If your church hosts an annual missions conference,

[mom31257]

will you share here the types of events and activities you have found to be enjoyable, easily done, and appreciated by the missions partners? 

 

Thanks!

[fairfarmhand]

Currently, no, but I've been a part of other churches that did and my dad's a pastor and my fil was a preacher for many years.

 

1. BIggie right here...have LOTS of things planned for the missionary kids to do during service times. Don't be offended though if some of the kids are shy. They live a challenging, but interesting life. When on deputation, they travel a ton and it's hard for them. So our church gave them goody bags that included nice toys, interesting games, and fun snacks. We offered staffed nursery for babies and toddlers so mom could sit in the services is she wished and were understanding if she DIDN'T want to sit in the service too. Let school aged kids have "children's church" area so they don't always have to sit for the whole thing. As a pastor's kid, I got SO TIRED of sitting in church, then jumping the car to sit for a few hours to drive home.

 

2. Ask the families what they need and listen. Many families appreciate having some downtime. If they are expected to be "on" all the time, it's exhausting.

 

3. Some churches have morning stuff and evening stuff and sometimes the host pastor expected to take the missionary family around to entertain them for the afternoon, While this may have been appreciated in some case, in others, the family simply wanted to nap and spend time with just their family. Ask them what they'd like for the afternoon, and respect that.

 

4. Feed them nutritious food. A snack basket in the hotel piled high with fruit, yogurt snacks, nuts, and raw veggies is very appreciated in many cases. They get so tired of eating on the road and often all they can afford is fast food.

 

5. Give them a "go to" sponsor that they can call anytime for anything. Don't make it the pastor or their family. If the Missionary family needs something they hate to bother the pastor during a week that he's so busy. So have someone on call who can point them to the nearest walk in clinic if a child gets sick, tell them where the fun activities for kids are, tell them where a good mechanic is if needed, let them know where the parks and playgrounds are, find another hotel if the one they are in isn't working, etc.

 

I don't know if this is what you were looking for, but this is how we tried to take care of our missionary families.

Edited May 11, 2016 by fairfarmhand

[mom31257]

Currently, no, but I've been a part of other churches that did and my dad's a pastor and my fil was a preacher for many years.

 

1. BIggie right here...have LOTS of things planned for the missionary kids to do during service times. Don't be offended though if some of the kids are shy. They live a challenging, but interesting life. When on deputation, they travel a ton and it's hard for them. So our church gave them goody bags that included nice toys, interesting games, and fun snacks. We offered staffed nursery for babies and toddlers so mom could sit in the services is she wished and were understanding if she DIDN'T want to sit in the service too. Let school aged kids have "children's church" area so they don't always have to sit for the whole thing. As a pastor's kid, I got SO TIRED of sitting in church, then jumping the car to sit for a few hours to drive home.

 

2. Ask the families what they need and listen. Many families appreciate having some downtime. If they are expected to be "on" all the time, it's exhausting.

 

3. Some churches have morning stuff and evening stuff and sometimes the host pastor expected to take the missionary family around to entertain them for the afternoon, While this may have been appreciated in some case, in others, the family simply wanted to nap and spend time with just their family. Ask them what they'd like for the afternoon, and respect that.

 

4. Feed them nutritious food. A snack basket in the hotel piled high with fruit, yogurt snacks, nuts, and raw veggies is very appreciated in many cases. They get so tired of eating on the road and often all they can afford is fast food.

 

5. Give them a "go to" sponsor that they can call anytime for anything. Don't make it the pastor or their family. If the Missionary family needs something they hate to bother the pastor during a week that he's so busy. So have someone on call who can point them to the nearest walk in clinic if a child gets sick, tell them where the fun activities for kids are, tell them where a good mechanic is if needed, let them know where the parks and playgrounds are, find another hotel if the one they are in isn't working, etc.

 

I don't know if this is what you were looking for, but this is how we tried to take care of our missionary families.

 

Definitely good things to know and consider! 

 

What church-wide activities highlighting the missions partners have you seen done? Our church has at least 15 missions partners and raises about $150,000 a year or more for missions. Some of those partners are local or in state, some are in other areas of the US, and some are international. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2016 by mom31257

[Guest]

We invite them over to lunch and dinner with various families in the church, take them to park and rec areas, etc. Nothing over the top, but just try to take care of some fun and food so they can build relationships. Until I left our last church I was on the missions committee and we had a mix of missionaries - some we were close with and visited a lot of were in close contact, others were in closed or difficult countries and very difficult to get ahold of (often through two or three proxies). With the former we did what I listed above, but the latter were never able to visit or even easily get letters out. Having five or six missionaries who you're close with makes the logistics of a conference or missions week much easier though :)