Untitled - St.Francis Magazine

St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 months to a year to avoid burnout, disillusionment, and a sense of failure if the missionary decides that this, after all, is not his calling. This was not always our policy. In a typical year, we send 600 – 800 short-­‐term missioners to places where we have developed long-­‐standing relationships such as Uganda, Mexico, Honduras, Russia, Belarus, Haiti, and Ecuador. As a result of these experiences, local church emphases on world missions, and Christian camp programs, some people discern a call to long-­‐term missions. Then the real work begins. Until and unless the calling is genuine and the training thorough, the experience on the field can be fraught with disappointments. In putting together this paper, we sent brief questionnaires to eighteen missionaries with whom we work. The ministries contacted were broad in scope and geography: our missioners in Honduras coordinate and facilitate development projects; in Mexico they work with the bishop of strengthening the church’s infrastructure; others from east Africa participate in evangelistic outreach, distribution of theological and religious books, and medical missions; in western Africa we support missionaries who have constructed a dental clinic and practice dentistry there; in the Middle East others provide theological training and home ministries. These are just a few examples of the scope of callings we support. Although we did not solicit enough missioners to present a proper scientific study, their responses lent credibility to our experience and excerpts from literature addressing the topic of care and support of missionaries. Some of those responses are shared here. The need to care and nurture our missionaries is critical. The Joshua Project, a research group that seeks “to highlight the ethnic people groups with the least followers of Jesus Christ” (n.d.) asserts that in the 20 years between 1988 and 2008 “the number of career missionaries sent out by U.S. mission agencies has declined by over 45%” (ibid.), an astounding number by any standard. Could this be because of unmet needs or stresses in 136