121 World News | Missionary Care

January.07	<<Back to newsletter
WHO CARES?
The Ministry of Missionary Care, it’s a cool title, but whose job is it? Everybody’s... and it’s easy! Here are some tips for getting started. Develop a strategy that works for you – how much time do you want to commit to Missionary Care? Do an inventory. What skills do you, your family or your Life Group have to offer? What resources (besides money) are you, your family or your Life Group willing to share? Make contact. Contact your missionary with a letter letting them know what you are offering at their disposal whenever they need it and cc: your Missionary Care Coordinator. Let them know a specific day of the week that you will be praying for them. Then just sit back and wait. You have opened the first door; someone who the missionary may or may not know has just shown an interest in them and their work, WOW! Communicate regularly with the missionary, let them know what’s going on in your life – be yourself. Develop a 2-way communication/relationship. Pray for them regularly. Be committed to pray on the day of the week that you told them about. If you pray about it God may direct you to send a package of cookies, or a book, or a CD, or a favorite junk food. [Note: International packages may be subject to customs and duty charges - check the Internet for regulations.] We recently visited our missionary friends in South Africa only to find them rationing the Starbucks coffee so there would be enough for us during our visit! They didn’t even mention that it would be nice if we brought some to leave for them – fortunately my husband had it on his heart to take a couple of packages with us. All the above suggestions are ways to open the doors to bigger things – if that’s where God takes you. Here at 121, we have developed intentional relationships with three different orphanage ministries in three different countries. Can you see yourself, your family, or your Life Group putting together towel, washcloth and soap sets for an orphanage? How great would it be if you had a monogramming resource in your group to actually monogram an orphan’s initials on their own personal towel?! Or maybe you have the understanding and know how to put together vanity kits for teenage orphans in Guatemala, or layettes for new babies born in the slums of India. Maybe you would like to minister to teenage boys in Russia. Or are you a family of girls and would like to put together a doll set for each young orphan girl in India? You may be thinking, "How does a project at an orphanage equate to Missionary Care?" Well just think for a moment about the missionary surrounded by poverty, with very little resources of their own. They live face-to-face with unfathomable poverty every day… and then one day, they have towels, or dolls, or fingernail polish from the States that they can take with the words, "Jesus loves you!" The possibilities are endless… but nothing will happen unless you make a start. Develop a strategy, take an inventory, make contact, pray, sit back and wait and see where God leads! ::Jane Wynn <<Back to newsletter
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