How to Encourage a Missionary
By Julie Terrell, wife, mom, and missionary to Chiapas, Mexico, and hostess for the Global Encounters Chiapas teams
We love Global Encounters. Our favorite teams every year are the GE teams! This may be due, in part, to the fact that the team members are often repeat visitors and have become friends. But mostly, it's because they are great teams... considerate, helpful, and serious about missions! Talking to a group of GE alumni about encouraging missionaries feels somehow akin to preaching to the choir. Nevertheless, I've been asked to share some things that encourage us on the mission field!Read the newsletters! Even if you only skim the missionary updates you receive, it is encouraging to get a note back from someone, even if it only says "thanks for the letter, we are praying for you." Updates take a good bit of time and thought and effort... it helps to know they are being read!
Send a card! Snail mail is a lost art form. Some countries (Mexico, for example) are very difficult to ship packages to. But letters or cards (as long as they are empty) will arrive just fine! Some days it is a huge blessing to know that someone thought of you long enough to write a note and drop it in the mail. Few things are more personal than a hand-written note.If the missionary's country allows, send a small package. Seasonal things (especially for American holidays such as Independence Day and Thanksgiving) are such a treat! American holidays are important to us (maybe even more so, now that we're away from home), and a little something special to help celebrate makes the whole season more fun... and sometimes less home-sick.
If you have opportunity to visit a missionary, remember they are opening their home to you. Try to be aware of the messes you make, the schedule they may be trying to maintain with their children, and the extra effort they are putting out to house and/or feed you. While this is just a trip/hotel room for you, this is their every-day life.Let them hear from you! The mission field can be a very lonely place, as busy as it is. Every now and then, someone will send a quick e-mail just to say they are thinking of us, ask how we are, and tell us what they are up to. Those e-mails make my day! You never know when someone might be having a hard day and all it takes is a little word from you to make things sunny again.
The last time we were in the US, our church arranged a couple of potluck dinners for us. They kept the guest list small, so that we could really visit, and had several nights booked and dinner taken care of. That was amazing! It enabled us to see a LOT of our church family, in an intimate setting, in a short period of time. Visits home are usually crazy, but we DO want to see as many people as possible. If you have opportunity to help your missionary with something similar, I am sure it would be appreciated.Do what you can. Don't think that your inability to support missions with hundreds of dollars a month means you cannot help with their work! If you have it on your heart to send $10, do it! God has provided for us in miraculous ways, numerous times, often using small gifts that people send. Making yourself available to someone on a foreign field is HUGE. Accepting their mail and packages, being available to run errands, making the occasional phone call or shopping trip... those things are enormously helpful to us. Don't underestimate your ability to be involved!
Julie Terrell has been a huge blessing to the Global Encounters teams that visit Chiapas. She is an amazing hostess to be able to feed and house 10+ extra people at a time in a country where just shopping for groceries can be an adventure. On top of that, she knows how to care for teams returning from a week in the jungle! Thank you from all of us who have been on the receiving end of your ministry, Julie!