women who love God and love the people of the nations in which they live and work.
J and R remind me of the difference between living surrounded by abundance and living abundantly.
J and R remind me to be thankful and to stop complaining when I am inconvenienced in some small way.

And there you have J and R, two friends of mine. Two amazing women.