Missionaries: What is the most important thing...

In a word- COMMUNICATE!

 

In another word, care! Get rid of the apathy and obey the Great Commission.

Read our prayer letters, communicate back with us as Mexdeaf has said, pay attention to our special projects and needs.

My wife went back to the States for surgery in 1995. The surgery went fine, but in the recovery she had a shower of blood clots into her lungs which almost killed her. I flew back then, of course, to be with her. We had sent letters about it all to our supporting churches in the area, and visited a few of them. In one church the people said, "Nice to have you. Who are you?" The pastor's wife never gave our letter to the pastor! Way to care, supporters!

However, we praise the Lord for the churches that did care and did much, including Patty's home church.

 

This would be funny if it wasn't so... well, unfunny.

We stopped at a church. Our recent prayer letter is on the board, along with a 5x7 picture of our family. Someone walks up to me and says 'Hey, Bro. Mexdeaf, how is the (insert anything I mentioned in the posted prayer letter here) going?'

This has not happened just once, but several times.

Then we get letters from pastors who threaten to drop our support if they do not get at least a monthly letter from us. And we usually do send out a monthly letter, except during the summer which is our busiest time of year. Then we go to a month and a half or two months.

The missionary life- too many chiefs, not enough indians.

 

Mexdeaf,

I don't understand what you just wrote....do you mean that people do NOT come up to you and ask you about what's going on in your prayer letters? Some of ours take a few weeks to get from the missionary to us, so there could be developments in the meantime.

Ive asked missionaries for updates on info from their last letter........


Our church supports 33 different missionary families. Im the one who types up a couple of them each week to be passed out in the Wednesday night service so people can read them. I try very hard to know who our missionaries are, and to be familiar with them, but its hard for me, and I read basically all the letters we get each week. I know its even harder for those of us who are only reading the couple of letters a week that Im able to put out.
We do have a bulletin board where we post all of our recent letters, including any pictures sent.

I just don't want you all to think there's really that many out there who don't care. I think they do, they just get caught up in their own lives and in their own ministries, and its hard to remember everything we have to from day to day for our own selves, much less someone we might only see once or twice in four years. I wish we could see ours more often, they are always my favorite people! But I understand where they need to be, of course.

Im certainly not saying theres not room for improvement. Im going to do better with corresponding back to our missionaries. I read all their letters, so I feel familiar with them, but I need to remember that they don't read MY thoughts about them, so I need to write them back.

 

A church I attended for a long time supported many missionaries. In the foyer are boxes for each missionary. Each box has a copy of the most recent newsletter. Every year in the same month they have a missions conference starting on a Sunday and ending on the following Sunday. In that same church was a Sunday School class of about forty who wanted to go on the mission field. So each of them corresponded with at least one missionary. Each year some of the missionaries got a personal visit from people in the church.

 

that sounds neat, gb.

Did they do fundraisers to be able to go on the visits? or was it mostly personally paid for?

 

Bapmom,

What I meant was people will come up and ask about things that are mentioned on the prayer letter that is posted on the board right behind us.

 

Now that sounds like my definition of a 'missions-minded church'!

 

I agree, C4K.



I wish more people DID take the time to get to know all of our missionaries.

A lady in our church just approached me and asked for a list of all of our missionaries so she could start a young ladie's group that acts as penpals for the family. I was so glad that I had already compiled as exhaustive a list as I could get....tried to include as much information about each family as we had. Even looked up old missions letters from some of them to try to figure out how old their kids were and how long they'd been on the field. I hope they use my list well!


MexDeaf,
I think I understand now....you mean they made it obvious they hadn't read your prayer letter. That would be hard to handle!


Im just so in awe of all the missionaries I know that Id hate to see any of you discouraged. I know thats not always possible though.

 

When on deputation our mission (100 plus missionaries) sent out a note to every contributer asking if they would be interested in a monthy prayer list for the mission workers.

There were only two responses, and I was one of them so a majority of one contributer wanted to pray for the missionaries :-(

I must admit on the churches side, it may not be the missionaries, it is everyone in general. We attended a church for over six months and one morning the pastors wife came up to us and introduced herself and thanked us for visiting their church today.

People aren't geared to pay much attention to anyone but their immediate family. Not that it is right, but it is reality.

Be thankful for those that respond to you and pray for those that don't

AND remember some of us old timers can't remember our own names much less yours

 

I tell churches that I am in that I do not want just supporting churches, both finnacially and through prayer, but I want churches that are willing to share my burden with me.

 

My church is one of the most missions oriented I've ever been around. I don't know how other churches do things, so maybe I can tell you what we do and these ideas can be used at other churches.

On Wednesday nights, we have an 8 1/2" by 11" page that lists everybody we pray for regularly and the missionaries we support nearly fill one side of the page. Praying for missionaries is a regular part of the prayer time and a different missionary letter is read every week.

In addition, the Pastor's wife leads the Women's Missionary Fellowship. My wife is involved and I don't know specifics, but I know they work on various projects to help our missionaries. In the 6 years we've been members, there have been 2 entire summer programs devoted to missions. In summer 2004, we had a different missionary preach during each Wednesday night. Maybe some of these ideas can be adopted by other churches to support their missionaries.

 

Mexdeaf, can you tell me what part of south texas you are in.

 

I think I've seen that exact same missionary board!

On our furlough to take our son to college some years ago, one church still had a prayer card on their world map with him as a baby. We were truly convinced that they cared!!

 

Everything posted so far has been good. I would add another to the list. Come and visit the field.

"Mine eye affecteth mine heart..."

There will be nothing ever done in your ministry that will get churches involved with your work than a group from a church come to see with their eyes what they have been blindly praying for. It asbolutely changes people for the good.