Helping Missionary Kids Thrive on Home Assignment

Bethany DuVal • Apr 22, 2020

For most of us, missionary kids are an anomaly of life. They come to our churches for a year or a single Sunday while their parents are on home assignment. And we hardly get to know them before they leave again for the mission field.

But on the Global Missions Podcast , TEAM Missionary Kid Coordinator Valerie Williams explains why these kids need your love — and how you can impact their lives in just one church visit.

Listen to the podcast episode to find out:

What “home” means to missionary kids
What to do before missionary kids come for a visit
How to make the church experience less intimidating
The power of truly listening
How to keep connecting after a missionary kid leaves

Inspired by the podcast, we also asked missionaries for real-life examples of how churches and friends have helped their kids thrive on home assignment. Check out their ideas, and talk with your church body about what you can do to help missionary kids on home assignment.

1. Build a welcome basket or road trip kit.

Before a word is spoken, a welcome basket says, “We care about you and have been looking forward to your arrival.”

“A few of our churches gave [our] girls little baskets with small gifts or gift cards,” says Jessica Malec, TEAM missionary to Peru. “They really enjoyed this, no matter how big or small it was.”

When Kacie Mann’s family arrived from Papua, Indonesia , a friend had made road trip kits with coloring books, crayons, little toys and snacks.

“We had supplies for our kids, but especially for little ones, their short attention spans mean they get bored of what they know,” Kacie says, “and a new pack of things — even cheap dollar store things — is so great for passing the time in the car.”

If you have kids, get them involved in making the welcome baskets or road trip kits . Let them pick out toys and write notes. The gift basket could even include an invitation to a playdate, showing the missionary kids that they have friends at the ready.

2. Provide stability and rest.

Every kid needs stability and rest. But that’s hard to find when you’re driving across the country or hopping from church to church. Missionary parents work hard to give their kids a break, but there are a few ways you can help.

If the family is staying in one spot, offer to take the kids to the same church, even when parents can’t go. That way, they can make friends, join classes and set into a natural weekend rhythm.

“We didn’t go with the entire family to every supporting church that we needed to visit. … We focused as a family on our home sending church so they would get well-connected,” says Gretchen Potma, TEAM missionary to the Czech Republic.

Find out the family’s travel route and look up which museums, historical sites, national parks and other excursions they’ll pass on their travels. Then, offer to give them a day at one of them. It will give the kids a chance to just be kids, and it will help everyone make great memories together.

Besides speaking at churches, missionaries will visit supporters at their homes, take them out for coffee, speak at Bible studies and more. Offer to be their go-to babysitter, so kids have somewhere familiar to go. This works even better if you have kids of a similar age and can turn it into a playdate!

Two girls with backpacks have a conversation. Missionary kids on home assignment travel a lot.

Constant travel can be stressful for missionary kids on home assignment. Give them a more restful experience by sending their family on a fun outing.

3. Lend old toys.

“We don’t bring many toys with us from our home in Austria ,” says TEAM missionary Melissa Lundquist. So, it meant a lot when friends let their boys borrow a box of Duplo and a box of Playmobil.

TEAM missionary to Papua Susan Cochran says her home church “collected toys to have ready for our kids, including a big tub of Lego, bikes and a trampoline for our backyard.”

Before you sell your kids’ old toys, find out if you know age-appropriate missionary kids who will visit soon. Whether the kids are there for a year or a few months, these simple items will make their time easier. Plus, it’s a huge help to the parents!

“[Borrowing old toys] allowed us to not stress about investing in something that will only be used for a year and then sit in storage or be given away,” says Eric Kroner, TEAM missionary to Chad.

4. Make it easy for missionary kids to jump back into life.

Missionary kids on home assignment don’t have long to make friends, learn new activities and build a life before they go back to the mission field. Generally, the longest home assignment only lasts one year. So make sure it’s easy for missionary kids to quickly jump into church activities.

Gretchen suggests having a family assigned to connect with missionaries before their visit to a church, especially at large churches . The assigned family can help the missionary family find Sunday school classes, sign in kids and tell them what’s happening in the church.

And even before missionaries come home, Kurt zurBurg, missionary to Ukraine , says to read missionary newsletters and see what they’re saying about the kids.

“If they do try to contact the family, be sure to ask about the kids and remember what they are in interested in as they share,” Kurt says. “Take notes if needed.”

Find ways to get your own kids familiar with the missionary kids, as well.

“One Sunday school teacher took pictures of our kids to leave up on the classroom wall so other kids could remember and pray for our kids,” says Susan.

5. Rekindle old friendships.

Outside of church, be bold in setting up playdates if you have similarly aged kids. Missionary kids on home assignment deeply miss their friends abroad.

“Our kids can get overwhelmed, unsure how they fit in , what’s their place now after being gone,” says Eric. A gift of genuine friendship can be the difference between a fantastic home assignment and a long, lonely one .

“We … tried to spend as much time with their friends as possible,” says Jessica. “We had park dates, went hiking, took friends to lunch, had sleepovers, had game afternoons and parties.”

When Amanda Burleson’s family came home from South Africa , a supporter took them on a beach weekend with their own family. “That was really special,” she says.

As kids get older, it can be harder to arrange friendships, so talk with your teens about what returning missionary kids are going through. Encourage them to make a new friend — one who will have a unique perspective to share.

6. Don’t pressure missionary kids to be part of their parents’ presentations.

Some missionary kids will eagerly hop on stage to sing a song in a foreign language. Other missionary kids would rather die. It’s important to remember that their parents made the decision to go overseas, while they were likely born into it. So, before a missionary family visits, ask them what they’re comfortable doing.

“If [the kids] want to play a song on the piano for a church service, let them. But don’t force them,” says Melissa. “We included them as much as they wanted to be included.”

Be prepared for missionaries to leave their kids with their grandparents, where they can feel that important sense of stability. And if they do come, let the kids be kids . Look out for their needs.

“When we spoke at one supporting church, a friend made a special effort to make the morning special for our son, giving him a tour of the library and helping him pick out books to read while we were speaking,” says Susan.

7. Ask questions and acknowledge each missionary kid’s journey.

When a missionary family comes to town, we tend to gravitate toward the parents. After all, they were our friends before they left, and they’re the ones doing big, exciting ministry. But missionary kids want to be asked about their lives, just like anyone else.

“[Our] girls know a lot about Peru, and they have stories to tell of our time there,” Jessica says. “It was really meaningful when someone would direct their questions to them.”

Kurt encourages supporters to show genuine interest in missionary kids as people , not just as church planters. “Ask them about regular life things in Ukraine, and not stuff like, ‘Tell us about how you share Jesus with your friends in Ukraine.’”

Some missionary kids will be eager to talk about ministry. Others will be more reserved. Still other missionary kids may not have a relationship with God at all. Get to know each kid to find out where they are spiritually and what they enjoy talking about.

A Testament of God’s Love

Ultimately, helping missionary kids thrive on home assignment is all about treating them like people. What would you want and need in a strange place? How do your kids feel on long car trips? What questions did you like to be asked as a child?

Start asking these questions, and you’ll find ample ways to serve the missionary kids in your life. You’ll be a testament of God’s love for them. And you’ll enable their parents to keep serving and sharing Christ in foreign lands.

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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.