10 things New Missionaries Should know

Ten “must know” helps for new missionaries.

When I was first asked to write this article, my mind flooded with the many things that I could tell missionaries from my own personal experience. I wanted to help new missionaries all that I could, but I was faced with a very difficult task: “How could I condense my experiences down to just 10 things?” As I scribbled thoughts onto my pad of paper, the list kept growing. When I looked at the list, I began circling the most important or troublesome things that I had to deal with in my missionary life. By this method, I was able to come up with the 10 most important things that I think missionaries should know. They could have easily have grown into a “help book” for missionaries.

Most pastors, even missions minded pastors, know very little about what a missionary faces. Even pastors who make regular missions trips fall short in touching the lifestyle of a missionary. This is expected because, after all, they are pastors and not missionaries. It has been said that you cannot truly understand the life of another person unless you first “walk in that persons shoes.” That is to say, you need to have lived their life, or in this case, been a missionary yourself. Therefore, many helpful pastors cannot properly equip people who are called to the mission field simply because they don’t know how to do so. As sincere as they may be, they have little idea what a missionary life is like, so they cannot really help the new missionary to be prepared. This is where articles like these are truly helpful, and needed.

When first called to the mission field, the new missionary is suddenly overwhelmed with things that need to get done in order to completely change his life. He soon realizes that he does not know the specifics about what he is to do. He begins making a list of things he needs to know; questions he needs answers to. Here in this article are listed the 10 most common things that missionaries should know.