Missionary Care (Member Care)
Most Chinese churches take care of "missionaries" (Missionary Care, also known as Member care). Common people's understanding of caring is workshop visits, conversation greetings, or holiday greetings. But missionary care is far beyond these. If missionary care is more than just chatting about homework and greetings, what other aspects are included?
First of all, we must understand that the purpose of the missionary's care is not to make the missionary "happy" in the workplace, but to make him and his family healthy in body, mind, and spirit. It means that he doesn't feel frustrated or difficult occasionally, but he has stronger resilience than others in terms of recovery.
This caring responsibility does not fall entirely on the church or the mission: missionaries themselves should learn how to rely on the Lord who called him on the one hand, and manage faithfully on the other in a cross-cultural environment. His physical, mental, and spiritual needs. In their book published in 1972, missionary care experts Kelly O'Donnell and Dave Pollock have a chart that clearly sets out the importance of different levels of care (see figure). This picture shows that the most important thing is the Lord's care. The second thing is self-care and mutual care between the missionaries in the workshop, and so on.
As the name suggests, the first layer is care from God. This is the most indispensable link, which means that every missionary must have the ability to establish an intimate relationship with the Lord so that he can obtain the necessary nutrients and strength from God. Without this most central care, other support will be useless.
The second layer is "self-care" and "mutual care". Missionaries must understand their bodies and have the basic common sense to maintain health, and practice them. Because of their hard work, Chinese missionaries lack knowledge and practice in this area. On the other hand, people need companions. "Care for each other" refers to the mutual support and care of the missionaries in the workshop. They do not necessarily belong to the same team, but they can have fixed worship, prayer, fellowship sharing, etc.
The third level and above are the care provided by family members, missions or churches. The care of the mission is like the support provided by the company, and it is mostly administrative or transactional. Such as arranging children's education, health insurance, accommodation, etc. The church is like a family, caring about the spiritual life of missionaries and asking for warmth.
Purpose and Responsibility of Missionary Care
Missionary health insurance
The fields where intercultural missionaries are located are usually places with poor medical conditions and huge spiritual battles. They are often under unspeakable pressure, coupled with the busyness of the ministry, the challenges of self-support, and often overwork. . Since September 2019, GIU has supported 28 families in the field, as well as health insurance for 6 single missionaries, so that they and their children can go to the nearest doctor when they need to see a doctor. We have supported more than US$60,000 in health insurance costs for the entire year of 2019-2020. Please continue to provide for the needs of the coming year. Your support and dedication will help the missionary family have a healthy body to serve in the field!
Education for children of missionaries
The biggest challenge in the minds of intercultural missionaries is to leave their elderly parents and not be able to take care of them, and how to get their children to receive a comprehensive education in the field. GIU not only cares about the personal growth of missionaries, but the husband and wife are of the same mind, but also cares about the education of missionaries' children. It is well aware that the cultivation of the next generation of talents is crucial, and it is hoped that children can inherit the strong faith of their parents and walk together for two generations on the road of mission. At present, we have claimed and supported 34 educational subsidies for the children of missionaries in the field.
Dedication to support a child's tuition $100/month
Support them to continue to receive Chinese education
Support them to strengthen their English education
The church can organize short-term mission teams or provide online courses for children of missionaries
Partnership
with
Radiant International
Provide training: to consolidate and strengthen the care of GIU missionaries at the two most important levels: "cared for by the master" and "self-cared for". This includes participating in the preliminary screening, training before arriving at the workshop (self-knowledge, family, culture, spiritual warfare, understanding the challenges in cross-cultural life and basic understanding of different aspects of crisis management, etc.), continuous training after arriving at the workshop (consolidating the preliminary The foundation of training also expands practical topics in the workshop, such as child education, building resilience, ministry building, team building, etc.). We work with other organizations to provide appropriate training.
Provide pastoral care and introduce professional care: Just as we have resources at home for work, family and friends relationships, and children’s education, missionaries also need resources in all aspects to help them live a healthy life in the workplace. The problem is that the places where missionaries go are generally countries that are not ideal in terms of the objective environment: political and economic instability, almost zero believers, and inadequate education level with their own country. Under long-term high pressure, my health, marriage, children's education, medical care, and ministry development all need support and care from the rear.
Radiant International co-workers regularly visit different workshops to visit local missionaries. It will also assist in linking appropriate rear resources, providing intercession teams, preparations for retreats, marriage counseling, child education subsidies, and personal interviews. The purpose is to hope that the missionaries in front will not fight alone and can serve in the workshop effectively and lastingly. We continue to care for each worker, contact them regularly to communicate, and care for their marriage, family and ministry needs. Thank God, we have a lot of communication tools, and we can maintain relationships and continue caring from a distance.
Radiant International is a non-profit organization 501(c)(3)
Vision: We have seen many Chinese missionaries shine among the unreached, and fulfill the Great Commission effectively with abundant lives.
Mission: We equip, guide and care for Chinese missionaries to have long-term cross-cultural service among the unreached.
If you or your church are moved and want to know our ministry, you are welcome to contact us ( contact@radiantinternational.org ). I look forward to cooperating together on care. We generally refer to "cooperation", which generally refers to mutual benefit at work. But the Greek word koinonia used to describe "partnership" in the Bible has a rich meaning. It contains fellowship, sharing and sharing, and has the meaning of close connection. God calls the whole church to do missions, not just the workers ahead. May the front and the rear of us agree with each other and obey the great commission that God has issued to us.