Having returned from the Solomon Islands, I witnessed
several challenges that missionaries face.
Most of these challenges are common to all missionaries, but some of
them are related especially to what I recently encountered. I share these with you so that you might be
better equipped to pray for the advance of the Gospel around the world and so
that you would be fully informed about the unique challenges that missionaries
face.
Challenge #1 Missionaries have lots of
bosses
Missionaries
are unique in that they have lots of people to whom they are accountable. When those people are unclear or especially
if they contradict one another in priorities, the missionary is justifiably
nonplussed. Here are some of the
“bosses” of missionaries:
--Sending
churches. Often there can be more than
one. What happens if sending churches
differ in priority from one another?
What happens if a sending church experiences decline or decides to
reallocate resources away from the missionary?
--Supporting
individuals. There can be hundreds of
supporting individuals on a missionary’s mailing list. All of them are interested in the missionary,
but some of them feel like they can be the missionary’s boss. This goes particularly to lifestyle
choices. I knew of one missionary who
was given a Cadillac to use for furlough, but they could not use it because
supporting individuals felt that it was “extravagant” for a missionary to have
a luxury automobile. The problem is that
all of us make choices in our lives with the resources granted to us. What might be “extravagant” to one person
could be a relaxing hobby for another person.
--Missions
agency. The agency that the missionary
serves with has priorities which often can interfere with where the missionary
actually wants to serve. I knew of a
camp in South America that no one in the agency wanted to direct because it was
so dangerous to travel to the camp.
However, the camp was an effective ministry. The solution was to give the job to the
newest missionary on the field, and whenever a new missionary arrived, the job
was shifted to the newest missionary.
--Field
Directors. Most mission groups have a
field director. The missionary is often
evaluated and given assignments by this field director. Most agencies also have a field committee
which exists as a balance of power on the field director. The missionary is accountable to some extent
to all such on field authorities.
How would
you feel having so many bosses? As you
pray for your missionaries, pray that they might be able to sort out this
sometimes confusing array with wisdom and discernment.
Challenge #2 Getting Along with Fellow Missions Team
Members
This might
well be the greatest challenge facing most missionaries. There is an expectation that missionaries
will all get along and serve the Lord with gladness and grace. However, everyone takes their sinful nature
to the mission field. This means that
along with all the other challenges that missionaries face, they have to face
conflict with fellow missionaries. This
can be extremely disillusioning because it can be so unexpected. We can expect the poisonous snakes, the hot
or cold weather, but to be expected to work with weird, unpredictable, and
sinful missionary colleagues?? Think
about it—do you get along perfectly well with everyone in your church? Are there some people that you try to avoid
working with? Or perhaps there are just
some people that you really, really like working with, while others are simply
“okay” to work with? On the mission field, you are not given that luxury. You are called to live out the beauty of the
church even amidst challenging conflicts.
There is no easy way to plan avoiding a colleague.
Challenge #3 Marriage and Family
Life in
another culture is stressful. For
many, just the task of getting meals
prepared, clothes and dishes washed, rooms cleaned, vehicles maintained, and
shopping done can take more time than is available in a day. It is easy for missionaries to feel guilty
that they are not “doing enough” to justify their presence on the field when
just living takes so much time.
This has a
way of spilling over into marriages.
Frustrations which cannot be expressed to others are all too frequently
deflected onto spouses. This leaves
marriages in great need of refueling.
Further, since there are often isolated settings for mission work, there
is no place to get away to be playful as a couple. There is often such a small margin of
financial resources, even if there was a possibility to get away, there would
be no money for it. This was why this
past year, our missions team gave money to each EWO missionary couple for a
getaway.
The raising
and particularly the education of missionary children have particular
challenges. These challenges change as
the children grow. Third culture kids
(as MK’s are known) have unique blessings and peculiar challenges. They are part of both the culture of parental
origin and the culture where they serve, BUT they are also NOT a part of either
culture. They can easily feel like they
never fit, no matter where they are.
Launching MK’s into adulthood feels like a huge burden to most
missionaries.
Challenge #4 Cultural Literacy
It goes without saying that language acquisition is the beginning of developing cultural literacy. However, the
missionary has a greater task than just becoming fluent in a language. She/he
needs to understand the culture to which she/he is sent. This can be a lifelong task, as some cultural
intricacies are known only after spending a lifetime in the culture. Sometimes, it can feel like years are being
wasted. Other times, a false sense of
understanding and even of ministry effectiveness comes, only to be revealed
later as a huge cultural misunderstanding.
What can be thought of as a cultural value might only be the unique behavior
of one individual. Further, there is the
challenge of what to do when one has a hard time getting along with an
indigenous believer, especially if that person is a spiritual leader.
Challenge #5 Unique Hardships
In the
Solomon Islands, almost all of the missionaries have had to deal with
parasites, malaria, illnesses, infections, etc. In some mission fields, it is the harshness
of the cold, while in others, it is the suffocating heat. Sometimes it is political strife; other
places, it is demonic opposition. Some
places are so wet, that everything is moldy; other places are so dry, that
one’s cheeks are constantly chafed and
windburned. The challenges of dangerous
animals, destroying insects, earthquakes, mudslides, floods, droughts, it goes
on and on! In the midst of all this, the
missionary has limited resources, often only what could be carried to the
mission station. Clothes are worn until
they literally fade away; computers are
both a blessing and a curse. The sense
of isolation, even in the era of Skype, can be daunting.
Challenge #6 Inefficiency
We Americans
love efficiency and productivity. If we
something that is efficient, effective, and productive, we will love and
support that endeavor. If we something
that is inefficient, ineffective, and unproductive, we call into question the
person’s capabilities and even character.
Don’t believe for a second that your missionaries do not recognize
this. That is why they feel compelled to
tell you the rosier side of their story.
They do not lie, but I think that many missionaries feel scared to tell
the whole truth, for fear that the lack of “efficiency” will make supporters go
away.
Understand
this—the call to make disciples of the nations is necessarily an inefficient
endeavor. That does not mean that
missionaries are permitted to be lazy, but the very nature of opposition
arrayed against the missionary is so daunting that it cannot be that we can
measure it solely in terms of productivity and efficiency. I have observed that we often lead with
“efficiency” questions when we question our missionaries. This leads them to have to justify their
existence, which leads us to be satisfied (or not) with their answer. I think that leads to phony conversations.
What to Make of All This?
With all of
these challenges, why would anyone want to be a missionary? Why indeed would one subject himself to these
burdensome and painful challenges.
Well, if
hell is not real and if heaven is not real, then it would be foolish to do
this. If the resurrection of Jesus
Christ did not happen, then it would be foolish to do this. If Jesus did not command us to take the
Gospel of Christ to the nations, then it would be foolish to do this.
But hell is
real, and many people will go there.
(Matthew 7:13--Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.)
Heaven is
real, and a few will go there. (Matthew
7:14--For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.)
The resurrection of Jesus did happen. (1 Corinthinans 15:17-20--And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.)
The Great Commission is Jesus’ command to His church. (Matthew 28:18-20--And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”)
So, we go;
we send; we pray; we give. We GLADLY
accept these challenges and bear any burden to take the Gospel to the ends of
the earth. Someday, Revelation 7:9-10
will happen, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one
could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,
standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with
palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud
voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
And the
missionaries that I witnessed in the Solomon Islands last month will rejoice,
for it will not be in English that that cry will be uttered, but in every
language under heaven, including the 70+ languages of the Solomon Islands. And it will be worth it all, every bit of it!