CHURCH-MISSIONARY PARTNERSHIPS

Ideas and Suggestions for Developing a Relationship with a Missionary

Be creative. Experiment and explore ways of establishing and maintaining connections with your partner missionaries that are fitting and appropriate for you as a congregation.

Use what is already present to further relationships.

. Have children in a Sunday school class or weekday Bible Club communicate with the children of the missionaries via email, letters, etc. Let them share their world with the MKs and vice versa. Teach the children a few words of the language the missionaries use in their country of service.

. Have a home fellowship group/adult Sunday school class "adopt" the missionary family and nurture a relationship by communication and regular prayer for needs.

. Have a weekly prayer meeting covenant to pray each week for the missionary partners, their ministry and their partner conventions.

. Highlight the missionary family quarterly in the worship service with a bulletin insert, special prayers, etc.

. Do a children's message several times a year, highlighting what an 1M missionary is doing. Contact that missionary a few months in advance and request that the missionary send some small gift items to pass out to the children. (The. church could reimburse the missionary through 1M.)

. Focus on the missionaries at a regularly scheduled Sunday evening service - utilize technology such a DVD videos, "phone-a-mission," etc. to enhance this.

. Have a regular column/article in your church newsletter and/or bulletin inserts to share ministry, praise reports and needs with the congregation.

. Add the missionary family to your church mailing list.

. Encourage the congregation to send cards or notes for special occasions, such as Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries.

Create some new ways of relating.

. Have the pastor and spouse visit the missionaries on the field and spend a week or two just being with them. Have them take lots of pictures to share with the congregation upon return.

. Organize a work team to visit on the field and perform a project that will assist the missionaries and their partners. Work well in advance to raise the funds needed for materials and equipment for the project. Again take lots of pictures to share upon return. Contact International Ministries for information and assistance in organizing the team.

. Arrange for the missionaries to spend quality time with your congregation when they are on US/Puerto Rico assignment. Have them speak in the morning worship (if possible) and host them at a fellowship meal afterward. Contact your region Minister of Mission Support to

schedule a visit.

. Share prayer needs of the congregation so missionaries can be praying for the ministry of the church. If your church has a tape ministry, mail them sermon tapes on a monthly basis. Let them hear the pastor speak of them on the tapes.

. Develop a project to raise funds for a special need in the ministry of the missionary. Try to connect the need with the solution. Example: the missionary requests funds for shoes for the children in the village. Ask each person in the church to donate one dollar for every pair of shoes they own.

. Try to develop a special relationship with a group of people that the missionary works with . pray for each other, exchange letters, etc. Some may even be able to buy craft items from their people group and sell them. Anything to build the relationship investment of church folks in the US and people that 1M missionaries work with in other countries.

. Develop a weekday prayer group for retired/available people who will pray for the work of International Ministries in general and for the region/country where your partner missionaries are working. Update the missionaries' prayer requests as often as possible.

. Ask your missionary to send you recipes from their country of service and host a 'taste of the

field' dinner at your church (this could also be used as a fundraiser)

. Assign someone to check the IM website http://www.internationalministries.org/ on a regular basis for updates on the missionary and for other reports on what is .happening in IM ministries worldwide.

. Assign someone to do research on the missionary's country of service to educate the congregation on the culture, geography and current situations there that impact the missionary and their work.

. Offer to print and mail their newsletters to all persons on their distribution list.