7 Ways to Support Missionaries

Brianna Langley • Jul 03, 2017

Imagine you are a new missionary.

Living in a foreign land and adopting a new culture for the sake of the kingdom is a dream — one that you’ve worked toward for years.

However, before too long, feelings of culture shock and isolation begin to set in. Language barriers and foreign social etiquette make you ache for renewed connections with friends and family back home. You may even wonder if you made the right decision in coming.

This scenario is fairly common for those serving abroad and can easily lead to burnout.

That’s why it’s up to us as supporters to make sure missionaries don’t feel alone. Our support of missionaries is vital to the growth of the kingdom.

Here are some commonly overlooked ways you and your home church can support missionaries overseas:

1. Initiate conversation.

Instead of waiting on a monthly or quarterly newsletter from missionaries, be proactive in reaching out to them to catch up or ask how you can pray for their personal and pastoral well-being.

“One of my friends and I have set up an accountability relationship,” says TEAM missionary Jared Riepma. “We Skype several times a month, and that has been a great help to me, as I live in a very isolated area in Indonesia.”

Setting up regular times to video chat or call via MagicJack and other apps is a great way to show missionary friends that you haven’t forgotten them.

2. Always reply to updates.

Imagine you spent hours every month updating people on your life and ministry — and never heard back from anyone. Pretty soon, you’d wonder if anyone cared, much less read your newsletter or prayed for your requests. Unfortunately, missionaries experience this all the time.

Even just a short reply, either by email or snail mail, will remind missionaries that they really do have people backing them.

In your reply notes, tell the missionaries that you are praying for the specific requests they mentioned in their letter, and ask about the happenings or people they wrote about.

3. Offer help to missionaries on home assignment.

One of the easiest times to show missionaries support is when they’re on home assignment , which is a season of updating supporters, like you, and raising additional support.

When missionaries return on home assignment, they often do not have a car to drive or a place to stay. If you are in an area the missionary might pass through, offering to let them borrow an extra car or stay in a spare room can be a huge blessing.

On a smaller scale, you can bless missionaries by babysitting their kids so they can have a date night or taking them out to their favorite American restaurant.

“One pastor’s wife had a special spa day for the missionary ladies and had snacks, did manicures and pedicures, and just talked with us,” says TEAM missionary Denise Carter. “It was a really special time!”

4. Pray intentionally for missionaries.

Nowadays, it’s easy to share prayer requests through international apps. For example, TEAM missionary Beth Chadwick uses an app called Voxer to share prayer concerns with a group of women who are committed to praying for her family.

Intentionally praying for the specifics of an overseas ministry provides missionaries with divine protection from the spiritual warfare they’re bound to experience on the field.

General prayers are great; specific prayers are better. Always be sure to let the missionary know what you’ve been praying for, and don’t be afraid to ask for updates on specific situations. This lets missionaries know they have someone continually presenting them to the Father.

Keep up with our monthly prayer focus for more ideas on how to pray for your missionaries.

5. Give to the supporting missions organization.

While most people know missionaries have a sending church, many don’t realize missionaries usually have a sending organization, such as TEAM , behind them, too. These organizations support missionaries in ways most individuals and churches can’t, including on-the-field counseling, retirement planning, evacuation during emergencies, medical advice and many other essential services.

Missionaries Tim and Tammy Evans shared about a time TEAM helped them carry on despite discouraging obstacles: “We were at an all-time low in our ministry. We were burned out by stress, lack of success and conflict with another couple. After a year and four months on home assignment, conflict resolution and rest, TEAM approved a [large] grant … for our ministry one week before we were supposed to head back to Brazil. We were just amazed.”

Always find out which sending organization your missionary uses, and see how a donation there could enhance your missionary’s impact on the field.

You can strengthen missionaries around the world with a compassionate gift to TEAM. Please give today!

6. Coordinate with missionaries on the field when planning visits.

Short-term mission trips and occasional visits from friends and family go a long way in maintaining deep connections and partnerships with overseas missionaries.

However, this blessing can easily become a struggle if trips aren’t properly planned with the missionary.

Whether you are a church sending a short-term mission team or a friend going for a visit, always be sure to actively coordinate with the missionary in the area as much as possible.

Make sure there are specific projects the missionary needs help with and that you’re coming when they will have the time and energy to host you well.

Also, remember that not every trip has to be about work. Your church may not be able to send a whole team, but funding occasional visits from close friends or family members can be tremendously beneficial and refreshing for someone who’s serving away from home.

7. Don’t forget the kids!

Forgetting the kids is an easy trap to fall into as a supporter. But as a missionary kid myself, I know firsthand how special it is to receive a letter or a care package created especially for you.

“When our kids were small and with us, one church would send Christmas gifts to them each year,” says TEAM missionary David Stoddard. “That was very meaningful.”

Missionary kids often encounter their own sets of cultural dilemmas and struggles with loneliness. Feeling cared for by those they left behind when they moved to the mission field is deeply encouraging and something they will never forget.

Gifts during holiday seasons, like Christmas or Easter, is always a particularly nice surprise for children who are living away from home.

What are your favorite ways to support missionaries you know? If you’re a missionary, what special ways have your supporters shown you they care?

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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.