Overseas mission work is difficult and involves stress, depression, and culture shock. These are moments that seem to happen in every missionary’s life and if one supervises themselves emotionally and physically and spiritual these times can be fought through. Supervising emotionally is done by keeping in touch with people of the same culture. The speakers emphasized the importance of staying in contact with other missionaries and worshiping with them on regular time frame whether it was once a month or bi-monthly. Supervising yourself physically was done by exercises—Chris talked about writing a bike to each village and walking a lot. One missionary talked about letting her emotions free, like giving herself a release by just crying. Finally there is spiritual supervision. This involves seeing how God is working in your life by staying in Word and praying and seeing God’s presence on a daily basis. NM
From interview with MD and SD, 2004. M said that it is hard to manage one’s time on the mission field and that this got to his conscience. He considered himself a workaholic and he had to work at balancing mission work and family time. Kids had their own local time with other missionary kids. You are together as a missionary family because you’re not going a million different ways. -Children still in touch with kids from there. SK
Interview with EB and PB, 2004. One thing you have to do is make sure you are strong in your own devotional life and rely on God in your own life. Missionaries are called to have a specific role and if they are not self-directed or self-contained they will not be successful on the field. If you don’t work as a part of a team you won’t be successful either. LS
A Taiwan missionary’s thoughts:-God does not ask to sacrifice our family -God, Wife, Kids, work were his priorities -Friday was completely family night and kept to it, tho it was not easy
Interview with JF:
Professor F said that the actual fact is that when you arrive on the mission field the people there don’t know how to use you or what to do with you. Most of what he did he had to come up on his own. His own plans would often be interrupted by people and he would be doing things not in the job description or not what he wanted to do. These things often bore a lot more fruit than what he had planned though. He said he Did not spend enough time with his wife because of the drive to be the missionary I thought I was supposed to be.-don’t take me as your model. I took teachers as my guides one Saturday a month to different places, and took foreign visitors around later on in my years. There is an advantage in having a set day to take off, but I did not do this.
Interview with MD and SD. He said that it is hard to manage one’s time on the mission field and that this got to his conscience. He considered himself a workaholic and he had to work at balancing mission work and family time.
Interview with EB and PB: One thing you have to do is make sure you are strong in your own devotional life and rely on God in your own life.
Missionaries are called to have a specific role and if they are not self-directed or self-contained they will not be successful on the field. f you don’t work as a part of a team you won’t be successful either.
Dr. B, missionary to Nigeria said this (Tuesday March 23, 2004): You have to be an inventor when bringing the gospel to people who have never heard it before because nobody has any idea what to do.
When supervising yourself you need discipline and humility because too often missionaries and pastors will come into ministry and act as if they know everything. The people can see they don’t have a clue how to do the work they should. So it is important to be humble. Supervising yourself means trying to learn as much as possible, it is fitting in, and it is being available, while not compromising.
Interview with RH:
If it is just you and your family on the mission field you either supervise yourself or you don’t. A lot of missionaries would waste a lot of time. RH felt he could have loafed, but he was focused and so he didn’t. Most missionaries had relationships with each other on the field and they could tell who was loafing. Missionaries would also be checked up on at least once a year. Supervising yourself is something that is inside you. The Holy Spirit will motivate you.
If you are a person who says they don’t like to work in the U.S. and so you will go overseas, don’t. If you go overseas you better have a faith because if you don’t you will be frustrated and misunderstood.
Info from textbook Missions: Biblical Foundations & Contemporary Strategies by Gailyn Van Rheenen- If missionaries do not know themselves in their own culture, how can they sort out who they are in the context of other cultures 114