Learning how to support missionaries well can have an impact far greater than we might think as men and women God has called around the world are empowered to reach people in places you and I could never go. The most practical ways to support missionaries are to pray for them specifically, give faithfully, encourage them on purpose, stay connected, care for their whole family, welcome them home, and champion their mission. Here is what each one looks like for the senders God calls to stand behind the workers we send out into the harvest.
Missionaries Are Ordinary People
I grew up as a missionary kid. My mom and dad were missionaries in Jamaica first, and then in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where I lived during my formative years. Growing up, I heard three languages in my house. I went to an international school in a third-world country. That was my life.
Later on, I spent ten years as a support-raising missionary myself, living in Charlotte, North Carolina, but always traveling different places around the world. So, I have seen many sides of missions. I was the missionary kid watching my parents, and I was the grown man doing missions myself.
As I thought about this topic of how we can support missionaries well, one verse from Colossians kept coming back to my mind. Any of us would agree that the apostle Paul was a missionary. He planted churches. He stayed in some towns for a few days and other towns for over a year. And at the very end of his letter to the Colossians, after writing this whole letter about how great and powerful Christ is, Paul gets personal. He asks the church to remember his chains (Colossians 4:18).
That always grabs me. Human beings want to be known. We want to be remembered. We do not want to be forgotten. It is easy to be the kind of church that has a map on the wall with little pins on it for every missionary you support. But those pins are real people. They struggle with anxiety. They struggle with trust. They struggle in their marriages. They struggle with their kids. Going to the mission field does not turn anyone into a super Christian who has no problems. They are ordinary people who said yes to God, and now they live overseas doing it.
And they need our support.
So, here are seven things that I think help us understand how to support missionaries the right way. Let me walk you through them.
1. Pray for Them with Purpose
Many people want to pray for missionaries but end up not knowing what to pray. As a result, there are a lot of prayers that sound something like “Lord, please be with…” And we often leave it at that. My encouragement is to go a step further and be specific. If you know what they are dealing with, pray those specific prayers. If you don’t know exactly what they are dealing with, pray for them as the ordinary people they are with all the ordinary (and not-so-ordinary) problems that they face. Pray for them in the same way you pray for yourself. Pray for their health. Pray for their marriage. Pray for their kids. Pray for their protection. Pray that God blesses their ministry.
Missionaries leave behind everything familiar. They have to build a whole new life and ministry from scratch. A lot goes along with that. They need our prayer.
2. Give, and Give Faithfully
Most overseas missionaries today have to raise their own income, their housing money, their travel money, and their ministry funds. That is a lot to carry. Scripture tells us that where our treasure is, our heart is there also (Matthew 6:21). God’s heart is in the mission field. If you want your heart to be where God’s heart is, give, generously.
Consistency is key. Of course, life has a way of throwing curve balls, and we can’t always maintain our giving. But many missionaries are barely funded or underfunded. Losing financial support as a missionary is a big deal.
Every missionary knows what this feels like. It’s incredibly challenging and can add to the discouragement that many already feel on a day-to-day basis.
3. Encourage Them on Purpose
Scripture tells us to build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11). As a missionary kid, I remember getting letters from kids back home through a church program. They were sweet, even if a little funny. One boy from Ohio wanted to know if I lived in a house and if I ate food.
A simple text saying “I prayed for you today!” means more than people realize. Little things matter more than we think. A care package with something you cannot get overseas tells a missionary they are remembered. These days that might be an eBook or a gift card instead of a box at customs, but the heart behind it is the same. I remember as a kid getting a real soccer ball shipped to me in Haiti, since all we (the neighborhood kids and I) had to play with were balls of rags and trash. That ball served no spiritual purpose at all. It was just a gift for a boy who wanted to play. It brought my dad joy, and it brought me joy, and it made me a popular kid in the neighborhood.
4. Stay Connected
Paul wrote that he thanked God every time he remembered the Philippian church (Philippians 1:3). The simplest way to stay connected is also the most boring sounding one. Read the newsletters missionaries send. They will shape how you pray, how you give, and how you encourage.
And if you can, respond to their update letters. Ask thoughtful questions about what they are doing (avoid questioning why they are doing it). Show real interest in their stories. You can walk alongside them by asking good questions and listening well.
5. Care for the Whole Family
It is easy to focus on the missionary doing the work and forget the spouse and kids standing right beside them.
The whole family is in the field. Remembering the whole family in your prayers, in your giving, and in your care for the missionary is a big deal.
My older sister graduated high school in Haiti and came back to the States for college. A family friend told my parents he would treat her exactly like his own daughter while she was away, paying for her flights home and even rewarding her grades the same way he rewarded his own kid. My sister got straight A’s. That man’s care for her blessed our whole family, and as a result, our ministry.
Now that I am a pastor, we have made it a goal of our missions giving at the church to be very generous and to go above and beyond. We give Christmas bonuses for the specific purposes of blessing families, knowing they are all in the field. The response has been overwhelming. So many of our church members have been blessed to participate in blessing these whole families.
6. Welcome Them Home
Romans tells us to welcome one another (Romans 15:7). I once watched thirty people show up to help a missionary family unload shipping containers after years overseas, even though most of those people had never met them.
There is an old story about missionaries who spent thirty years in Africa and came home on the same ship as a former president. Thousands of people waited on the dock for the president with a band playing, while the missionaries quietly walked off to nobody at all. The husband told his wife this was not the welcome home he had hoped for. She reminded him they were not home yet, that the real homecoming awaited them in heaven. But on this side of heaven, we can still try. Meals, a place to stay, help getting settled back into a church, any of it counts. We welcome back the soldiers of our country. Can we make it a practice to welcome back Kingdom workers in the same way?
7. Be a Champion for Their Mission
Advocate for them. Talk about them to your kids, your friends, and your church. Most of the churches that supported my family did not know me through a missions board. They knew me because someone who cared about me told their pastor, “Here is a family I believe in.”
Romans asks how people will hear if no one is sent (Romans 10:14-15). There are senders, there are those who go, and there are people in between who connect the two. Being a champion for a missionary, the kind of person willing to ask others on their behalf, can mean more to that family than almost anything else, because asking for support is lonely and hard.
Missionaries are not superheroes. They are just like the rest of us. But Scripture says even the feet of those who carry good news are beautiful feet, and I believe that means we owe them honor, not just polite support. Pray for them with purpose, give to them faithfully, encourage them, stay close to them, care for their whole family, welcome them home, and stand up for their mission. This is how we support missionaries well and love the people we send out into the harvest.
The missionaries you support said yes to God’s call. But so did you. Whether you go or send, you are God’s Plan A—there is no Plan B. Discover how God works His mission through ordinary people like you in Dwight Robertson’s Plan A.
