All I Want for Christmas is You (or, at least, a note from you)
It’s so encouraging to a missionary when they hear that you have been thinking of them and praying specifically for them. They depend on your prayers to get them through each day as they minister to the lost.
Unfortunately, missionaries can go months without hearing from the faithful donors and prayer warriors who support them. They are often sent to the field in a cloud of excitement, but as time passes, fewer and fewer people from “home” reach out to see how they are doing.
Christmas is one of the loneliest times of year for missionaries.
This loneliness hits missionaries the hardest during the Christmas season. It’s hard to be away from home, missing family and friends as they celebrate Christmas without you. Instead of feeling the cool December air, that means the holidays are near, many of our missionaries are serving others in 100-degree heat near the equator. There’s almost nothing that reminds them of the goodness of being home at Christmas.
I remember the first Christmas we celebrated as missionaries in Ecuador. The heat was stifling. The mosquitos swarmed us as we went about in the village. Nothing felt like Christmas! In mid-December, we checked our Post Office box because we heard that my wife’s grandmother sent us a box. I cannot describe the joy the notes of encouragement, Christmas cards from the church, and the homemade fudge brought to us! It’s like we had a piece of home with us as we celebrated so far away.
As years three and four on the mission field came and went, the Christmas notes stopped coming. We asked (as most missionaries do), “Have they forgotten about us? Is anyone thinking of us?” Will the Global Outreach missionaries you support and pray for be asking themselves that this year?
Will you take the time to encourage a missionary today?
Go to www.globaloutreach.org/christmas to write an encouraging letter to a missionary today. I know it will bring them joy as it did for us on the mission field. Then, we will have missionaries who are encouraged at Christmas as they faithfully share the love of Christ with those who’ve never heard the gospel.