GOOD NEWS ARTICLE - July 1998
Wendy Ludovici
THE ROAD TO THE MISSION FIELD
Part Two: Training and Preparation
Do you like to fish? Can you treat wounds properly? Do
you know how to feed nutritious meals to your family? Are
you good with construction? Do you enjoy gardening?
You may not think that affirmative answers to any of
these questions qualify you to be a missionary, but it
very well may!
The mission field today is in need of more than preachers,
teachers and evangelists. In fact, many countries are
closed to Christian missionaries and the only way a
Christian can enter the country is through a profession
that offers something material to the people. Even when a
country is not closed to Christian missionaries, the need
for professionals in non-religious fields is great.
As for me, I trained as a musician and then gained
experience as a youth director and as a music teacher;
neither of which I planned to use on the mission field.
God had a different idea for the kind of missionary that
I was to be however, and has given me opportunities to
use them both!
I did decide to go to seminary for a Master's Degree and
found those three years to be helpful toward preparing me
for cross-cultural experiences. The course work, which I
found most helpful, was in cultural anthropology and
world religions. Cultural anthropology taught me to be
receptor-oriented and gave me skills in how to do that.
World religions put me in touch with perspectives on
spirituality beyond which I'd previously been exposed.
Nothing can beat education through experience though. I
had the opportunity to go to India for a three-week
course and to Haiti for a two-week short-term experience.
It's not necessary to take an overseas trip to get cross-cultural
experiences. There are many opportunities right here in
our U.S. cities. There are international students at our
schools. There are many programs for teaching English as
a second language to internationals in our midst. There
are rural poor and inner-city poor and many others who
are outside of our cultural comfort zone to whom we can
reach out cross-culturally.
In addition to training in our professions and in cross-cultural
skills, there is another important part of our
preparation for the mission field. For every missionary
that is sent, there must be a sender, so choosing a
sending agency is a vital part of the journey. Senders
are financial support and prayer support. They also take
care of various administrative details.
My sending agency consisted of a partnership of a church
and an independent organization. The independent
organization, Daystar U.S., exists to support Daystar
University in Nairobi, Kenya where I teach. They handle
administrative details, but require that I raise my own
salary. For the past 2 years, the Reformed Church of
Palos Heights has been the sole provider of that salary!
In addition, the church has provided powerful prayer
support, including those who are willing to fast for a
day each month on my behalf. Not all missionaries have it
so good!
Training and preparation differs greatly from one
missionary to the next, but if I could make a
recommendation I would say that it boils down to three
main areas:
1) training and experience in a profession
2) training in cross-cultural skills
3) a sending agency that provides for financial,
spiritual and administrative needs.
Next month, I'll conclude with a description of some of
the challenges of life on the mission field.
Part Three
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