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I can't do this alone!!!
Would you pray about one or more of the following practical ways you can get involved?
Ways to Support Your Missionary
- Wycliffe missionaries are able to serve overseas through the prayers and monthly financial support of people just like you. Click above to find out more!
- If you regularly pray for your missionary, don’t keep it a secret! Let them know through a quick email or a card. They’ll be greatly encouraged.
- Send your family picture to your missionary. It’s a good reminder of your part in a missionary’s life and goals… and they love to see your faces as they pray for you!
- Send wedding and graduation invitations overseas, even if you know your missionary can’t attend. They appreciate being invited because they know you’re thinking of them.
- Respond to your missionaries’ newsletters with a quick email. Even just a sentence saying “praying for you” is helpful! Missionaries need to be reassured that people are reading their newsletters and praying for them.
- Write your missionary. All forms of communication – letters, emails, or texts – are welcome! It doesn’t have to be a treatise, just a short note will do. A colorful postcard from home is fun to receive. (Although it’s usually best to put any card into a small manila envelope to ensure it doesn’t get shredded in the Tanzania postal system!)
- Do NOT be shy about sharing your prayer needs with your missionary. Partnerships are two-way streets!
- Think of small things that you can provide your missionary to remind them of you. Have your family decorate a soft pillow case in vibrant colors with messages, or have kids in your youth group write cards of encouragement. These little things are a bright spot in a missionary’s life and remind them of your support in a very tangible way.
- Consider calling your missionaries on the phone. A US-based Skype number allows you to call them for free, and it connects to their phone overseas. (269-216-9114) Due to the time difference, morning your time is usually best for calling!
- Send newspaper clippings (or links online) of local events to your missionary. Details about home are especially interesting to them and make for great reading material. Cartoons or the funny papers (or links to a great comic you’ve seen online) is also very welcome!
- Ask your missionary for a “wish list” before sending them a package. Also inquire regarding their cost to receive the package. Add that amount to your next financial gift to cover the total cost.
- Find out when your missionary’s birthday is (Sept 25!!! :D ), and consider going together with your small group to recognize this. Even small things like cards, or a gift certificate for Amazon or iTunes (which can be sent via email) can help your missionary feel loved and special!
- Small things, like Crystal Light packets, are light and can easily be sent in the mail.
- Encourage your missionary in her spiritual walk by sending a devotional book that has currently been a blessing to you… or a link (or CD) of a recent sermon that really touched you. Devotional books and sermons in English are probably not available where your missionary lives.
- Are you on your church’s missions committee or task force? Send your missionary a quick email asking for specific prayer requests, and then share these with your church. They’ll appreciate the interest and support!
- Many missionaries now post their newsletters and related information on a blog (www.crystallucas.blogspot.com). Making frequent use of these websites will keep you and your church informed of your missionary’s latest needs and happenings. Photos posted on a blog can be projected in church during the offering.
- Missionaries go to great lengths to write and publish newsletters. Don’t treat them as junk mail. Pray about the requests as a family during your next meal together and expect God to act.
- In the summertime, have your kids set up a fruit or vegetable stand and donate the proceeds to your missionary.
- Organize a yard/boot/garage sale in honor of your missionary.
- Consider having each person in your small group or Bible Study donate one dollar a week to support your missionary on a monthly basis. Wycliffe missionaries rely on regular monthly partners in the States to live and serve overseas, and even small amounts can really add up!
- Encourage your church to budget for and send at least one person per year to visit one of its overseas missionaries.
- Consider giving your missionary a raise this year.
- Consider visiting your missionary on the field for one or two weeks. Your eyes will be opened, your questions will be answered, and you’ll have been a big encouragement to them.
Click HERE for an easy-to-print version of this list!
(Collected in part from 65 Ways to Love and Encourage Your Missionaries, by Ed and Linda Speyers)
(Collected in part from 65 Ways to Love and Encourage Your Missionaries, by Ed and Linda Speyers)
