John and Shirley (pseudonyms) had been happily married for several years before coming to the field. As they struggled through transition into a new culture, a new job, a new language and a new lifestyle, their marital relationship began to suffer.
Change. It is inevitable, scary and challenging. It is hard for ‘ adults to deal with. It can be even more overwhelming and crippling for children.
I will be back in two days”…. “two weeks” “two months.” These are familiar words in the lives of many couples in ministry today. As the world shrinks, the need and expectation for travel in the context of ministry is greater than ever.
With the continued growth of short-term missions, those who are short-term mission mobilizers need to consider the value of developing sustainable mission relationships with career missionaries and national Christians.
A Lutheran pastor from the confessional church, who had lived through the horrors of Nazism, was asked why the great body of Lutherans did not rise up against Hitler. He responded by saying, “We lost our sense of eternity.”
Having moved into Christianity’s third millennium, we can assume that Christ’s mission for the Church on this planet, as well as we are able to understand it from the Scriptures, is nearing completion.
In oral societies, the community will either work with you or against you depending on the extent to which you have worked your way into the networking system.
Now be honest. Have you ever thought that missionaries who lasted only one term on the field were wimps? Or even worse, what about those who didn’t even last a term?
It’s difficult to imagine a class of people less understood than missionary families, unless maybe it’s missionaries in general.
South African pastors share reasons why they feel continued missionary presence in Africa has a negative effect.
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