Why Pastoral Care

Why Pastoral Care for Missionaries?

What a missionary faces in their first term:
Many church members do not know that there is a need to provide pastoral care for missionaries, believing that missionaries are spiritual giants and therefore not needing much in this realm. However, we have found that most missionaries are just like you and me – people from the pew who have dared to step forward and say “I am available. I will go.” People who are willing to risk whether God might use their loaves and fishes. While it may be true that missionaries need a hardy spirit, most are common people who have greatly benefited from the teachings and worship in their home worship community. Nearly every missionary will encounter similar cultural adjustments. And nearly every missionary will carry a tremendous load of stress in order to get to the mission field. Some continue under a load of stress the entire time they serve abroad.

Couple this with having one’s life in an uproar when one prepares to leave for the mission field – if it is a family, much work must be put into motion long before the actual move takes place, i.e. school records, current work (if transitioning in the middle of a school year), selling of automobiles, houses, household goods. This can mean living in someone else’s home for the weeks or months before going to the field. Stresses are similar for single missionaries, except often times there is no one with whom to share the load and the stresses of transition.

The few months before leaving for the field can be very tumultuous and exact a toll on a missionary’s spiritual routines and disciplines. All of this is relatively normal and should be expected. It is just a matter of reality for most, if not all, missionary families. Single missionaries don’t fare much better, and there are many transitions involved in leave-taking. When you add the fact that many missionaries must raise all of the funds necessary for them to go – in advance of going – their Sunday mornings get used for many months as they go out to other churches to raise support. In many cases they can be the main speaker at the church on that given Sunday. So much for getting a good dose of sermons in the hamper to tide you over before you leave for the mission field!

Then, upon arriving on the field a missionary begins the stages of cross-cultural adjustment. Many of us revert to our own individual preferences when we are under stress, making it more difficult to attend to the needs of others.

The first 6 months of a missionary’s adjustment can be the most difficult. In this time it is easy to be a grace consumer rather than a grace extender. To make it more interesting, for many missionaries who have gone into a culture that speaks a different language, many of them will not hear a sermon in their own language again for months, or even years.

And it takes between 3 – 5 years to begin to get proficient enough in the new language before one can communicate deep issues of the heart. And again, if a missionary does attend a church in the new culture, many times they are asked to bring the “word” for the day – in other words, to preach. After all, isn’t the missionary a “holy and spiritual giant?” We all assume this to be true because we put the missionary on a high spiritual pedestal.

We each have our preferences and our quirks, it’s what makes us unique. In the boiling pot of living in a new culture where most of the rules have changed, our quirks and preferences can become stumbling blocks, even as we try to retain an attitude of humility and to keep our focus on being learners of the new culture.

Many missiologists believe that new missionaries should devote the first 2 years to cultural adaptation and language learning before diving into ministry. But for many this cannot happen. Many missionaries jump right in, or they need to begin the arduous process of procuring a visa through the new country’s immigration – which can be a long, tedious lesson in patience, and the process can dictate that the missionary does not have the availability to attend to language and culture learning as a result.

As the first term of service ensues, the majority of missionaries report that their expectations regarding the work they will do on the field changes; what they thought they came to do simply doesn’t pan out. There is a great need of flexibility, though it helps when this advice is generously given in the preparation stages before arriving on the field. It becomes both a stress and a shock for some, when they realize that everything they told their supporters they would be doing changes.

Many missionaries go to serve on teams with other missionaries who are themselves coping with many of these same issues. For some, there is not much allowance to offer grace to other struggling missionaries because all of their energies are being spent in trying to cope themselves. The “workplace” can then become another level of stress, as opposed to a place where the missionary might find some respite.

Whewww! Then the first term is over (approx. 2 – 3 years), just when the missionary is starting to understand his/her role. The missionary returns home in hopes of receiving spiritual nourishment and refreshment in their own language, good Bible studies, being in a small group, and listening to praise and worship music in their native tongue. But what generally happens if intentionality hasn’t been applied, is that the missionary returns home hitting the ground running as they make appointments with various church leaders to come share all of the wonderful things they are doing. And the pressure is on to raise the funds necessary to be able to stay on the field another term. A complicating factor in some church environments is a culture that hides brokenness - behind Sunday smiles and only allowing for 7 second sound bytes when listening to a missionary answer a question someone might ask.

So, instead of attending 40 -50 services in one’s home church hearing inspiring sermons, the missionary is going coast to coast speaking about their work and the worthiness of it, in hopes of receiving either ongoing, or new support. Relatives must be visited, especially if it is a missionary family with grandparents at home. So much of the home-leave is spent living out of suitcases in someone else’s space once again. And before you know it, it is time to go back to the mission field for term two, and the missionaries are exhausted and wiped out as they land back at their new “home” on the mission field. Oh, and by the way, 2 more families have either joined the team, or left the field. More transitions, stresses, and loss.

These are some of the reasons we see a need for missionaries to have intentional pastoral care. In our experience most pastors in the sending churches do not have time to give individualized attention and care to the missionaries they send, as their hands are full tending and mending the flock at home.

This is why we boldly seek support, so we can serve the missionary hearts the Lord has put before us.

pastoral care