Dear Church
How the Church can continue supporting its missionaries in Greater North Africa
I recently asked a couple serving in North Africa what they would love churches to know as they partner with those serving in Greater North Africa. This couple is uniquely positioned in that they also serve and provide care for missionaries in their North African city. They shared six ways that churches can be encouraged in their partnership with missionaries.
Keep Visiting
Come and visit your people. I think it really helps people from sending churches to see and taste and observe and hear and touch. What is the life that your people are experiencing? It is always a big encouragement to people living overseas to be able to share what life is like in their context.
Take time to understand what life looks like for them. Be available to listen, be available to hear the ups and the downs, and realize there are downs and that there are challenging things. Take the opportunity to meet their local friends and visit in their homes. Take time to get to know their kids and see what it is like for them too.
When you are back home, be in communication with your people on the ground to ask for current prayer requests. It doesn't have to be every week - it could be once a month or every two months. Ask your international workers what would be helpful.
Release Results
Sometimes we feel a certain degree of pressure from our sending churches that we should see results from our work, whether it is spoken or unspoken. “We are supporting you so we should see results from your ministry.” When people can't report back to their home church and say, "There has been five, ten, twenty Christians born into the kingdom of God because of what we have done" it can be awkward. It becomes difficult for the missionary to go back and say, "Actually, it is hard. And it hasn't happened yet.”
We want to help local churches understand the reality that this is a slow process. If churches are looking at it from the mindset of ‘return on our investment dollars, ’ they may become impatient with the work being done in northern Africa. It may be tempting to look at other parts of the world where there is a lot more receptivity to the gospel and redirect financial and human resources elsewhere. That is not fair to this part of the world which is a high needs area and yet very slow in its response.
Pastors can help their congregations to understand the difficulties here in terms of seeing people come to faith and church planting. We don’t want leaders to get disillusioned with what is happening on the ground on the other side and make assumptions that the cross-cultural workers they have sent are not doing enough. The people who have moved to another country, learned the local language and built relationships with local people have a deep love for them and a burning desire to see them come to faith in Jesus Christ. But we do not usually see quick results or responses.
Be an encourager rather than a gatekeeper.
Continue Praying
We need hands and feet to love local people, to have a voice to declare who the true God is, and to explain what His Word is all about. Pray with us for more people to be on the ground as light and as a testimony - to show people in our communities what it means to be a follower of Christ.
Continue to pray to the Father for people already serving in North Africa. Pray that the Holy Spirit will empower them, strengthen them and pour out grace and courage. Pray that missionaries will be spurred on to continue and that faith will increase. It is easy to become weary and discouraged because the results are not always visible, and then people begin to question their purpose in being there. Pray that missionaries will see glimpses of God's glory each day, that they will see evidence that the Father is working, and that they will be reminded that our God, Yahweh, is sovereign. Pray that in His time, He will pour out His Spirit and a river of life will flow through the region of North Africa.
Maintain a Vision for “The Ends of the Earth”
I think there has been a shift in churches, at least in North America. Priorities have shirted toward local ministry and reaching out to people who live in the church’s community. There are needs all around us, no matter where we live. Ministry definitely needs to continue in North America.
However, I think pastors and church leaders need to understand that within North America people have access to the Gospel. They may not believe yet, but they have access to it. There are so many places in North Africa where people have never met a true Christian and they have no access to the Gospel.
We live in a city of 1.3 million people and, in my estimation, there may be a thousand believers, including all the expats and visitors that are there only for a short time. When we think of the vast numbers of people who have never heard the Gospel, the needs are overwhelming. The reality is that the hardest places to reach are the places that are still unreached with the Gospel. While the needs are great in North America, we cannot stop promoting the needs of people who live at the ‘ends of the earth.’
Continue to Send Your Best
Not only do we need to call out and send people to the ends of the earth, but they should be our best and brightest people. The early church sacrificed greatly in sending leaders like Paul and Barnabas. As key church leaders, we should be asking God who we can send – and maybe we should be the ones who go ourselves.
My message to pastors and church leaders is that we still need highly gifted, trained, and committed people. We're not done yet. In our context, there are so few local believers and the small house churches are not strong enough to reach their people with the Gospel on their own. We still need many, many outsiders to come in, learn the local language, and build relationships over time.
Dispel Fear
I think our world is tremendously fear-based these days, and another thing that church leaders can do is dispel the fear among their people. Muslim people aren't the enemy. They are people like ourselves who are wandering, who are broken, who are sinful, and who need forgiveness through Jesus.
As church leaders, we can dispel the fear and misconceptions by creating opportunities for people to meet Muslims in their local community. Being good neighbors and developing friendships with Muslim people is the first step. As individuals gain a vision for sharing their faith with their friends, encourage them to get involved in a local ministry that focuses on outreach to Muslims. Over time, people’s fear will be minimized, and they will be prepared to take the next steps toward long-term work in high-needs places, like North Africa.
How can your Church become more involved in working with the unreached?