The guitar strummed gently in the background as the voices of twenty believers rose in worship to God. I closed my eyes and felt God’s peace wash over me. The next hour was one of the best moments of my six months serving in Mexico. As an outpost missionary serving on a team of six, we didn’t get poured into very much. When the short-term team came down and offered to do a worship night, I had no idea how good it would be for my soul. I had support from home, but sometimes I still felt lonely. Sometimes I still felt like God wasn’t using me. Sometimes I still felt like I couldn’t do enough.
I only served for six months in Mexico. Many of the missionaries SCORE has on the mission field have been serving for years. The emotions, frustrations, and difficulties I experienced in those six months are only intensified with years on mission. Many missionaries experience burn out – from overwork, from constant pouring out, and from not enough support.
As the body of believers, we each have different roles which makes the body function the way it should. If we aren’t going out onto the mission field, we should be sending people on the mission field, but we should also be actively supporting those who go. But what does that look like? How can you be part of a ministry that is not just miles away, but countries and oceans away?
Encourage – being a missionary can be a very lonely experience, even if you know you have God on your side and people supporting you from home. Sometimes it is hard to feel those things. An encouraging text, phone call, or email can be a reminder to missionaries that they are loved, that they are cared for, and that they are part of a larger body of believers. Find our missionaries here: https://scoreintl.org/career-missionaries/
Engage – ask for newsletters, read the updates, and respond to them. Missionaries take time out of their busy schedules to keep people updated, because they hope others will read and care.
Give – sometimes missionaries serve in locations that don’t have the comforts of their home, and while that is something they willingly sacrifice, they still miss things from where they come. Send a gift package, a letter, or donate a little extra to them this month so they can do something special. Support a missionary here: https://scoreintl.org/missionaries/
Visit – take a team or go yourself to serve alongside the missionaries or to intentionally serve the missionaries. When you are with them, ask for ways you can help, whether it is making them a meal, leading a worship night, or simply asking them how they really are. To set up a mission trip, contact joelle@scoreintl.org or call 423-894-7111 and asked for Joelle.
Pray – ask them for specific prayer requests, for names of people they are discipling, and pray for them. Prayer really is the most impactful, because prayer is talking to the God of the world who can do incredible things we could never think to ask or imagine.
Sending is a verb – an action verb. So don’t let your sending only be an automated monthly giving. Be a missionary to the missionaries.
Written by Joelle Person