7 Critical Points When You Can Serve Your Missionary

Michaela Pruitt • Jul 15, 2015

As believers, we are all called to reach the nations. This might mean a personal call to go, send, welcome, train or any number of other individual tasks. In all likelihood, we will each be called to serve in different ways at different times in our lives.

While each of these tasks can feel a little daunting if we’re un-experienced, it is the “sending” role that leaves many of us particularly baffled. If you are in the role of sender, you may find yourself thinking, “There has to be more to this than simply writing a check.” You are so right.

There are many ways that you can care for the missionaries you are sending and impact the kingdom for good. In fact, there are at least seven specific times when your “more-than-a-check” involvement can make a world of difference in your missionary’s life.

  1. SUPPORT RAISING
    This stage of missionary life has many joys and pleasant surprises. But, as you might imagine, it can also be a time of stress and severe testing. Missionary hopefuls meet hundreds of people and endure many rejections and dead ends. It is easy for them to become discouraged and disillusioned or to even begin doubting their call. You can: Listen without judging. Your soon-to-be missionary may seem unduly pessimistic, overly critical or indulgently self-pitying, but they need someone who cares enough to listen, pray and then be a gentle encouragement. Be a friend who provides perspective and assures them that they will reach their goal. Offer to babysit, help with their PowerPoint presentation, mow the lawn or get the oil changed in their car. Gather together a group who can connect them to potential supporters and who will commit to pray for them daily.
  1. THEIR FIRST TERM OF SERVICE
    Saying goodbye and boarding a plane with a one-way ticket is a huge step. However, it is not generally a difficult time for most missionaries. The excitement of finally being on the field overshadows everything. It is when the novelty of the move wears off – when the initial charm turns to annoyance – that your missionary will need your support. Language study has become more intense and they are painfully aware of how far they have to go. The frequent emails and Skype calls from home that encouraged them during the first few months have dwindled to a mere trickle. You can: Keep in touch! Quick touches via social media can brighten their day. A longer note of encouragement in their inbox will mean a lot. An online face-to-face visit will show how much you care. Ask about how things are going and be a good listener. Don’t feel pressured to give a fix, just walk with them and let them know that you care for and believe in them.
  1. SICKNESS
    Although most foreign countries do not pose the health risks that early missionaries endured, overseas workers still face illness. Changes in climate and exposure to different viruses can physically wear down even those who are in great health. The availability or quality of medical care may be quite different from what they had before they left the States. Especially if a child becomes ill, parents may carry an extra load of guilt when they try to care for their son or daughter. You can: Think of creative and practical ways to help. Offer to find a medical specialist who is willing to consult via phone or online. Try to help with medical bills already incurred, or help pay for travel to a location where the care they need is available.
  1. MAJOR DISCOURAGEMENT
    Missionaries’ work is both their career and their ministry. They gain a sense of fulfillment and self-worth when they get to see their efforts bear fruit. They have high expectations of themselves and often sense their supporters’ expectations as well. But what if “success” doesn’t come? What if, after many years, no church is established? What if the government expels them? Discouragement, self-doubt, a sense of failure or fear of facing supporters can easily overwhelm the missionary. You can: Encourage, support and affirm weary missionaries. Honor them for their faithfulness and for who they are as children of God. Remind them that their identity is found in Christ and that He rejoices over them. A personal visit, if possible, will speak volumes to the discouraged. Laughter is good medicine, too. Find a way to provide whatever would give them a hearty laugh and remind them that the weight of the world is on God’s shoulders and not theirs.
  1. HOME ASSIGNMENT
         Some call it “home assignment” and some call it “furlough.” Whatever it’s called, it is when missionaries return to their home country for a time of reconnection. What it is NOT is a vacation. Home assignment is a busy, busy time of traveling, visiting supporters, reporting on the ministry and even raising more funds. While it is a joy to reconnect with family and friends, it can be intimidating to step back into North American culture and the expectations of others. You can: Understand and seek to ease the pressures of home assignment. Perhaps you can provide a vehicle or a place to live, two things the missionary likely no longer has in North America. Offer to help with presentations to churches, with school enrollment, with scheduling doctor appointments and a hundred other things that need to be done. Encourage your missionaries to take a true vacation at some point during home assignment and do all you can to make this happen. Above all, let them know you value them as people, not just as missionaries.
  1. TIMES OF TRANSITIONS
    Whether saying goodbye to coworkers who are moving on, moving to a new ministry location, dropping children off at boarding school, sending young adults abroad for college or deciding to return to North America to care for aging parents, missionaries will face a myriad of transitions during their time in ministry. In fact, change is one constant theme in missionary life, and missionaries don’t have emotional super glue that mends the pain of separation. You can: Be a safe place for them to process all they are experiencing and thinking through. Help them find a place to get away for undistracted prayer and discussion with their spouse and family. If asked, offer advice about managing the transition, but let them know they have your support whatever their decision. Offer practical help as well, such as care packages for missionary kids at college, respite care for a caregiver to elderly parents or money for a ticket to allow separated family members special time together.
  1. RETIREMENT
    After many years in another culture, missionaries often feel more at home in the country where they served than back in North America. They can be burdened with how much remains to be done where they served and how few workers there are to do it. They may not see what they can contribute in their new setting after spending so many years elsewhere. On top of that, North American culture and the North American church may be far different from what it was like when they first left. You can: Be a welcoming haven and help retirees acclimate. Many things will have changed in North America since their initial departure. Provide practical help with finding housing, buying a car, navigating the health care system and even finding a church (it may not be the same one they attended before). Continue to affirm them as brothers and sisters in Christ and help them find an avenue for using their gifts in a way that is meaningful and satisfying.

Reaching the ends of the earth requires both those who go and those who send. As a sender, be encouraged that your role is of vital importance – and yes, it is much more than writing a check.

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” Romans 10:14-15



Bridging Dissonance: Finding Connection in Music and the Gospel

By Emily Sheddan • 18 Jul, 2024
TEAM worker Luke Standridge and his fellow musicians use music to build connections to faith in Japan. In music terms, dissonance creates movement or even suspense in a song. It invites tension. That tension is what helps grab our ear’s attention and the interchanging of these notes with pleasant melodious parts is what makes music such a delight. In a similar way, God is using music to grab people’s attention and catalyze Gospel impact in the largely unreached nation of Japan. TEAM Global Worker, Luke Standridge moved to Japan in 2019 with no clear direction on how he was going to use his passion for composing music while doing ministry. However, after Luke got involved with a local church and began developing deep friendships, the Lord opened unimaginable doors for Luke that in time, coordinating his creative skills with sharing the Word. “People Need to Come to Japan!” Growing up as one of ten kids in a family that was heavily involved in ministry and missions, Luke never considered that it would one day be a part of his own journey. In 2016, via a Japanese language learning class in Indiana, Luke and his brother had the opportunity to travel to Japan. Hearing, learning, and using the language in the context of Japanese culture was the goal. While it was Luke’s first international trip – even his first trip on a plane - it was also his first time hearing about the spiritual condition of the Japanese people. “And just through that, God did a huge 180 change on my heart,” says Luke. “More people should come here as global workers. People need to come to Japan!” The call God was laying on Luke’s heart is echoed when looking at the spiritual landscape of Japan. The nation is home to the second largest unreached people group in the world. It is one of the most difficult places for the Gospel to take hold and grow. Japan is also home to a deep and rich culture that prizes creative arts from pottery to ink to music to anime – a fact that would help Luke find his niche in life and ministry. God’s Guiding Hand In the short three-month timespan of that first trip, Luke found that opportunities came naturally to share about life, and people’s curiosity for Christianity grew. “I left Japan knowing I just had to come back,” Luke shares. “Even if I didn’t get back to the same area, I knew Japan was where God wanted me to be.” The Lord is good all the time and all the time the Lord is good. His plans do not fail. Luke returned to Japan in 2019, and less than a week after arriving, he was put in touch with a renowned composer in Japan. The composer saw some of Luke’s music and invited him to help write the music for a beloved in-country animated show. But God wasn’t finished yet! Fast forward a year, and more connections and opportunities allowed Luke to help with music for Pokémon - a franchise that has brand recognition around the world and was being developed into a TV series in Japan. Luke recalls how the Lord began using these connections in the production world to open doors for Gospel conversations. One night while having dinner in downtown Tokyo with famous artists and composers from all around the country, Luke was asked about his ministry-focused visa. This was a rare opportunity in a setting with people otherwise uninterested in Christianity. Luke shares, “The whole time I could see God’s hand in guiding the entire thing.”

Connecting in a New Kind of “Neighborhood”

By Lorena de la Rosa and Suzanne Pearson • 13 Jun, 2024
Through creative arts and other forms of innovative outreach, “The Neighborhood” is creating connections to the Gospel and the love of Jesus. CONNECTION. It’s a common word with powerful implications. Dictionary.com defines connection as a joining or linking together; a relationship between people or objects that unites or binds them together. God has created each of us with a deep need for connection with Him as well as connection with others. Hebrews 10:24-25 speaks to this, as the writer exhorts, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This God-given need for connection lies at the heart of a creative and innovative ministry in Japan known as “The Neighborhood.” TEAM Japan global worker, Kelly and her family created The Neighborhood as a place where connections are formed through creative arts, educational opportunities, and simply just providing a space for people to be together. A Family Calling The journey to the creation of The Neighborhood began over 5,000 miles away from Tokyo, in California where Kelly, her husband Jeff, and their five children were living. The kids were the first to sense God’s calling to missions, and asked why their family wasn’t serving in this way. How Kelly and her family came to TEAM is a God-story in and of itself. “God placed a TEAM Japan worker at our lunch table the same week that the kids posed that question to us,” Kelly recalls. “We had never heard of TEAM and so we thought, ‘let’s check this out.’ After that, God just kept confirming that we were supposed to be here.” After a period of fundraising and with much excitement, the family of seven moved to Japan in 2014. For the first five years, Kelly and Jeff served as a part of other TEAM ministry initiatives, but they began to sense a stirring for something new. Creating The Neighborhood Kelly and her family truly have a deep gift for hospitality, and regularly opened up their home to others they met in Tokyo. They saw a great need for people to have a place to gather and connect, and they wondered what doors the Lord might be opening for them to meet that need. “About a year before we were to return the States on home assignment, we were just really thinking about our future in Japan,” Kelly says. “We saw a need for people to have a ‘third place’ – a place that’s not home and it’s not work. They didn’t have a church community or any other place where they could meet people and just connect.” Kelly goes on to explain that in Japan, the culture is such that people don’t generally invite each other into their homes, but as her family did so, people embraced that opportunity. “This idea formed in all of our hearts of a student ministry center – a place where we can create community and learning,” says Kelly. “It was born out of what we were already doing in our home, but seeing how we could expand it and have better space.” God’s Provision What happened next is a true testament to God’s provision. Kelly, Jeff, and the kids returned to the States and began sharing their vision for The Neighborhood with their supporters and churches who responded generously. Upon returning to Japan, the search was on for the right space. “We had a Christian realtor that we told our dream to, and he just went looking for it,” Kelly recalls. When the realtor found a 5-story apartment building, he said, “It’s kind of out of your budget but it has what you need and want.” The Lord provided the funds and the family moved into the space in November 2019. They now occupy all but the ground floor, with living space for their family as well as classrooms, areas to study or hang out, and guest rooms for exchange students or others who need a place to stay overnight. The first floor is occupied by a pizza shop – a welcome amenity for the many groups and students who visit The Neighborhood. “It’s very convenient!” Kelly says with a laugh. The Neighborhood began to see lots of activity right away until the pandemic hit in early 2020. During the height of the quarantine, Kelly and Jeff used the time to redecorate the space and plant gardens outside the building. Then as the restrictions eased, they invited individual students or families over for meals and fellowship. It wasn’t until March 2023 that The Neighborhood was able to fully open again as intended. Kelly shares that despite the setbacks of COVID, the Lord continued to provide the funds to pay the rent.
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