Our church supports a number of missionaries financially - not for huge amounts but what we can afford, and I hope it makes a difference to them.
But I have in the past sort of made some assumptions about missionaries.
Things such as "Missionaries are always popular when they visit churches, so they must have plenty of friends." Another goes something like - "I went to a local small Bible college (between 3 and 8 students while I was there) in a fairly remote city, so that is why I don't know or talk to many other pastors, Most missionaries went to bigger Bible colleges in bigger places, so they obviously have far more ministry friends than I have."
Another assumption I have made is that missionaries are always so busy that if I email them too often they will get annoyed at the interruptions and having to answer my petty little conversations.
Over the past few months I have found that maybe my assumptions are a little inaccurate.
If there is a missionary out there that is reading this then you are probably simultaneously laughing, crying, and choking on your breakfast cereal at the thought of this being "a little inaccurate".
Actually I am coming to the realisation that it is entirely inaccurate.
Missionaries appreciate and very much need the financial support. I am coming to understand that missionaries in general don't have enough financial support to get by, but somehow the Lord keeps them fed. I had built up this idea that the average missionary has loads of churches which support them for little bits and a few that support them with big bits, but I think the truth is that most missionaries have a few churches that support them for little bits and even fewer that support them for medium bits, and then they just manage somehow.......
But this is not actually about the financial support.
Missionaries DO need and appreciate the financial support, but they also need to have friends that they can talk to and who talk to them.
And missionary wives need to have friends that they can talk to and who will talk to them.
And these friends need to be someone outside their place of ministry.
Something that only a Pastor or pastor's wife can understand is that everyone in your church - even those you count as friends - are ministry. There is no such thing as a "pure friendship" within your church for the Pastor and his wife.
The same goes for the missionary - they no doubt have friends in their field, but not the same way that other people have friends - everyone in your mission field is part of your ministry, and you are by the very definition, ministering to them, even if they are your friends.
But it is exacerbated even further by the distance and isolation of the missionary. I can if I really need to, go and talk to a Pastor/friend nearby. But where does a missionary go if there are no other missionaries in his field?
And this goes for the missionary's wife as well, but in some ways even moreso, for women in general are more reliant on that sort of talk and interaction.
And although none have mentioned it to me, in thinking about it, I would want my kids to know also the culture that I came from, and for them to have friends from among that group.
What I am saying is that Pastors in particular need to do more than send cheques to missionaries.
We need to be friends to them. We need to send emails just to say "Hi, how are you going?" or to let them know what is happening in your own life - I am sure they want to hear from time to time what life "back home" is like now.
And Pastor's wives need to make friends of missionary wives, and just chat from time to time.
And Pastors need to encourage their kids to get in touch with the missionary kids and just make friends of them.
We need to not be so worried about "interrupting" or "bothering" the missionary and his family, and I think we need to DETERMINE to bother and interrupt the missionary and their families.
Let THEM tell us when we are overdoing it, rather than being too timid about it.
They will find a few "friends" in all this that they will make closer friends with, and those that they don't will still be appreciated I am sure.
Am I totally off track with this?
I don't know - I haven't actually asked any of our missionaries about this.
This is just what I think, and it has come from observing some of the goings on with missionaries of late.
I am pretty sure about one thing though - they want people to do more than just send them a cheque very month.
They want people to remember them.
And they NEED people to be praying for them.
I am going to try harder.........
