When Missionary Care is the Ministry
Summer of Celebration Series …
Celebrating the Faithfulness of God in Ordinary Places
We celebrate what missionaries do, but we often underestimate what missionaries need.
Most people understand feeding programs, Vacation Bible School, church planting, construction projects, and evangelism. Those are measurable. They photograph well. They fit neatly into a newsletter.
What is harder to explain is that sometimes the greatest gift we can give a missionary is not another project.
Sometimes it is our presence.
Sometimes it is helping them rest.
Sometimes it is sitting at a kitchen table and listening.
Sometimes it is doing the dishes and the laundry and the tasks of everyday life.
Sometimes it is helping them settle in.
Sometimes it is helping them move out.
Sometimes it is holding a newborn baby.
Sometimes it is taking them on safari.
Sometimes it is simply reminding them they are loved.
None of these are distractions from ministry.
They are ministry.
The world—and sometimes even the church—tends to value production. God values people.
Missionaries spend their lives pouring out.
Who pours into them?
Missionaries spend their lives seeing others.
Who sees them?
Missionaries spend their lives carrying burdens.
Who helps carry theirs?
The good news is that God sees their need just as He sees yours and mine, and He faithfully sends the solution.
Every Trip Has a Different Assignment
During my first extended stay in South Africa, I took four days for a safari. It was a bucket list item and surprisingly affordable. More importantly, I invited the missionary family to come with me and was able to bless them with the trip as the Lord led.
Some might wonder if a safari belongs in the middle of a mission trip.
I understand the question. I wondered the same thing.
I questioned whether I was being a good steward of the resources that had made the trip possible, even though I used personal funds for the safari. If people knew, would they understand? Would they think it was a wise use of time? What about the people who didn’t know?
Peace came from the Lord.
He called me to the trip. He called people to support what He was doing. He provided the finances. His peace allowed me to enjoy the experience without guilt, receiving it as a gift from Him and a time of refreshment for the remainder of the journey.
For the missionaries, that time provided something just as valuable.
After months of carrying the weight of ministry, it offered rest, laughter, relationship, and conversations that could never have happened in the rush of everyday life. As a family, they were able to step away, experience a part of the country God had called them to, and fall even more in love with South Africa and its beauty.
What are those experiences worth? Priceless.
It is hard to place a value on an experience.
Not every act of ministry happens behind a pulpit or in a feeding program.
Sometimes ministry happens in the middle of the bush.
Loving Missionaries Means Loving Their Families
Missionaries are not ministry machines.
They are husbands. Wives. Parents. Grandparents. Children. People. Their family relationships matter deeply to God.
Missionaries often live with limited financial resources and fewer practical options than many of us take for granted. When something needs repaired, moved, organized, or solved, there is not always a company to call or a service to hire. And not always money to pay if it was possible.
As a result, missionaries frequently become one another's support system. They help with ministry needs, family needs, home projects, transportation, childcare, and countless unseen responsibilities. They carry burdens for one another because there is often no one else available to do it.
During their time in Germany, Rick and Connie became part of that support system. Sometimes ministry looked like helping with practical needs. Sometimes it looked like stepping into everyday life. Sometimes it simply meant being another set of willing hands and a listening ear.
Showing up for a daughter during a major life transition is not separate from loving missionaries.
It is loving missionaries.
After nearly eight years serving overseas, Rick and Connie's daughter and her family have sacrificed countless moments with extended family. Like many missionaries, they have missed holidays, birthdays, celebrations, and everyday life together.
But God saw their need and sent family.
When their second son was born, Rick and Connie were there, caring for all of them as only parents can. Sometimes a grown daughter still needs her mom, whether she is a missionary or not.
Like me and the safari, they wrestled with a familiar question.
Is loving our own children really ministry?
Would people support this? Or should we bear the burden alone?
God answered those questions as they spent nearly three months in Germany loving their daughter and her family, encouraging the missionaries she serves alongside, and building relationships that will draw them back time and time again.
After recently walking through the birth of my own grandson, I have a deeper appreciation for what Rick and Connie are doing.
The care itself is the ministry assignment. Each with the responsibility and the privilege of caring for our daughter and grandsons.
Sometimes God Calls Us to Slow Down
Jesus said in John 15:4, "Abide in me, and I in you."
Many of us are comfortable with a "go do" God.
We struggle with an "abide with Me" God.
Yet Jesus regularly withdrew.
He rested.
He ate meals.
He walked.
He spent time with people.
He was never hurried.
So why do we struggle so hard to be like Jesus?
We would often rather have a checklist of accomplishments than a day spent abiding. We want something tangible to show for our time.
Through the extended trips we have completed, one thing has become clear.
Every trip has a different assignment.
Sometimes trips are filled with activity and opportunities—stories that easily find their way into a newsletter.
Sometimes they are slower. More conversations. More listening. More quiet moments. More preparation for what comes next.
If I'm honest, slower can feel uncomfortable.
It raises questions.
Am I doing enough?
Have I justified the support others gave?
Am I making good use of my time?
My mind often struggled when there was no checklist to share.
After reflection, I realized I was asking the wrong question.
The measure of a successful trip is not whether I stayed busy enough, accomplished enough, or impressed enough people with what I did.
The better question is whether I was obedient.
Was I doing what God asked me to do?
Was I loving the people He asked me to love?
Was I seeing what He wanted me to see?
Was I willing to slow down long enough to notice what mattered most?
The Ministry of Being Seen
Connie recently shared:
"I think a lot of it has to do with recognizing the need people have for community and relationships whatever the level of that may be. People desire to be seen and known."
She then described a German woman who lights up every time they walk past her home. The language barrier remains, but the relationship continues to grow anyway.
Sometimes ministry is simply showing up often enough for someone to know they matter.
As their trip drew to a close, Rick and Connie were surprised by the number of people who shared how much their presence had meant.
Friends, ministry partners, and families spoke of specific moments that encouraged them. Parents of teenagers expressed appreciation for the time Rick and Connie spent serving alongside their children. Others simply said they were grateful they had come.
What stood out most was that many of these conversations happened near the end of the trip. Rick and Connie had no idea how deeply people had been impacted. They had simply made themselves available and trusted God to use their presence however He desired.
Often we want to know immediately whether our efforts matter. God is not always quick to reveal the impact. Sometimes He allows us to see the fruit only after we have faithfully shown up.
Rick also discovered that being an outsider carried unexpected value.
In a close-knit missionary community, there are times when important conversations are difficult to navigate. Relationships overlap, histories are shared, and privacy can be hard to maintain.
Because Rick was not part of the day-to-day dynamics, he was able to enter conversations that required neutrality and perspective. God used his willingness to listen and speak honestly in ways that may not have been possible for others.
Sometimes ministry is not standing in front of a crowd.
Sometimes it is sitting across from one person and having a conversation that needs to happen.
We have discovered that missionary care is not a secondary calling.
It is not a lesser ministry.
It is ministry.
Sometimes the most Christlike thing we can do is sit at a table, listen to a story, hold a baby, share a meal, or create space for weary servants of God to breathe again.
Because missionaries are not projects.
They are people.
And people need to be loved.
Loving missionaries is not always about helping them do ministry.
Sometimes it is about helping them remain healthy enough to continue it.
Before missionaries can continue pouring into others, someone must occasionally pour into them.
A Call to Love the Ones Who Go
As each of us have spent time in the country God has called us to, one message has surfaced repeatedly: people were encouraged simply because we came.
Not because we arrived with a program. Not because we organized an event. Not because we solved every problem.
We came.
We listened.
We loved.
We were available.
And God used that availability to strengthen people in ways they never fully anticipated. One unexpected gift of caring for missionaries is that over time their world becomes part of yours. The pastors, churches, children, neighbors, and ministries they love become people you love too. What begins as caring for missionaries often grows into caring for the communities God has called them to serve.
Loving missionaries is a call from God.
Whether through a short-term visit, an extended stay, financial support, prayer, encouragement, or simply showing up when they need a friend, missionary care matters because missionaries matter.
People matter to God.
Missionaries are people deeply loved by God - sons and daughters, husbands and wives, moms and dads, friends and neighbors..
And sometimes caring for them is not supporting the ministry.
Sometimes it is the ministry.