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.

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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.

Happy birthday Antonio Vivaldi

Today it's Antonio Vivaldi's birthday.  And so to celebrate, a musical treat.  Not so well known as "The Four Seasons" or his "Gloria", this is his "Concerto a due cori con violino discordato" (RV 583) and it is sublime.   If you are stretched for time, go the 5:20 mark and just listen to the Andante. Turn it up and have tissues ready...it includes a minute of possibly the most beautiful music ever composed.  You will know when you get to the right spot.
  

Note to self

Not that we are having any particular issues at the moment, all thanks be to God, but I just wanted to remind myself of the three things that Ross Campbell, in How to Really Love your Child, says makes for happy children, as the year picks up veritable speed.

 

Lots of eye contact - happy eyes, not just the angry eyes.

Lots of physical contact - appropriate, of course.

Lots of focussed attention - not one eye on the child and one eye on the slow cooker/computer/book/TO DO list/________(fill in the blank).

The year is certainly picking up pace, but we are just at the end of a lovely and timely long weekend.  It has been good to remember these things. 

Why it has taken me this long to read Jane Eyre

So, I have recently read Jane Eyre.  For the first time.  Could it be the perfect novel?  I loved reading through the Jane Austens last year - and there are definitely three of them that I will go back to at some stage - but is one allowed to like Jane Eyre better than Jane Austen? 

I knew this story well having watched it in various versions and I've practically memorised every inch of the BBC miniseries from 2006.  But the novel...  What can I say?  What a beautiful read.  I want to read it again.  Straight away.  Which is unheard of for me.

My recent enthusiasm for J.E. did raise the question amongst at least a couple of my friends as to how I'd got this far without having read it until now.  Well, I blame it on 1986.  And 1985.

High school was full of required reading and it was during this time that I read Tolkien for the first time.  After that I went to university to learn to be a teacher, but did an Arts degree alongside that qualification.  I recall standing in the queue at enrolling time, still undecided about whether to take literature or history.  I was one person from the front of the desk when I ticked the literature box.  That was the mistake for 1985 because had I done my research I would have discovered that my chosen university didn't take a particularly classical approach to literature.  They were more into feminism at the more radical end of the spectrum and Freud.

In 1986 I enrolled in a year long unit call The Theory of the Novel (mistake number two) which involved one novel a week, starting with Don Quixote and finishing with whatever what modern at the time, all viewed through a Freudian lens.  Oh joy.  Not.  In addition I took another unit each semester which also had a reading requirement of one novel per week.  That's two novels a week.  I ended up reading  the novels I needed for essays and tutorials in full and otherwise, lots of first chapters, last chapters, random middle chapters, introductions and journal articles, learning to chip in with some intelligent comment based on my limited reading early on in the tutorial before the discussions got beyond me.  And I learned to hate reading.

In 1987 I only had two more units to complete my literature requirements and I chose poetry because poems are much shorter than novels.  And the lecturer was old school.  Not sure how he came to have a job at this particular university but I was sure glad to have found him.

After that I became a Christian and so I read the Bible and Christian books.  I added professional reading to that and the newspaper to keep up with current affairs then eventually I dipped my toe tentatively back into the pool of fiction, starting with Brideshead Revisited.  Mostly I read whatever was good and current.  All the Pretty Horses, The English Patient and Captain Corelli's Mandolin spring to mind.  There was a Thomas Hardy phase at some stage.

Then all that stopped and suddenly I was reading books about how to care for babies and how to live with toddlers and how to force said toddlers into eating vegetables.  I like Christopher Green's take on baby and toddler wrangling the best, for what it is worth. And I read recipe books.  And magazine articles because my concentration span had shrunk to nothing.

And so I missed the classics - the ones that were not covered in high school at any rate - and as it transpires, that is fine.  Because there are so many wonderful books for me to read now.  And I am very happy about that.

Trusting God in natural disasters

What about the natural disasters that occur frequently in various parts of the world?  Many sensitive Christians struggle over the multitude of large-scale natural disasters around the world - an earthquake in one place, famine in another, typhoons and floods somewhere else.  Thousands of people are killed immediately, others slowly starve to death.  Entire regions are devastated, crops are ruined, homes destroyed.  "Why does God allow all this?" we may ask.  "Why does god permit all those innocent children to starve?"

It is not wrong to wrestle with these issues, as long as we do it in a reverent submissive attitude toward God.  Indeed, to fail to wrestle with the issue of large-scale tragedy may indicate a lack of compassion toward others on our part.  However, we must be careful not to, in our minds, take God off His throne of absolute sovereignty or put Him in the dock and bring Him to the bar of our judgment.

From Trusting God by Jerry Bridges - pages 102-103

Growth in adversity

If you stop and think about it, you will realise that most godly character traits can only be developed through adversity.  The kind of love that gives freely of itself at great cost to itself can only be learned when we are confronted with situations that call forth a sacrificial love.  The fruit of the Spirit that is called joy cannot be learned in the midst of circumstances that produce mere "natural" happiness.

God is His infinite wisdom know exactly what adversity we need to grow more and more into the likeness of  His Son.  He not only knows what we need but when we need it and how best to bring it to pass in our lives.  He is the perfect teacher or coach.  His discipline is always exactly suited for our needs.  He never over trains us by allowing too much adversity in our lives.

From Trusting God by Jerry Bridges page 128

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,

who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Trusting God by Jerry Bridges

No plan of God's can be thwarted; when He acts no-one can reverse it; no-one can hold back His hand or bring Him to account for His actions.  God does as he pleases, only as He pleases, and works out every event to bring about the accomplishment of His will.  Such a bare unqualified statement of the sovereignty of God would terrify us if that were all we knew about God.  But God is not only sovereign.  He is perfect in love and infinite in wisdom.

From Trusting God by Jerry Bridges page 45

Have I mentioned how much I love the book Trusting God by Jerry Bridges?  Oh yes, I have.  I read it again during the summer and have decided that I will try to read it annually. 

Jerry Bridges is a humble man who loves God deeply and has the firmest possible grasp of the sovereignty of God.  He explains in this book how God is in control of all things and that we can confidently trust Him in all things.  All things.

My sense is that God gives many, if not all (but I wouldn't want to be so bold as to make that call) Christians particularly clear insight into one aspect of the Big Picture to share with one another.  For me it's God's sovereignty.  I just trust that God is in control.  I always have.  And it is no problem for me. 

But if that is the case, why would I read this book?  Wouldn't I read a book in an area that I don't get?  I love this book because it gives me courage.  Because when I say to someone, "This is in God's hands," or even more directly, "God is in control," I can hear them saying, "There she goes again with her Christian clichés."  Even Christians tell me I am being clichéd.  And they roll their eyes.  And yet I'm not being clichéd.  I truly, truly believe it.  So I love this book because Jerry Bridges speaks of God's sovereignty with such courage, belief and confidence that it fills my heart with joy.

He takes the reader through a process of understanding how and why God is in control and then explains how we can put our trust in Him, even when those circumstances are difficult.  And throughout the book he demonstrates, page after page, that God's sovereignty operates firmly on the foundation of God's perfect love and perfect wisdom.  God isn't being controlling in the worst sense of the word.  He is ordering all things in perfect love and wisdom.

Bridges tackles all of the tricky questions around this issue - suffering on a personal and larger scale, considering ourselves pawns in God's big game of chess, where prayer fits into this and so on - in a helpful, pastoral way.  And he writes in an easy style, making this book a joy to read.  He quotes lots of Scripture - full quotes, not references to texts - and I have enjoyed coming upon the passages he uses in my daily Bible reading and understanding more fully how God is at work as a result, seeing His love and mercy unfold in the story.

Reading this book has magnified my view of God and my trust in Him.  It comforts and calms me.  As I said, I will be reading it again.  And I commend it to you too.  Add it to your list and be encouraged.

Servants and slaves

Speaking of loving Jesus first and best, while we were on holidays we heard a really interesting sermon on the first six words of Romans.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus...

It included a bit of a discussion about slaves and servants because the word "servant" here really ought to be "slave."  Both words are fraught with difficulty - and I'm not looking to get into a debate about all of that here - but there is a helpful insight or two to be gained from stepping back for a moment and considering some definitions of sorts.

A servant can be hired and fired. 
A slave is bought and owned.  This has permanence.

Both can be treated poorly or well. So the terms themselves don't represent the spectrum of ill or good treatment.

Paul is a slave of Christ Jesus.  And so are all who love Jesus.  This helps me to understand the idea of "purchased with the blood of Christ" more deeply.  And the language of redemption.

And then we serve those around us.  But they cannot master us.  Because we can't serve two masters.

Loving Jesus first and best

That moment when I became a Christian, taking up the faith I'd had as a child and making it my own as an adult, was more a case of bowing down before the throne of God rather than kneeling at the cross of Christ.  Which is not to say that Jesus was not important in the equation.  That was just how it was.  And that has shaped me as a Christian all these years.  My default position is before the throne of God.  I get God the Father more naturally than I get God the Son.  That's just how it is.  But at long last (God waits for us patiently) I see I have some growing to do. 

At times I long for heaven.  When I see people around me struggling, when I struggle myself and even when I just feel bone tired or stressed or worried, I long for that time when Jesus will come again and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.  What am I really longing for?  I am longing rest found in God.  That perfect rest.  But it's a selfish longing.

The other day I was reading Psalm 25.  David loves God.  He knows with all his heart, as he says in verse 10, that

All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant. 

Sure as he is of God's love and His promises, David makes many requests of God throughout this psalm.

Don't let me be put to shame.
Show me your ways, teach me, guide me.
Remember your mercy and love and remember not my sins.
Turn to me and be gracious.
Look upon me and take away my sins.
Guard my life and rescue me.

I read that psalm and I read those requests and I nod my head in agreement.  Yes Lord.  But why I am nodding in agreement with David?  I know in my heart that I want those things for selfish reasons.  Get all those things right and it's comfortable.  It's a selfish longing.

But directly after verse 10, and right bang smack in the very centre of the psalm I read this.

For the sake of your name O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

Being forgiven is not about me. It's not about me feeling comfortable or being seen in a good light.  It's for His sake.  That verse shot out at me like the proverbial silver bullet.  It's for His sake.

I've read through Philippians quite a number of times this year - stage one of memorising it.  And going over those words again and again is already working upon my soul.  Paul says, famously,

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me.  Yet what shall I choose?  I do not know! I am torn between the two.  I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
Philippians 1:20-24

Paul longs for heaven.  Not to be comfortable.  Not to rest.  There's not an ounce of selfishness in his longings.  He longs to see Jesus.  And if it is not his time, then to live is Christ.

This year as I read the Bible, as I try to memorise Philippians, as I love and serve the people around me and as I think, read, pray and reflect I find I am asking God a new thing, many times a day.  Help me Lord to love Jesus first and best. 

It's not all about me.  It's not about me at all.  It's about loving Jesus first and best.

It's a wrap

School's back.   We've had another great summer although I must say I am very much liking how quiet it is here just at the moment.  Here are some of things we've done...

Celebrated Christmas wonderfully.  One of the best we've had, I think.

 

Enjoyed catching up with friends "home" for Christmas.  This included catching up with various missionary families home on deputation.  And in amongst the missionaries, farewelled a friend from church off for two years on missionary service.

 

Saw three movies with the boys.  Gone gone gone is the policy of one visit to the cinema each holiday.  And in between the kids' movies, I saw The Hobbit with my husband.

 

The boys had two weeks of swimming lessons.  That went well.

 

We went to the zoo.

 

 

I finished six books. There are still a couple on the go but will need to reign in the reading now against the commencement of normal life. 

 

At different times we caught the train into town and took in the museum, art gallery (kept our youngest amused by getting him to count how many paintings included animals and managed quite a good stroll through the galleries as a result) and the state library.

 

At the state library we enjoyed an exhibition of original art work from the illustrators of children's books - Alison Lester, Graeme Base, Moira Court, Kim Gamble and Terry Denton to name a few.  We were delighted to see our favourite page from Imagine by Alison Lester, a portrait of Tashi and a page from The Eleventh Hour on display - and the exhibition prompted a bit of use of the paint set in subsequent days.

This one is by Terry Denton

 

And every time we went into the city we also enjoyed the water maze.  This is too much fun and such a gift to the people of our city from the local council.

 

 

I turned 47.  And The Key to the Door turned 5.  I would have made mention of the blog's birthday, it being a bit of special one for blogs...

 

...but we were away on a wonderful week's holiday by the seaside. 
 

One seaside highlight was this 'aquapark" - so much inflatable fun. 

 

Too much screen time, not enough cleaning, the occasional afternoon nap, a few new recipes tried and tested and most recently, lots of new stationery labeled, bags packed and some slightly strange cookies (I wonder if they will notice that they were made with wholemeal flour) baked for lunchboxes and this morning, off they went, happy with their new teachers and looking forward to a new year ahead. 

 

And I will look forward to a new year ahead as well, once I've sat here in complete silence for just a little bit longer.