Missionary Confidential

We’re back in the States. For now.

We’ve been back for a few months. Praying, waiting, seeking God’s direction. I didn’t mean to leave the blog with the cliffhanger of  “The Voices in Your Head”, but shortly after that entry things went horribly wrong at the church we were serving.

Elders, deacons and church members spoke some of those exact words I had typed in April. Those voices became real. And there’s no way they read the blog; only my Other Half knows about it.

But that’s not the problem. We’ve had worse said and done to us. We’re grown-ups. We can take it. The real problem was that they used those words to justify their next step, which was to take the church down a very unBiblical path. And the membership made their stand firm.

We knew resigning was our only option, but what made it so hurtful was that, in leaving that church, it effectively killed our immigration permission. Due to new laws, we had to leave, seek another ministry opportunity in the mission country and then attempt to reenter later, resetting all permission back to the beginning. And those new laws have become ultra-restrictive to any new missionaries.

Almost 5 years of ministry stopped in what felt like a heartbeat. We had to return back to the States, completely unplanned and unprepared. It was (and still is) awkward, uncomfortable and left us pretty emotionally drained. But the most interesting part was in the leaving.  » Read the rest of this entry «

On the mission field you see a lot of things, hear a lot of things, feel a lot of things. But the hardest thing to overcome is the voices in your head.

You know what I’m talking about. They’re not audible (we’re not talking schizophrenia here), they don’t make logical sense, but they’re always there. Hanging on your every hang-up, weakness, and self-doubt, those voices know exactly how to get to you. And even though there’s no actual proof for 99% of it, you just feel that it’s so believable.

Oh, I had those voices before. Before I was a Christian, before I entered missions. I think—I know—a lot of people hear these voices, too. It’s just being human. But stepping onto Satan’s territory, the volume goes up. Way up. And the attacks are much more precise, delving deeper into your psyche than ever before. There they are, lurking at every turn, sometimes so out of the blue that it almost literally knocks the wind out of you. » Read the rest of this entry «

The latest Newsletter from The Body Builders/Support Raising Solutions has a great article about “toxic phrases” that may be inadvertently stopping people from becoming regular financial partners in your ministry.  I especially appreciated the thought behind not using the phrase “Give to me/us”.  In last Thursday’s post, I linked to an article that essentially asked about possible misuse of money when giving to a charity or church (I think missionaries would fall into this category). The author, Maurilio Amorim had a great take on this: “No matter the size of the gift, my donation is to God first and foremost. Whether I’m giving to my church, to a ministry or to a stranger holding up a sign on the side of the road, I’m ultimately giving my money to God.” If we make it clear to our possible supporters that this is about ultimately giving to God, not just to our pet project, I believe there would be less apprehension about how and why the money is used.

Here’s the newsletter link: “Three Toxic Phrases Good Fundraisers Never Use”

If you’re new to missions (i.e., you weren’t raised as an MK [Missionary's Kid] or had close family that are/were missionaries), there are so many things to comprehend and consider.  Essentially, they’re everything that doesn’t get mentioned in the Missionary Deputation Presentation, such as strange comments and assumptions that people make about you, odd interpretations of what a missionary is or does, and what it’s like to be in two cultures but not fully part of either.

Because we’ve just come out of the “Time-To-Visit-The-Family Season”, this is the point that your choice to be in the mission field becomes crystal-clear as the sacrifice it is, even in this time of Skype and Twitter and Facebook, etc.  We couldn’t be there for Thanksgiving, and it’s just not the same 5,000 miles away.  We also couldn’t be there for several funerals during our time in the field, and we’ve missed graduations, milestone birthdays, anniversaries, too.  It can be easy to feel a bit sorry for yourself come November and December, and it’s so important to be on guard about it.  I had somewhat anticipated this would happen, but I really didn’t appreciate that my sacrificial decision as a missionary has caused others to sacrifice, too, whether they wanted to or not. » Read the rest of this entry «

The other night I was talking with one of my national friends, and he was relating his busy last few weeks, most of which was taking a visiting missionary around the country on furlough.  When asked how long my friend had been hosting missionaries from this particular mission organisation, I was amazed to hear that it was before I was born (and I’m not young, either.)  His lengthy dedication was impressive, not just because of longevity, but because the hospitality also included shuttling the missionary to many places around a country not known for the best public transportation or infrastructure.

“Oh, but I’m not the first one to host here in this country,” he divulged.  “I actually inherited the responsibility from another man.”  My friend went on to explain that this man had hosted for quite a few years, and it was ageing (and a subsequent illness) that caused the man to pass the responsibility to my friend.  “When I visited him for the last time in hospital,” my friend recounted, “he personally asked me to ‘please take good care of my missionaries’.  Then he leaned closer to me and whispered, ‘Just don’t spoil them’.”

At this point, my long-term readers will probably be expecting me to start off with a politely-worded form of, “Just who does he think he is?  What in the world was that man thinking?!  We’re people too, yada yada yada, etc.”  But I’m not, because it’s what my friend said next that helped illustrate that standards of all sorts are quite relative, even for us missionaries. » Read the rest of this entry «