Missions Textbook 34 Questions Before You Buy
the Plane Ticket

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

The first stage of moving to a new country is survival. The first key to survival is learning as much as you can about the culture before you arrive. The second key to survival is wisdom, the ability to use that knowledge to infiltrate and blend into that culture. After you get past the initial adjustment, you will begin to settle in. If you are emphasizing language learning, this daily living will go much better. Your goal, over time, is to build relationships with the nationals to the point that they no longer view you as a short-term foreigner. They will always recognize your “foreign-ness” but blending in will lower the negative aspects of their feelings toward you as an outsider.

The following list reveals the extent to which you need to delve into your new culture before you arrive there. You should set up an electronic journal of everything below and any other items you stumble across in your goal to be as prepared as possible before you get on the airplane.

First and foremost, you will need a passport! Please note: You do not own your passport. It belongs to your government. ALWAYS make one or more copies of your passport and put those copies in different and separate places from your original. You will have to show your original to authorities.

1) SAFETY!

  • Do the politics and government of that culture make it safe for you to travel within that country? Search the internet for negative and unsafe events over the last five years. Check with your State Department online for the current status of a country’s posture toward your nationality. If you are an American, check BOTH of these websites. https://www.usa.gov/americans-abroad; https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings.html
  • Does your State Department have any warnings about that country or area? Is the information timely or outdated?
  • Is there any conflict between your government and the country you are going to, especially in the area of terrorism? Sometimes economic trade can cause tensions, too.
  • Contact companies that send businessmen there and ask about the security risks they face.
  • Email missionaries in the country and ask them how they stay safe.

2) Arrival

  • Do you need a visa to enter the country?
  • Where can you get one?
  • When will your visa expire?
  • Do they deny visas from your country?
  • What will that country’s customs allow you to take into their country?
  • Forbidden articles?
  • Will you go to jail for bringing something illegal into that country?
  • Will you have to pay any taxes for things you bring into the country?
  • What forms should you have filled out before arriving at the airport?
  • What transportation will you use when you leave the airport?
  • Is it safe transportation? Is a bus safer than a taxi?
  • What does that transportation cost? How often does it run?
  • How close does it come to your destination?
  • Can you / should you rent a car?
  • Will the police accept your driver’s license?
  • How can you get a driver’s license in that country?
  • How long and where can you stay in the airport if your transportation does not work out?

3) Housing

  • Have you found housing BEFORE you got on the airplane?
  • Where will you stay your first night there?
  • How did you find this place?
  • How much room do you need? Are you travelling alone or taking your family of twelve children with you?
  • What will it cost?
  • Why have you chosen those accommodations?
  • Do you plan on staying long there?
  • Can you rent a motel room for one night?
  • An apartment for a month?
  • Can you read the lease agreement in that country’s language?
  • What surrounds your accommodations (factory, shops, rundown neighborhood, countryside)?

4) Embassies and Consulates

  • If you run into problems with the transportation or housing, where will you go for help?
  • Are you guilty until proven innocent?
  • Do you know where the Embassy is? Usually, the Embassy exists to promote your countries interests overseas.
  • Do you know where the Consulate is? You need to find the Consulate of your country in or near your town. The Consulate exists to take care of its own citizens in a foreign country. Smaller countries usually only have an Embassy, which has to function as a Consulate, as well. You MUST have the name of the “Consul,” the person in charge of your Consulate, the Consulate’s phone number, office hours (!), and services offered to its own citizens. There is no such thing as twenty-four-hour Consulate service. If you ever lose your passport, you will be in that country for some time, if you did not make copies of your passport.

5) Globalization and Urban Scenarios

  • If you are going to a large city, have you studied the effect of Globalization there?
  • Destitute poverty, but everyone has a cell phone
  • Urban poverty?
  • Shanty towns?
  • Use Google Earth to view these scenes.
  • What sort of other urban ministries are going on in that city?

6) Slavery & Human Trafficking

  • Are you aware of the extent of such sins in your target country?
  • Will you be involved in helping people escape such evil?
  • Will you be in any danger?
  • Who have you contacted about this BEFORE you arrive?
  • Watch the movie, “Ashanti: Land of No Mercy”

7) Food and cooking

  • Do you have any allergies?
  • What kinds of food are you going to have to eat?
  • Will you offend people in that culture if you refuse to eat what they offer?
  • How will you evangelize people if you can’t or won’t eat their food?
  • Can you cook in your own culture?
  • Will your target culture like what you cook at home?
  • Buy a recipe book about your target culture and start cooking their foods.
  • Find nationals from your target culture who live in your own country and talk to them about their food.
  • Can you read labels in their language on their food products? Can you trust the labels?

8) Clothing

  • Will you fit into their clothing?
  • Will they be offended if you wear or don’t wear their type of clothing? Will you blend in by wearing their clothing or will they laugh at you?
  • Can you afford to buy their clothing?
  • Can you “afford” to wear your own clothing, if your clothing costs a lot more than theirs?
  • How will you dress your children?
  • Does that culture have a different level of modesty?
  • Will you be comfortable completely covering up in Morocco or walking along nude beaches in France?
  • How will the clothing affect the education of your children?

9) Health

  • Will you be healthy in that culture?
  • Do you have health issues that cannot be overcome in that culture?
  • How often do you need medicine?
  • Is your medicine legal in that county?
  • If that culture does not have the medicine you need, how long will it take to get more from outside the country?
  • Will you have to leave on a regular basis for medical attention you need?
  • Do any other members of your family need more than normal medical attention?
  • Is the health of your family more or less important than your mission?
  • What level of physical abilities and health does your mission agency require?
  • How much will your supporting churches contribute toward any extra medical costs?
  • If you live in the bush, how far away are any medical facilities?
  • If you live in an economically advanced country, what do medical treatments cost in your target country?
  • How long will you have to wait for treatment?
  • Will the doctors and hospitals accept foreign health insurance?
  • Should you get health insurance in your target country?
  • How much health and life insurance should you have?
  • Are you required to have?
  • Are you physically able to carry out the physical tasks of your ministry, or will others have to carry your load?
  • When would poor health motivate you to return home?
  • Where will you choose to be buried (assuming you have a choice and are not incinerated in a bombing)? It can be very expensive to have your body transported back to your home country for burial. Why would you do that? How important is your dead physical body to you after you die? What would your relatives want? Can you afford what they want?
  • Have you made out a will? If not, do so NOW! Have an attorney help you and give his advice serious consideration.

10) Family Life

Each person is unique. A couple of unique people make each marriage relationship unique. The expectations of the individual have to be modified to accommodate the expectations of the other person. A positive growing marriage relationship is a powerful tool on the mission field (or anywhere!). There is no such thing as a strong or weak relationship. Every marriage consists of two people struggling to make a relationship work that is honoring to the Lord Jesus. As they grow in their faith and in their relationship with one another, their outreach and discipleship of others will be more effective. If you are married, you should have already discussed how you intend to approach your ministry.

  • What roles will each of you seek to carry out?
  • How much time will you spend talking with each other on a regular basis, when no one else is around, including the children
  • Do you care what the other person thinks about things?
  • Do either of you or both of you want to pursue additional degrees in the future?
  • If yes, why and in which subjects?

11) Children

  • How will you provide for your children’s education? No two children are alike. Each has unique needs. No two parents are alike. No two mission fields are alike. One model never fits all.
  • What are your options on your field?

~~Public School. Quality of education? Attitude toward foreign children? Morality among the teachers and other students? Ability to change educational systems without your child being behind in the new system?

~~Private School. Cost? Connected with or isolated from the host culture? Location to your ministry?

~~Boarding School. Okay with being separated from your children for long periods of time? Should all of your children attend a boarding school? Cost? Location to your ministry? Quality of education? Good dorm parents? Other missionaries’ experiences at that school?

~~Home Schooling. Is it legal in your target country? Cost? Can you get the correct materials for each child? Will the child’s education transfer to a public or private school, should you return to your home country? Will home schooling isolate your child from building friends with nationals? Will that hinder your ministry? Will the nationals think that you look down on their educational system?

12) Entertainment!

No one can work 24/7. The more time a missionary spends with nationals, opportunities will surface for enjoying their entertainment with them. And it will feel like entertainment, not ministry. It seems sad that many missionaries bond with other missionaries instead of the people they are working with. How do the nationals perceive entertainment? It’s best not to import your own, or you may never become truly acculturated into your new culture.

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

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