Missionary Confidential

Halfway through the furlough presentations, he showed up again. I thought we were done with all of this.

About a year and a half into our mission in Western Europe, one of our supporting church pastors arrived in our country. Out of the blue. With three other people.

In fairness, he had contacted us in an email a couple of months prior, simply stating that he thought he might come over to our mission field. That was it: no dates, no mention of whether it would be a “fun trip” to visit us or a “mission trip” to do something, and no indication of who else would be coming. Honestly, we got so many of those half-hearted emails from many pastors and Christians that went nowhere, so our response to him (and others) asked for clarity on those details (especially the dates), and, like most of the others, we never got a response. That had always meant they dropped the idea and weren’t coming.

But this one was different. His secretary emailed us two months later to let us know that Pastor and three others were arriving the very next day. All the secretary provided us was the phone number of the hotel where they were staying and instructions to call Pastor once he arrived.  » Read the rest of this entry «

It’s back! After a year’s hiatus, “From the Missionary Blogosphere” re-emerges.

An executive director of a missions agency reveals his five mistakes in sending missionaries.

Are we “too dependent on the satisfaction of having done something for them over there?”

Thoughts on why the Missional Movement will fail.

A former MK reveals the lies that MKs believe.

What are poor kids learning from the rich kids who go on short-term missions?

This post means a lot to me at the moment, and I think Explanation #3′s paragraph is the answer to his question.

Furlough. Wow. Ugh.

I had a lot of trepidation about the demands of furlough. Some of them proved to be correct, others must have been myths, or churches are changing how they treat missionaries.

We learned a lot through the time, and for the few who seemed interested in what their church had been supporting for up to six years, I’m glad we got to speak.

If you remember from the last post on this subject, “Yet Sometimes God Closes the Door”, we spent our first few months catching up with family and friends. Still reeling from the circumstances that made us leave and also from reverse culture shock (by the way, it’s exactly as described), the time was much needed. A lot of prayer and waiting on God revealed that we were not going to return to that field or continue fundraising support for now. Despite the fact that this particular mission was over, we felt that we should still report/present to each supporting church, all of whom maintained support over most (in some cases, all) of the time we were in the field. In other words, not asking for more money, just letting you know what you paid for.

Considering the confusion this caused, I’m assuming this isn’t usually done in Missionary World.  » Read the rest of this entry «

I’d like to read more this year, and missiology/missions is definitely on the subject list. I’m thinking of possibly reviewing some of those books on this site so:

What book(s) would you recommend to someone who says, “I’m thinking of becoming a missionary/going on a short-term mission trip” or asks the question, “What’s it like to be a missionary?”

Hit the comments below!