We’d like to get some dialogue going, so this week is Question Week. First up:
For those already established in their mission field, how do you handle inquiries from prospective missionaries about your field?
Because we maintain huge communication back to our supporters, which includes a blog, we tend to get a decent amount of people we’ve never met contacting us for direction. Sometimes this happens in waves (evidently a lot of Christian colleges must have a “Missions Emphasis” week or month which requires contact or research on a mission field), other times not so much.
We started out replying to each one, but that became daunting and too time consuming. After time we could spot indicators from the emails that seemed to determine a person’s seriousness about our mission field, such as specific questions or understanding that we were busy and could not reply immediately or at length. I began compiling our “best of” in a file, and copying/pasting into the reply emails. A few have turned into great friends, and one couple are completing their preparations to become missionaries here in Western Europe. I’m glad we took the time to respond to them.
However, for prospective missionaries reading this site, please remember that you’re contacting a complete stranger. Introduce yourself and give a short paragraph about who you are, where you’re from and why you’re considering missions. Do some research first and avoid broad questions. Don’t expect an immediate reply, especially if they’re in a different time zone. Here is my list of “what NOT to ask a missionary about getting into their field” (and these are all real emails we’ve received):
Tell me everything there is to know about doing missions in (your field).
I want to be a missionary to (your field)!!!!! Isn’t that great?!?!?!?!?! What do I do now??????
(From a complete stranger) I’ll be traveling to (your field) on a vacation and I want to know about what you do there. I might want to be a missionary, someday. You can meet me in the Capital City (which is hours away) on such-and-such date/time and tell me everything I need to know.
Is it even worth my time to do missions in (your field)?
Would you get me into (your field) and handle everything needed for me to become a missionary?
I want you to hire me in (your field) as a missionary; I require $30,000 a year, housing and a car.
My Christian college professor is making us contact missionaries, and we have to talk to them. I got (your field) and have to pray for you for class.
Missionaries, I look forward to hearing in the comments how you handle inquiries, whether they be good or bad.
Related posts:
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Question Week: How Much Should You Divulge During Fundraising?
Question Week: How Much (or What) Should You Communicate Back Home?
Question Week: Do We Obsess Too Much About Details in Ministry?
Holy cow…where do I start?! I have a couple of “filters” I like to use when people contact us about the possibility of coming and working here. The biggest one is are they willing to come on a short recon trip to scout our place out in order to see if it’s actually a place they believe they’d like to be. And then we communicate back and forth via email where I try and get a fee for them. We also have a Spanish language school and so that probably gets the most inquiries from strangers. One woman contacted us and, in the course of emails back and forth, she expressed how she was into Liberation Theology and how she wanted to come to Latin America and basically be an “agent of justice” and all that kind of free trade coffee sipping white liberal head up your arse kind of jazz that sounds noble until you have to actually pay a price. So I told her to come on down and that I’d put her in the poorest community we have here so she could learn directly from them and be all down with the downtrodden masses. No running water, no wi-fi, no private quarters. Never heard from her again.
I think what most people have is a romanticized notion of what “missions” is all about and the first thing that has to be gored is this false illusion. This is something God is especially good at doing!
CORRECTION! This sentence above should read:
And then we communicate back and forth via email where I try and get a FEEL (not fee!) for them.
Well maybe that’s subliminal and I need to start changing a fee after all
@Greg: The fee mistype made me laugh! You know, that could be a way to supplement funds…;-)
Good idea on encouraging an exploratory trip. I’m highly suspicious of those who “just appear” in my field with no prior investigation on their part. While there may be a hidden gem in the bunch, most times I’ve found that those who never visited nor researched usually leave the quickest.
This whole blog is to help dispel that “romanticized” portrayal of missions with a healthy dose of honesty about both the good and the bad aspects of it. I’d rather people be better informed, even if it means less missionaries because hopefully those who do still commit would be more likely to stay and make a difference than flit in and out at the first sign of difficulty.
I relate to those types of emails!! Sometimes I get my best laugh all day from someone writing me, explaining how they are God’s gift to mankind.
I get daily inquiries from prospective volunteers for our baby/children’s homes. We have a couple documents we send them right away (thorough FAQ and a very detailed, rigorous application) and only hear back from a percentage. After that, if we still sense “stars in their eyes” about our glamorous (ha!) work with “orphans”, I forward updates and try to explain that in the end we just work with a lot of kids–very needy-in-every-way kids. Although a trip to Bolivia could be life changing for them, I run a serious, extremely busy ministry here and will let them have their “experience” with someone else with more time to dedicate to their needs.
@Jennifer: Excellent thoughts on how to efficiently deal with this issue. I especially appreciated your very last line. We may use it in the future!
Ok, you’ll love this email we got this morning. It’s 15 words…
we are wanting to become full time missionaries in mexico. any suggestions? Need any help?
shawn and chantelle
They tell us absolutely NOTHING about themselves, no links to blogs or websites, nothing! I wish I was making this up but truth is indeed stranger than fiction!
Yep, sounds all too familiar to us!
I’m just not sure people realise how important it is to take the time to build a relationship with a missionary who’s a total stranger.
My wife and I are working in rural Mexico. We have had groups come down for 3 or 4 days to do work and witness projects. Sometimes we will get someone who wants to return for an extended period to get a feel for what it is like to be here on a daily basis.
We have had several people return for a week or two and one couple was here for a month. I think they all took away something positive from the experience and it definately deepens their understanding of what our lives are like here.
The only person who tried to return as a long term worker didn’t work out. He had made a short term trip but didn’t make a second visit for a longer time. Although I knew the guy pretty good, he just wasn’t up to it. I really should have had him here for a few weeks as a trial, lesson learned.
I think I would be very wary of anyone who is a complete stranger. My wife and I would have to talk to his/her pastor and spend some time in prayer before deciding to extend an invitation for even a short term visit.