How Stateside Families Can Support Missionary Families

[Editors Note: This week’s guest post is from Daniel Gaines. Find out more about Daniel, his family, and their work in Tanzania at the end of today’s article.]

When a family packs up their household, says goodbye to their friends and family, and moves to serve the Lord in another part of the world they go through tons of adjustments. You might think that the biggest challenge is adapting to their new culture. While that can be a huge challenge, it is likely one that your missionary anticipated. 

A challenge that he may not have expected is the feeling of isolation that often comes from life in a foreign mission field. The missionary family is now separated from everything familiar by thousands of miles. While friends back home are gathering for the lectureships, camps, conventions, gospel meetings and other events that once were a big part of life, the missionaries are watching from afar. There are no more youth sports, school activities, or family get-togethers. The things that once connected them to church and community are gone, leaving a void of disconnectedness in their place. 

That is where stateside families come in. You are a sort of lifeline or anchor in the missionary family’s home culture. As you support them, you remind them that they are not alone and forgotten. You remind them that you are on the team with them and that they are appreciated and loved. 

Here are five ways that you can support and connect with a missionary family: 

1. Prayer

Pray for them. Regularly. By name. Most missionaries strongly believe in the power of prayer. When they ask for your prayers, it is not just vain lip service. They really want the prayers. Even the apostle Paul sought out intercessory prayer in his behalf in Colossians 4:3-4: “Praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word… that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.” If Paul needed prayers, then the rest of us certainly do!

Pray for missionaries at church. This also reminds other Christians about this need. Pray for missionaries at home. It reminds your family of the importance of missions. Be like Epaphras, and labor earnestly for us in your prayers (Colossians 4:12)

TIP: Read their mission reports so that you can pray about specific things that are going on.  Then send a quick message saying, “We prayed for you tonight!”

2. Communicate

This is one area that is so much easier today than it used to be. When I was a child living in Cameroon we didn’t have a phone, but we knew a guy who did. We could make a long drive to his house and use it, then reimburse him for the expense – which was about $8-10 per minute. A 10-minute call to the US would cost $100 in 1980’s money!  Needless to say, we did not make many phone calls.

Now, living in Tanzania I can call the US for free thanks to internet services like MagicJack. I can even have face-to-face conversations through Skype and Facetime. Also, email, Facebook, and blogs make it possible for missionaries to communicate reports of their work essentially in real time. There is no more waiting for quarterly newsletters. If churches haven’t heard from their missionaries in a few weeks, then they wonder what’s wrong. 

The marvels of communication technology do work both ways, however. It means that it is easier than ever to send out an encouraging message to your missionaries. A quick note acknowledging a recent report and offering a few words of encouragement or thanks can mean a lot to your missionaries. “Like” and “Share” their reports with others. It reassures them that they are not working in a vacuum, and that their efforts matter to the folks back home.  

TIP: Be patient in your correspondence. Things like time differences and power outages mean that your missionary may not respond as instantly as your office coworker. Give him a couple of days. 

3. Financial Support

It has been said, “An underfunded missionary is a distracted missionary.” How can a missionary be properly focused on his work if he has to spend large amounts of time trying to raise money to make up for funding shortages? Many missionaries end up leaving the field over funding frustrations.

I once assumed that almost all mission funding came from congregations. However, the reality is that a large portion of our funds come directly from individuals. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a great number of Christians contribute directly to missions from their household budgets in addition to their church contributions. 

TIP: Obviously this helps the missionaries, but it is also good for the stateside family. Even if you can only do $25 per month, then that makes you regular partners in the work that is taking place. You are putting your money where your mouth is, as it were, and demonstrating to your family that mission work is important. Become a “sender” (Romans 10:14-15). 

4. Care packages

The air fills with electric excitement when my children see me walk into the house carrying a package. An onlooker would think it was Christmas morning as the kids tear into the package filled with treats and trinkets from America. Even the small children receive the message that there are people back home that care about them enough to send this reminder of their love. What a great way to show you care!

TIP: Try to be thoughtful of the ages and genders of any children in the family, and send things that you think they would enjoy. If possible, contact the missionaries beforehand to get ideas of things that they would like, but can’t find in their area. Then put the package together with a Bible class, care group, or just as a family. You’ll put big smiles on the faces of a missionary family.

5. Visit

Go visit the mission field in person. It might be the trip of a lifetime for you, and you’ll get to see what happens in a mission field first-hand. Pictures and reports really just can’t do it justice, and your faith is going to grow through the experience. 

Take your teenage children with you. They need to see how real people live in other parts of the world.  My father took me with him on a campaign to Suriname when I was in 9^th grade. Honestly, I wasn’t a huge amount of help on the trip aside from passing out some flyers. However, the trip was a huge help to me. This was a turning point in my life that really began my desire to become a minister. If I hadn’t taken that trip, then I probably wouldn’t be a missionary or even a minister today. 

TIP: Airlines on international flights usually allow you two suitcases per person. Plan to only use one for yourself. Then contact the missionaries and offer to let them use your extra bag. Through sites like Amazon, we can shop online but shipping is prohibitive. Tell the missionary, “Hey, I’ve got 50 pounds worth of space, and it’s yours. Just send to my house anything you want me to bring.” This consideration doesn’t cost you anything, but would be very, very helpful to a missionary family.

Doing any combination of these five things will help hold up the hands of your missionaries, and make you fellow workers sharing in their efforts.  World evangelism is a team effort.  It takes good people working together on the home front and in the field to make it happen. 

To God be the glory!

———-

Daniel and Tiffany Gaines, along with their children (Abby, Josiah, and Levi), are serving the Lord and His church in Tanzania, Africa where Daniel is the director of the Andrew Connally School of Preaching.  You can follow their work by liking their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/TanzanianMissions and by reading their blog at:  http://tanzanianmissions.blogspot.com/ 

You can contact Daniel at Daniel-gaines@hotmail.com

FURTHER, please keep this family in your prayers. Since writing this article, Tiffany and the children have had to come back to the United States to take care of a medical need with one of the children. Daniel is currently alone in Tanzania. Pray for them as they are separated for a fairly extended time.

Photo background credit: Kenneth Lu on Creative Commons