Missionaries are people. That may sound like an all-too-simple statement, but more often than not churches, care providers, and mission committees can treat or, at the very least, conceive of their missionaries as caricatures, not people.
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Friends and former teammates Archie Chankin and Andy Johnson share about the ways that teammates can provide soul care for one another.
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Our guest writer shares thoughts on how workers and churches can understand each other better.
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This conversation takes a look at anxiety and the worker, and offers some important perspectives on how to help your worker stay healthy.
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This conversation is focused on the impact of trauma on cross-cultural workers, and how to provide a safe and non-anxious presence to those you support when they face it.
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This is the first of a three-month series on mental health issues in worker care. Missy Gray from MRN and Jeff Holland from Pioneer Bible Institute will be talking about burnout, trauma, and anxiety, and how we can be a supportive, non-anxious presence to the cross-cultural workers we support.
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As we wrap up six months of getting to know cross-cultural servants better through the Messenger, Andy Johnson, MRN’s director of care, helps us consider some of the unique stressors facing global workers as well as offers brief counsel on how to begin addressing them.
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In recent years we have been fortunate to be exposed to a growing wealth of information concerning Third Culture Kids (TCKs – what we formerly called ‘missionary kids’) and the blessings and challenges that arise from living and working abroad for the sake of the gospel.
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Often those who are dedicating their lives to global sharing of the gospel are family units with children. So, the children also say their goodbyes, pack their belongings, and as they hold their parents’ hands their beautiful little feet scamper, skip, hop, and run across unknown and confusing countries. With wide eyes and laughter, which can frequently dissolve to tears, these young hearts deal with loss, grief, and identity confusion, just as their parents do, as they learn to adapt to cultures, people, values, and unique ways of living.
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While the missionary is called to go, the sending church is called to care for those sent. For the sake of the mission, it is vital that senders understand what their global worker faces in each stage of their life cycle.
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Everything – whether it’s a new car, a new phone, or a new coffee maker – has a life cycle to it. How it performs and what its needs are change depending upon when you stumble upon it. While missionaries are a bit more complicated than a coffee maker, how they function and what their needs are change depending upon what part of their life cycle they are in.
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If you are anything like me, you’ve already got a reading list longer than 2022 will allow. As I sit to write, I actually have 14 inches of reading material waiting for me on my bedside table (if anyone’s counting – which I evidently am).
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Happy December! As we wrap up another year of Missionary Care articles, Andy Johnson speaks to sending churches on what they need to know about supporting their workers during the holiday season, as well as offers a few words to those serving on the field.
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One of the most important roles that a sending church plays in the life of a missionary family is to assure them that they are loved and seen and heard. Site visits are a great opportunity to accomplish this - provided those who are go are well prepared to do so. This month, Chris Shelby, who speaks from a place of having both been a missionary and one who sends missionaries, shares with us insight about how to truly and deeply bless the missionaries we visit.
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Last month, we considered some of what it takes to discern a call from God to the mission field. This month, Andy Johnson talks to us about two other early steps in the life of a missionary family: bonding time with the sending church and the creation of a working agreement between the missionary family and their church.
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Growing up the son of a preacher, I wanted to be anything but one - yet eventually spent over 20 years preaching because I felt called. My father always told me, “Don’t preach if you can do anything else.” He wasn’t discouraging me from ministry. Rather, he was advising me not to do something as demanding as ministry if I didn’t have a clear calling. If you can have peace outside of ministry, you likely have not been called. That turned out to be good advice.
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If you are a part of a missions committee or missionary care team for a sending church, you have likely wrestled with the question, “How do we best prepare for the furlough or home assignment for those we have sent to the field?” They are coming to the States for potentially 6-8 weeks. Where do we start? What needs to be on our To-Do list?
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Furloughs (or home assignment) are a complicated part of mission field life. They are opportunities for connection, renewal, learning, and communication. They are also opportunities for exhaustion, loneliness, and self-doubt. This month, Kevin Linderman, longtime missionary to Tanzania and current Executive Director of African Christian Hospitals, speaks to how missionaries can make the most of their furloughs.
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As we wrap up our exploration of the Member Care Model first developed by the O’Donnells, we get to hear from Carol Manley this month. She is a mental health care professional with a heart for hurting people, particularly those serving cross-culturally. She speaks from a wealth of professional experience as well as love for God’s people. I have seen her in action, and she has much to offer all of us!
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In our monthly journey together through our model for member care, we’ve come to the circle of care that we call "specialist care." These are the professionals who step in on an as-needed basis to help missionaries with specific needs. We’ll eventually hear from two; this month, Dr. Sonny Guild will speak to the importance of an outside team consultant.
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