Tag: Support

Connecting Your VBS and Missions

Posted on by Emily Belvery

Vacation Bible School (VBS) is an enriching time to share with children about God, his love for his people throughout the Bible, and that same love that we experience today. Have you considered how your VBS might be an opportunity to further introduce children to God’s heart for the nations? 

Our missionaries often travel back to the States during the summer months and VBS would be a great opportunity to invite a missionary to tell stories of sharing God’s love around the world. Often, our mission partners recall how hearing the stories of those who served before them was a pivotal seed planting moment in their desire to go and serve globally. How might hosting a missionary at your VBS be an opportunity to inspire and disciple tomorrow’s cross-cultural missionaries? 

Other church VBS programs have connected with a missionary across distance: sharing video greetings from the missionary, learning about and praying for the ministry where the missionary serves, and even raising funds to support the missionary and their work. Kids love seeing their offerings go to help children just like them hear about Jesus for the first time!

Reach out to Emily Belvery to get connected to a missionary!

Additionally, we invite you to check out our kid-friendly resources which you can use to equip children to share the Gospel with those around them, learn about the global church, and support God’s mission through prayer. A few suggested resources to get you started:

  • What is a missionary?: In this video, mission partner Sarah Berta-Somogyi teaches young children about what it means to be an overseas missionary and the role we all have in telling others about Jesus. 
  • Missions-Themed Activities: Use these activities with kids to help them think about what God’s mission looks like and how they can be a part of it.
  • Kid’s Prayer Bookmarks: This printable resource includes a prayer request for each day of the week to keep children focused on praying for the global church and for God’s mission around the world.

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. – Proverbs 22:6

God of the nations, who said ‘let the little children come to me,’ we lift up churches, VBS leaders, and volunteers as they prepare to pour into young lives this summer. May you grant them the energy needed and the boldness to share your love with each kid who will participate. May children learn of your deep love for them, your Son Jesus, and how they can be a light to others right where you have them. Amen.

Could You Commit to a Week of Prayer?

Posted on by Emily Belvery

If you ask any MCN mission partner what they need most or ask MCN’s leadership what our biggest need is, the response will be prayer. Not funds or personnel or training or church support. Although all of those things are important, nothing is greater than the need for prayer.

When Jesus looked at the ripe harvest fields around him (see Mt. 9:37-38), his response was to tell the disciples to… Go? Mobilize? Raise support? … Nope. Pray.

But where to begin? 

We know prayer for missions, missionaries, and the ripe harvest fields of the world is important but with so many people who don’t yet know the Savior, where do we start?

I want to suggest that you start with one country and one week. Commit a week of prayer for one location where MCN mission partners serve and see how God will work in your heart to develop a love for these people and how He will work in that place through your prayers on their behalf. 

MCN’s 5-day prayer guides contain five specific prayer requests provided by mission partners as relevant to the region and context in which they serve. Could you lift up these needs one by one throughout the coming week?

Could you pray for relationships and against spiritual warfare in Costa Rica?

Could you pray against economic and family struggles and for a growing church in East Asia?

Could you pray for young people and Lutheran schools in Hungary?

Choose one prayer guide here (search “prayer guide” in the search bar to see them all) to get started – and next week pick another! And think about who you could invite to pray along with you…

  1. Parents, pray with your children over dinner, using a world map to show them where this country is.
  2. Teachers, pray with your school class day by day or pray with a Sunday school class and invite them to take a guide home for the week ahead.
  3. Pray with a friend or spouse on an evening walk.
  4. Invite a long distance friend to pray with you and text each other about the day’s request.

4 Benefits of Having a Family Member on the Mission Field

Posted on by Emily Belvery

(Written by Ruth Barz, Mental Health Therapist and Missionary Mom. Photo: Mission Partner Sarah in Taiwan with her parents.)

You probably still remember where you were when your loved one told you they were thinking seriously about going overseas to serve as a missionary with Mission of Christ Network.

Maybe this had been a conversation you had with them numerous times and you were excited that they made this decision to join Jesus on His mission. Perhaps it was the first time you heard about this person’s decision to move far away from you. Or it even may have been a conversation you had before, but your heart sank as your loved one told you of their decision.

As a parent of three children, two of whom went overseas to serve with MCN, I can relate to all the above scenarios. There are so many questions and a lot of different emotions all at once. Your mind may be swirling with thoughts such as “this is not what I was expecting in this person’s future”; or “will he or she be safe there?”; “I need them to stay here and help me take care of things” ; “I feel like I am losing them”; “we have not been close for awhile and now they will be SO far away and I worry about being emotionally close again.” If it means your grandchildren will be moving to another country, your heart may be breaking with the realization that you will not be able to be physically around them very much as they grow. If it is your parents, or an aunt or uncle moving overseas, you may be sad they will be missing out on large parts of your life or those of your children.

As real and confusing as the above thoughts and feelings are, here are four reasons why this experience will help you grow and will expand your world.

  1. First and most important is that any big change, and maybe especially those changes we are not sure about, are the ones that drive us to our knees in prayer and cause us to become more dependent on our Heavenly Father. In Jeremiah 29:11 we read, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This is true for us, and it is true for our loved one going to another country. Then in Psalm 62:5-8 we read, “Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him. Truly He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress; I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” 
    • Here God is inviting us to “pour out our hearts to Him.” So, you can tell God about all your fears, concerns, joys, and hopes, and He will hear. In addition, He promises that we can trust Him even when we don’t understand the ending.  Depending on God will grow your faith, be an encouragement to your loved one going overseas, and expand your prayer life. As I prayed for my children overseas and for the specific prayer requests they gave me, I got to rejoice with my children when we saw God’s answer to prayer.
  2. Your vision of the world and the church will be expanded. You will learn about how God is moving around the world and what the church looks like in other countries, and you will realize the bigger plans of God’s salvation. This may also give you an opportunity to travel to other parts of the world and hear how God is a work. What joy to know you will meet people in heaven who are there because your loved one was part of God’s plan to work faith in the hearts of others! When my husband and I worshiped with Christians in Asia over Christmas, it gave us a glimpse of what it will be like to worship in eternity with brothers and sisters from around the world.
  3. You may work harder at staying connected with your loved one(s). As you work at communicating with your overseas family member, you may find yourself being more intentional in asking them about their life, in telling them about yours, and in expressing your love and concern. You may find that sharing prayer requests with one another becomes more intentional. Sometimes, when family members are far away, we realize that we cannot take those relationships for granted, and you may find yourself working harder to stay connected than you would if they were in the same town.
  4. You will become more aware of God’s mission which calls you to mission work right where you are.  You may find yourself realizing that God’s desire that “all be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4) means each of us is to live our lives being willing to “give an answer for the reason of the hope we have in Christ” (1 Peter 3:15).

This is not an exhaustive list of how you may grow or have your world expanded when a loved one answers God’s call to mission work, but it is a good start.

I invite you to lean on the Lord while you welcome the changes He is bringing because your child, parent, aunt, uncle, friend, sibling has decided to serve as a missionary.

4 Ways to Pray More Specifically

Posted on by Emily Belvery

I have often sat in church services where the names of missionaries that the church supports were included in the Prayers of the Church, and each time I praise God for this church’s commitment to supporting mission work through prayer. And yet I often wonder who these people are and what their ministry looks like. And I can’t help wondering if the church members sitting around me are equally in the dark about who and what they are praying for.

And so I have four suggestions – four resources from MCN – to help you and your congregation pray more specifically for the mission partner(s) you support and for MCN as an organization.

  1. Reference the weekly prayer list for current prayer requests from mission partners on MCN’s website or social media. Pick a couple of these requests to use in Sunday worship or pray for each day’s request in your daily devotional time.
  1. Pray for specific prayer requests from any Mission Partners that your church personally partners with. Reference their most recent newsletters or contact the Mission Partner directly to ask how to pray. Ask an advocate or friend within the congregation to commit to regularly checking in with the missionary for up-to-date prayer requests and sharing these with the pastor to use when you pray in worship.
  1. View, download, and share prayer cards for specific Mission Partners or 5-day prayer guides for the regions where they serve. These can be found on each Mission Partner’s individual page of the MCN website and can be used in personal devotions, small groups, Sunday school and Bible class, or prayer in worship (choosing one or two requests each week).
  1. Encourage your congregation to pray for MCN staff, board members, and mission partners on a regular basis using the monthly MCN prayer calendar. This can be used month after month to cover the organization in prayer. Links from each name to the MCN website let you read about the people you are praying for.

“…praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.” Ephesians 6:18-20

10 Ways to Support a Missionary on Furlough

Posted on by mcnadmin

To both the people with whom missionaries serve on the field and family and friends in the US, the idea of “going on furlough” can sound like a several week vacation. But missionaries will tell you that furlough (while wonderful in many ways) is far from a relaxing vacation. Between travel, living out of a suitcase, support raising, organizational training, and squeezing in once-a-year visits with family and friends, furlough often leaves missionaries more tired than when they left the field. 

So how can you and your church support missionaries during this busy, tiring season?

  1. Invite a missionary to your church and make arrangements for their visit.
    • If you have a missionary who regularly visits, reach out to them prior to their furlough and help schedule a date that works for them and for your congregation.
    • Consider setting up various ways for them to connect with the church – an announcement in worship, a Bible study hour, a children’s message, a table in the narthex, a visit to a youth group or LWML group, etc.
  2. Provide a meal when the missionary visits your church.
    • Arrange for them to eat with a few church leaders or supporters after services on Sunday, invite them to your home for a meal, host a meal at church, or give a gift card to a local restaurant.
  3. Provide a place to stay while visiting your church.
  4. Offer a vehicle to use while on furlough or offer rides as needed.
  5. Ask about items a missionary may need to borrow during furlough. Winter clothes? A pack-n-play? Car seats? An old phone that can take a temporary SIM card to give them a US phone number while they are here?
  6. Offer babysitting. Can you help with children while parents are doing a presentation or meeting with donors? Can you help sit with a family in church? Or maybe you can even offer babysitting to give parents a date night in the midst of furlough busyness!
  7. Ask about items to send back with them onto the field.
    • Postage costs are often prohibitive and some locations don’t have reliable mail service; however, many mission partners have specific needs on the field that they plan luggage space for carrying back with them.
    • Ask if you can donate books, Christian craft materials, comfort foods, or another ministry related item for them to take back to the field.
  8. Host an event. Help missionaries share their story and connect with supporters through a gathering like a tea time, dessert night, potluck, or some other event outside of Sunday morning. 
  9. Help them connect to new supporters. Do you know others with a heart for missions and the desire and means to support intentional Gospel proclamation? Do you know groups that give offerings to support ministries? Making the connection between a missionary and a new supporter, group, or church is a wonderful way to bless them during furlough.
  10. Ask good questions. Asking questions and listening is perhaps one of the most encouraging ways to support a missionary on furlough. You don’t have to know a lot about their country or context. They don’t mind if you ask “silly questions.” 🙂 It just matters that you ask and want to know the answers. Ask about their ministry. Ask about cultural differences. Ask about the greatest joys and struggles of the last year. Ask about how you can support and encourage them. Ask how you can pray for them – and stop and pray right then and there!