Missionary Life Archives - Page 11 of 11 - TEAM Christian Missions Blog

Photo Journal: Japan

The Pagaragans work in Japan.

Jul 30 2015

Meet Team Kibou: Jeff, Kelly, Taylor, Bailey, Kendyl, Reagan, and Colson Pagaragan. Originally from Hawaii, they are a fun, bubbly family serving with TEAM in Japan. The Pagaragan’s vision is to “bring hope for the future to the unreached in Japan by spreading the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere.” In Japanese, “kibou” means hope or a belief grounded on substantial evidence. The Pagaragans are a perfect example of the hope of the gospel and grounded belief that comes from trusting Christ. Jeff and Kelly are in language training and will be working with the Tokyo Metro Ministry Initiative…

Glenn Skala works in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Jun 02 2015

Each month, we will feature a TEAM missionary in our new Photo Journal series. See what it’s like to live and work overseas through the eyes of the missionaries themselves. Don’t forget to check back each month for a new missionary and ministry area! Meet Glenn, a TEAM missionary in Guadalajara, Mexico. Glenn grew up in Illinois, and his missions experience began during high school, when he went on four short-term mission trips with his youth group. During college at Taylor University, Glenn continued going on mission trips, organizing and advocating for missions at his school. “It was through these experiences…

Missionaries are ordinary believers living obediently to the call God has placed on their lives. They aren’t exempt from the struggles and trials that come to everyone. The question may be raised, who cares for those who are constantly caring for others? At TEAM, our answer for this vital need is member care.

Nov 07 2014

Picture this: A young woman embarks on a cross-cultural mission with a burden to bring the light of Christ to unreached people. She must invest years learning an extremely difficult language in order to serve in her new country. She experiences civil unrest and natural disasters as she is adjusting to life in a new part of the world. As a single woman in a male-dominated culture, she is limited in where she can go and what she can do. While God provides a team of caring coworkers to surround this young woman, the team changes frequently as different members…

God often calls the entire family to service, and missionary kids play a vital role in their parents’ ministries. Photo by Robert Johnson/TEAM

Oct 16 2014

We asked Josh McQuaid, TEAM’s Director of Organizational Engagement, to share about his experience growing up as a missionary kid (MK) in South America. Today, Josh discusses some tangible ways you can support and help raise up a generation of healthy and happy missionary kids. For missions-minded churches and savvy individual ministry partners, the notion of caring for your missionary will be nothing new. It may be second nature for you to pray, write encouraging notes, send care packages or even visit in person. But even if you’re doing all of this, you might be overlooking one of the most…

We can’t let myths and bad examples keep us from the truth: biblical stewardship is one of the most valuable discipleship tools in our Great Commission kit. Photo courtesy of TEAM

Aug 20 2014

I travel quite a bit in my line of work. When you talk to strangers on an airplane, there are very few things that tend to shut people up faster than saying “I’m a pastor.” “I’m a fundraiser” is definitely one of those few. A fundraiser is right up there with used car salesman and lawyer when it comes to negative perceptions. What is it about fundraising that makes it such a cringe-worthy profession? I think it boils down to a couple of scary myths, and a few falsehoods, coupled with the damaging example of those who have abused the…

Tool or burden? Does student debt have a place on the mission field?
Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

Jun 17 2014

Almost every missions mobilizer can tell this tale: They found the perfect would-be missionary, highly qualified and ready to ship all their belongings to the other side of the world, with one little problem. The candidate is drowning in debt. Debt is one of the biggest challenges of our time for North American missions and has been called “the greatest enemy other than Satan himself” to sending missionaries. This may be a slight overstatement, but there’s no doubt that personal debt is a huge obstacle for many young people who want to serve overseas (or domestically). Because missionaries tend to…

From Chick-fil-a cravings to aching loneliness, a missionary's first months on the field are full of surprises. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

May 27 2014

It has been six months since my wife, Jenny, and I boarded a plane in Chicago and moved to Guatemala City. Our lives have changed dramatically since then. In the last year, we both stepped away from full-time jobs, liquidated everything we owned, and said good-bye to the place we called home for the seven years. We left behind the best friends we have ever made. And we did so while Jenny was six months pregnant. It’s been a wild ride. We’ve learned a lot of lessons in six months about missionary life. Here are some of them. And we…

Millennials are changing the missions landscape and taking on challenges in ways previous generations have not.

May 20 2014

The highways of online media are strewn with attempts to explain millennials, my hard-to-pin-down generation that’s currently somewhere between the ages of 14 and 34 — and even that range is a little squishy. Churches, marketers and, yes, missions agencies, would love to know exactly what makes millennials tick. But most attempts to put us in a box fall short. Millennials — even millennial Christians — are not monolithic. They defy unifying definitions, aside from superficial observations (“Those millennials and their iPhones!”) that often apply as much to other generations as they do to 20-somethings. There is little doubt, however,…

Where culture doesn't contradict spiritual truth, western missionaries must take care to leave it unchanged. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

Apr 15 2014

Today, TEAM missionary Brett Miller shares about how missionaries impact cultures in good and bad ways — and how to avoid the latter. Recently, I went pheasant hunting with some friends of my Dad who were kind enough to include me in their circle. It was a special day and, as one of them pointed out, likely my last day of pheasant hunting. There are no pheasants in Swaziland, where my wife and I are going to serve as missionaries. One of the men I was hunting with made a perceptive comment. He told me that missions had done serious…

Keeping the Peace: A TEAM worker in Peru laughs with local church members. Numbers show that resolving conflict with team members and national workers is essential for successful long-term missionary careers. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

Sep 24 2013

Here’s a little secret: Missionaries are ordinary people. And just like ordinary people, sometimes they have conflicts about ordinary things like misplaced dishes. These days, good missionary care teams keep an eye out for interpersonal conflict as the source of potential burnout. As it turns out, it’s not a new problem. Not by a long shot. TEAM writer Lisa Renninger was recently researching for a project on TEAM’s history and stumbled upon a story of narrowly avoided-missionary burnout set in Venezuela over a century ago. In 1906, two pioneering missionary families, the Bachs and the Christiansens, had established a new…

Category - Missionary Life

Photo Journal: Japan

Photo Journal: Guadalajara

What is Member Care?

Raising Up Healthy Missionary Kids

The Spirituality of Fundraising

The “D” Word in Missions

6 Lessons from a New Missionary

3 Ways Millennials See Missions Differently

Do Western Missionaries Damage Cultures?

The Greatest Enemy of Missionary Careers