A Meme about Missionary Stress
I recently discovered a meme about stress and then modified to be about cross-cultural missionaries. I took this new meme (which you'll find at the end of this post) and shared on social media because I thought that many of my fellow missionaries could relate to it. Many could. No matter where you live, life can be difficult. But there are numerous additional stress factors in the lives of cross-cultural missionaries that people rarely experience unless they live outside their home country for an extended period of time.
What particular stresses do missionaries experience? Imagine the following:
- Doing everything you already do in your everyday life, but do it in a second language that you had to learn as an adult, starting in maybe your 20s or 30s. Even though you may now understand that language fairly well, you often don’t understand 100% of what people are saying and you don’t know how to say 100% of what you want to express.
- Next, you’re doing your normal life in a culture where people have different ideas than you (and the people who grew up with) about what it means to be on time, how to solve relational issues, ideas of how or what should have authority, and whether communication should direct or indirect, verbal or not verbal. Oh, and the values and expectations of the community at large are different from where you grew up.
- More than 50% of the stores and products you are familiar with are not available. There are other similar shops and products but they are not quite the same.
- You are always viewed as an outsider and transient.
- To simply remain living where you are and doing what you do, you have to annually (or more often) submit a ream of paperwork (with official stamps from multiple branches of bureaucracy) together with fees for you and all members of your family in order to have permission to stay where you are and do what you do. And don’t be too quick to think about quitting your job and getting another one because your permission to stay in the country is tied to that particular job.
The above list of stress factors particular to the mission life could be expanded to include a lot more, but the above list gives you an idea.
If you know a missionary, pray for them today to be able to
- manage stress,
- find outlets for relaxation and refreshment
- always look to God for all that they need to get through the day and also do effective ministry.
And if you had the discipline and interest to read the introductory paragraphs, congratulations. You are a highly literate learner. Most people just scroll down for the funny meme. I love reading but I confess, if I was reading this post instead of writing it, I probably would have gone for the meme first.
A Missionary Call is for the Whole Family
One of the internal debates in the world of evangelical missions is whether the missionary call extends to the whole family or to just the parents. I’ve written previously on why both husband and wife (and not just the husband) must be committed to mission work, so in this post I want to think a bit about the kids. Does the missionary call extend to them as well?
If I were living in my home country, and I answered a call to pastor a church there, my wife would need to be supportive, but the pastoral call would be to me, not to her. Likewise, the pastoral call would not be to my kids, but to me. Hopefully my kids would be okay with their dad being a pastor but whether I were a pastor or a carpenter or a salesman, our family could largely carry on with our regular activities and patterns of life that we were accustomed to. We’d be using the same language and living in the same culture that we had been. If we had to move to a different part of the country, that would obviously be difficult for the kids in terms of moving house, leaving friends, and more. I don’t want to ignore the fact that domestic moves come with heartache too but when compared to moving overseas, there is a lot more that changes for kids.
Cindy Jacobs’ Prophecy for Thailand
In late January 2024, traveling preacher Cindy Jacobs is speaking at a large event in Chiang Mai, Thailand. What she will say this time remains to be seen but at the end of 2008, a lot of Christians in Thailand (both Thai and missionaries) got excited about Cindy Jacobs' prophecy of an imminent coming revival in Thailand. The text of that prophecy has since been removed from her website, but you can still find her 2008 prophecy online courtesy of the Wayback Machine. Jacobs prophesied:
“Look to South Thailand. Revival is beginning to burn in South Thailand... In 2009, it will begin. In 2010, Fire begins in fullblown. 2010-2020, I will fill this nation. More churches will be planted, more than in all the years before...Prepare in 2009 with Daniels and Josephs bringing about market place revival...You have one year (2009) to prepare for the Decade of the Harvest. Prepare regional evangelists. There will be revival in all sectors, great transfer of wealth, wisdom and revelation.”
Christmas is the Time of Humility
The Thai language has an endless number of words related to emotions that use the word jai, or “heart.” And since most Thai are concerned about saving face (and losing face!), one of the common “heart” words is noi joi, which roughly translates as feeling slighted, hurt, or overlooked.
Have you ever felt slighted? At one time or another, all of us have felt unhappy and hurt because someone overlooked us or did not give us credit. Even though we have knowledge, position, and dignity, someone fails to give us the honor that we are due. We are someone that others should respect and honor, but instead they dishonor and disrespect us. Don't they know who I am?!
