How to Survive on the Mission Field, Part 3: A Sustainable Lifestyle

In my last blog, I dis­cussed the “camping-out” men­tal­ity that has caused many good mis­sion­ar­ies to fail in the plans God had for them. Camping out is not a sus­tain­able lifestyle. From WIM’s per­spec­tive, it is true that mis­sion­ar­ies could be con­sid­ered “tem­po­rary” because the end goal is to be replaced by local lead­ers who can lead the work indige­nously. However, a mis­sion­ary must under­stand that it is not wrong to have a proper home and mate­r­ial pos­ses­sions in the meantime—as long as he owns them they do not own him.

Let’s revisit the verse I quoted in the last blog:

“Prepare thy work with­out, and make it fit for thy­self in the field; and after­wards build thine house.” –Proverbs 24:27 (KJV)

Most mis­sion­ar­ies I know have pre­pared the work. They know what they are called to do and have a plan from God on how to do it. But if the mis­sion­ary is “camp­ing out,” they have not “made it fit” for them­selves in the field.

We raised three chil­dren on the mis­sion field. Those chil­dren needed proper hous­ing, food, edu­ca­tion, etc. When Kathy and I moved those chil­dren into a three bed­room home in a good, safe neigh­bor­hood, the peace of God set­tled on our fam­ily. Our chil­dren received a good edu­ca­tion and are serv­ing the Lord as adults. They also received a model of a healthy fam­ily that they are using to raise their chil­dren

Missionaries are in a marathon, not the 50-yard dash. We must think of a good qual­ity of life for our fam­i­lies. If the work is not fit for you in the field, you may open the door for stress, sick­ness and a world of unnec­es­sary prob­lems. Jesus wants to give you abun­dant life.

“The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abun­dantly.” –John 10:10

The thief will try to steal from mis­sion­ar­ies through lying, “God does not want to give you a good house.”  He will try to make you feel guilty about hav­ing a nice place to live. When in real­ity it is His plea­sure to bless you as you serve Him.

In my next blog, we will look at Matthew 19:29.