Survival 101
My wife and I both attended a Christian university, where I got two Bachelor’s degrees, as did she, but she also added her MRS degree when we married about five months before I graduated. I remained a Mr. Neither of us planned on pursuing a life in international missions, but we were open to doing so.
We took a number of ministry courses, some of which focused specifically on the field of international vocational missionary work. We have now been on the field for almost a decade, and we had two and a half years of fundraising before that, where we learned a lot about our ignorance, our flaws, and God’s faithfulness. Not too long ago, a friend of mine was starting a non-profit. Like many people in the Church, he struggles with depression and discouragement, and sometimes this would manifest in “highs and lows”. On good days, he expressed gratitude to those who supported the work, and on tough days, he would often vent his frustrations with the lack of vision in the Church. I sent him some thoughts in a general post inside the private Facebook group for the ministry, he responded favorably, and then, to my surprise, we heard from other workers who had read my thoughts and felt edified by them.
Is God calling you to the mission field? I hope so…it is a life full of challenges and deep, deep joys. It is an opportunity to learn about Jesus, to identify with His love for you and for those around you. It is worth it, and there are so many fields where the harvest is full, but the Church is absent. In fact, while the American Church sends a huge number of missionaries out, the sad truth is that for every missionary that we send to “unreached” or “frontier” people groups, we send 30 to people groups that are already reached. Did you get that? We send 30 people to groups that don’t need missionaries for every 1 missionary we send to people who desperately need missionaries! Most of the unreached and people groups are in India, Muslim majority countries, and in Asian countries besides China and India.
At any rate, the notes that I have below are just a short list of considerations for missionaries and missionary candidates. We loved our university’s focus on ministry and serving Christ, but we found that a lot of the advice was theologically sound but practically lacking. What will destroy a marriage over time in “normal” life will destroy a marriage twice as quickly in “ministry” life. That means that the allure of sexual immorality, arguments about money, and a sense of isolation, among others need to be acknowledged and planned for. Below, you’ll find some practical advice that has helped us. May God bless it to your use, as well.
H and K serve as missionaries with GlobalGrace
Practical Tools
Exodus 35:35 — “He has filled them with skill to perform every work of an engraver and of a designer and of an embroiderer, in blue and in purple and in scarlet material, and in fine linen, and of a weaver, as performers of every work and makers of designs.”
Once you are with a 501(c)3 charity, sign up at mpdx.org to be able to use their donation and donor relation management software. It's a lifesaver and, unless you're already using it, I guarantee that it's better than whatever you are currently using to manage stuff. Don't rely on your memory.
Sign up at Mailchimp for a free email management tool so that you can send out newsletters and appeals. It interfaces with MPDX.
Use accountability software (we use Covenant Eyes) and see it as an investment in your ministry.
Send a print mailing once a year and have your supporting churches help you fund it, design it (if that’s not your gifting), print it, package it, and mail it. You will connect with people, and you’ll see a difference in engagement.
Purchase the books "His Needs, Her Needs", "Love Busters" from Dr. Willard F. Harley and work through them with your spouse. If you stick to their plans, you will be practically applying Scripture to your marriage in a way that you can see and to some degree measure ("Did we have 15 hours of uninterrupted, relationship-building time as a couple this week?"). You can then adapt it to your marriage, and we recommend that you purchase Dr. Harley's "Effective Marriage Counseling", and "Kitchen Table Counseling" by Muriel Cook and Shelly Volkhardt. If you are single, our single friends have said that these books were enormously helpful to them, as well.
Take the "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement" course.
Ask your trusted Christian mentors for a list of what they see as your potential weaknesses (sin areas, unskilled areas, etc.) and strengths (spiritual gifting, competencies, etc.), and that of your spouse and children (if applicable).
Building a relationship with your supporters
Philippians 1.4-6 — “In every prayer for all of you, I always pray with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Pray for your supporters before you ask them for any support (prayer, financial, service, etc.). Pray for them, and thank God for them more than you ask them for things. Say thank you often.
Don't post haphazardly; have a release cycle planned for getting information out. If you're going to do a lot of web videos, get OBS (free) or eCamm Live (cheap), a good mic, and a good webcam. Prepare graphics that will help fix things in people's minds. They're busy and have distractions.
Plan your videos out well in advance, like a couple of months in advance, and have a short topic for each one that you harp on. If you have more than one subject to address for a video (I'm talking videos for emails, FB, not longer videos for a smaller, core audience), make it a miniseries. Talk about one thing at a time, then give space before introducing a new topic. A lot of space, if your last topic was asking for action on the part of the audience. One goal that I'm working towards is updates that are 2 minutes or less and more tightly focused. If you need a teleprompter to help keep you on track, get a Parrot Teleprompter (about $100, but worth every penny). It will work with a simple tripod and your cell phone.
Don't overuse emergencies to provoke action. That strategy burns people out quickly. At worst, they'll alienate from you. At best, they'll quietly unsubscribe or just develop a habit of ignoring or deleting your emails.
Treat your project as a victorious certainty and it will be more likely to end up as one. Choose to talk about every little step of progress, and show it in creative ways (graphs, charts, photos, testimonies, etc.).
You can't please everyone. Concern yourself with pleasing God and to some degree the people who are partnering with you in prayer or giving.
Remember that if this is really God's calling for your life and you are obedient to that calling, money isn't ultimately going to be a problem, but an opportunity.
Learn what type of gratitude resonates with each donor, then say "thank you" in that way.
Prayer
Luke 18.1 — “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”
Mobilize a prayer team.
Search the Bible, fast, and pray for the work, particularly for specific needs and decisions.
Get PrayerMate (free) on your phone to help you do the previous step.
Commit to praying for those who support your work.
We encourage you to read George Müller's "A Narrative of Some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Müller written by Himself." There are very practical tips for developing a prayer ministry.
Partnering with others
Philemon 1.6 — “I pray that your partnership in the faith may become effective as you fully acknowledge every blessing that is ours in the Messiah.”
Promote other giving opportunities for ministries that you believe in; don't see them as competition but as part of God's bigger plan. Generosity begets generosity, and you'll be surprised who partners with you or advocates for you based on your kindness.
Don't forget that your ministry will never be healthier than your marriage and family. Don't screw those up, or you'll become the problem you thought you were helping to solve.
The Home Front
I Timothy 5.8 — “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Don’t sacrifice your marriage or your children to the ministry. God will never call us to minister if it means sinning.
Be accountable. Have accountability software on your devices, and treat your spouse as a full partner in your spiritual development and calling.
Don’t exclude your kids from service because they’re young and inexperienced.
Don’t rush your kids into the ministry and make them think that your love (or God’s love!) is based on their usefulness and appearance.
Say “Yes” to ministry only if it doesn’t mean saying “No” to your ministry to your spouse and children. God calls single people to the field because they bring an availability and an energy and a focus that we married or married-with-children missionaries may not have.
Pay attention to how your kids are doing. Know their friends, know their cultural struggles. Do weekly dates with one kid each week and alternate the parent taking them out.
Have a team of 2-3 mature Christians that meet with you every 1 or 2 weeks to go through a list of questions designed to keep you on-course. What questions? I tell people, “Pick the ten questions that you hope no one would ever ask you about, and you’ll be amazed at how God transforms you and your work.” When you see ministries and ministers suffer moral failings, you can bet that there wasn’t transparency and humble accountability.
Staying the course
II Timothy 4.7 — “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Be the missionaries who didn’t leave in the crisis and you will be seen differently by the people God sent you to serve.
Assume that you will have to spend two years getting the basics of your language down, then another three years to be conversant.
Remember that learning the language doesn’t mean you’ve understood the culture.
Don’t set time limits on your missionary commitment; let God send you to the field for as long as He wants, and you will see fruit that lasts. Leave after a short involvement, and the roots will not have gone very deep. Beware of exit strategies to God’s calling.
Bring your churches to the mission field, and be aware that they will send more if they connect with people than if they feel they “got stuff done.” Americans have to learn to sit at a table, share their everyday testimonies through a translator, and then hear what the other culture’s representative has to say. You will find, as we have, that people who hated a particular group, come to love them and all of a sudden the supporting church has someone who “gets” your calling but who is in church every Sunday advocating for what God’s doing through your team.
Take breaks. It’s hard work. Rest is Scripturally-mandated, and Jesus is the Messiah, not you.
I hope that this list of thoughts can help you as it has helped others. There’s a lot more that could be said, and you probably have some questions! Feel free to reach out to the GlobalGrace team, where you’ll find experienced ministers of the Gospel who have seen and learned a great deal. Whether it’s getting to the field, staying on the field, or coming back from the field, we’d love to talk with you… and we’d love to see you on the mission field. The harvest is full, dear friends.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:36-38
H and K serve as missionaries with GlobalGrace