Why Do We Need to Care for Missionary’s Children?

Why Do We Need to Care for Missionary’s Children?

Serving 1.2 billion Indians in sharing the Good News and discipling a few among them is not an easy task.  It calls for a team of highly committed young people who are willing to step out in faith to fulfill God’s vision.  A generation ago, the Indian Missions movement had many such young people who were willing to go out into the remote villages across rivers, mountains and hills.  In many places, they were the pioneers in making roads, providing primary education and health facilities and even bringing in basic amenities like drinking water.  These workers had the joy of seeing hundreds of tribals and dalits learning to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in areas where there was no Christian presence before.  As these Gospel workers toiled, they had no option but to send their own children to boarding schools thousands of miles away.  These children separated from their parents grew up in a spiritual atmosphere but yet struggled with their emotions and their relationships with their parents.   The consequence of this was that a few of them strayed from their faith and others who managed to hold on, quietly declined any further involvement in any form of Christian ministry. 

Now a generation later, history has taught us hard lessons.  In the midst of serving people for the sake of the Gospel, we also need to take responsibility for our children, whom God has given us as His gift.   We cannot afford to sacrifice our children for the cause of ministry.  We need to minister to our children along with all our other ministry commitments in a balanced manner. We need to put our faith in God so that the needs of our children can be met with the unlimited resources God has provided for us.  We need to learn to unashamedly prioritize our children’s needs when we mobilize resources.  We need to make a bold statement that  missionary’s children are special in the sight of God.

The children of pastors, missionaries and other Christian workers inherit a rich heritage of their parent’s commitment to serve and follow Jesus Christ.  Most of these children have a rich exposure to different cultures, languages and food.  They are easily able to build relationships with people who are different from them.  They are familiar with the challenges of Christian ministry from close quarters.  They naturally develop several leadership characteristics that only come from years of work experience for others.  Many of the missionary’s children have become successful in any career they have chosen.  Children are always more inclined towards following their parent’s vocation.  Most doctors’ children want to become doctors themselves, teachers children want to become teachers, army officers children want to become army officers, politicians children want to become politicians.  This desire is very natural and God given.  However, sometimes we face the situation that the children of missionaries and other Christian workers refuse to follow in their parent’s foot steps.  This is a loss for the cause of the Great Commission. It is very unfortunate that one of the reasons is the perception that children’s needs are neglected in Christian ministry.

In the last decade, India Missions Association (IMA) has created awareness among the mission leadership to focus on the needs of the missionary children.  Many members of IMA have taken credible steps to correct this perception.  Missionary’s children are now given special scholarships for higher education, better boarding school facilities, and opportunities for parents and children to build relationships and many retreats to meet their own spiritual needs.  IMA continued to build this awareness of the needs of missionary children by successfully organizing the first Missionary Children Youth Camp near Pune last month (May 2005) in partnership with Interserve India and several other member missions.  Please pray that many more such efforts will turn the tide to witness many more missionary children involving in Christian ministry in many different ways.  John Amalraj

Published in Indian Missions, Quarterly of India Missions Association, Hyderabad, 2005