St Matthew’s Mission Working Group was delighted to hear during the week about people who have adopted a missionary and taken the first step to supporting them by praying for them. Today our tip for supporting missionaries is to keep in touch with them.
The writer of Hebrews tells us “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds…let us encourage one another” (10:24). The missionary life has particular challenges. As we send out missionaries we have a special responsibility to encourage them because of the work they are involved in. Often missionaries work in physically and spiritually difficult environments. Their life is often very different to what they were used to at home. Take time to consider how you can spur your adopted missionary on toward love and good deeds…and how you can encourage them in their work for the gospel. One important way you can do this is by communicating regularly with them.
Keep in Touch
Write to your missionary. Even though you may not know your missionary very well, writing is a great way to encourage them. First of all introduce yourself and perhaps include a photograph. Let them know what’s been happening in your family, church, neighborhood. Missionaries often say they love hearing about ordinary things at home. Your emails, letters or postcards don’t need to be long. Let them know that you don’t expect a reply so they are not burdened.
In some countries email downloads are charged according to their size (including attachments). Please check before sending any attachments or long messages. In certain countries emails are monitored. Find out if there are topics that you should avoid mentioning for security reasons.
Keep them in the loop! Send the church bulletin occasionally and tell them about what’s going on at church. Keep them up to date with Australian news. Australia doesn’t feature very highly in overseas media.
Send a sound recording. If you prefer talking to writing then send sound recording (tape, CD or electronic – depending upon their preferred format) of you or people at church. You could also send sermon CDs to encourage your missionary.
Ring them! Next time you take out a telephone contract, consider signing up for a plan that allows cheap calls to your missionary’s country. Let’s smother our adopted missionary with love and care—they are working for the gospel of Jesus on our behalf.
Khim Harris
The writer of Hebrews tells us “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds…let us encourage one another” (10:24). The missionary life has particular challenges. As we send out missionaries we have a special responsibility to encourage them because of the work they are involved in. Often missionaries work in physically and spiritually difficult environments. Their life is often very different to what they were used to at home. Take time to consider how you can spur your adopted missionary on toward love and good deeds…and how you can encourage them in their work for the gospel. One important way you can do this is by communicating regularly with them.
Keep in Touch
Write to your missionary. Even though you may not know your missionary very well, writing is a great way to encourage them. First of all introduce yourself and perhaps include a photograph. Let them know what’s been happening in your family, church, neighborhood. Missionaries often say they love hearing about ordinary things at home. Your emails, letters or postcards don’t need to be long. Let them know that you don’t expect a reply so they are not burdened.
In some countries email downloads are charged according to their size (including attachments). Please check before sending any attachments or long messages. In certain countries emails are monitored. Find out if there are topics that you should avoid mentioning for security reasons.
Keep them in the loop! Send the church bulletin occasionally and tell them about what’s going on at church. Keep them up to date with Australian news. Australia doesn’t feature very highly in overseas media.
Send a sound recording. If you prefer talking to writing then send sound recording (tape, CD or electronic – depending upon their preferred format) of you or people at church. You could also send sermon CDs to encourage your missionary.
Ring them! Next time you take out a telephone contract, consider signing up for a plan that allows cheap calls to your missionary’s country. Let’s smother our adopted missionary with love and care—they are working for the gospel of Jesus on our behalf.
Khim Harris
Posts
1 comment:
Hi Gavin,
Thank you for posting something so clear for people who have adopted a missionary and are supporting them; both "Caring for your Missionary" #1 and #2 are practical and pretty much spot on. We are confident in the knowledge that we are faithfully prayed for at St Matts, but it really does make it special when people tell us so.
We also love to receive emails and letters/postcards and are really encouraged by people doing this; it's not always easy to reply as quickly as we would like, but it helps us feel connected.
We do enjoy hearing about general news from Australia. It's quite true that Australia doesn't feature much in the news here. And while we COULD just log on to a newspaper website and find out ourselves, it's always more fun to hear it from the more particular perspective of a friend.
The church bulletin and sermons are also always welcomed. Especially hearing the Australian accent!!
Finally, just a word about phone calls to missionaries. We've received a number of calls from well-meaning friends who thought about us and decided to call us - at 3am our time. At least for us in Mexico, emails are a lot easier!! (And we can cope with attachments.)
Hope this missionary perspective is helpful. God bless!
Post a Comment