Articles Archive - Page 21 of 43

Burdened beyond measure

I just finished a long phone call with a brother who serves in a pioneering mission context. He was utterly traumatized by what his leader was doing to him. He felt rejected, abandoned, stigmatized, completely lost, and worst of all – alone. He ...

Barriers to and benefits of seeking counselling

The life of a cross-cultural missionary is fraught with stressors and challenges not typically experienced by those who reside in their own countries or cultures. The traumas of African Christian workers and missionaries can range from unexpected ...

Find the balance

Family is central to Africans, who we are and how we exist. Remove family, and we are not a people. Our nuclear and extended families are interconnected, and this web often determines many decisions we make. Family in Africa exists to support indi...

Called: Ralambo Tiffanie – no longer lonely

I faced a lot of suspicion when I first arrived as a missionary on the Island. Unknown to me, some Malagasy single women who arrived before me were involved in prostitution. It was tough to settle as a single Malagasy girl on an Isla...

Missionary call and family – an “Ubuntu” option

Must a missionary abandon his family to truly answer God’s call to reach the lost? Across the continent, a new generation of African missionaries is going out, and their families do not always understand the reasons. It can app...

A turnaround for Reagan

Reagan had never left the town of Kumasi in his entire life. So the day he boarded a bus for the mission field far away from home was a big day. Upon arriving in Tamale, he discovered that the bus to Gbintre moved once a day. He didn...

Missionary calling and family concerns

You have been called to serve as a missionary, but family concerns threaten to pull you the other way. How do you resolve the dilemma? We have compiled advice from mission leaders to address some common family issues that arise when ...

The support mothers: standing in the gap for missionary kids

In February 1996, the EMS children’s hostel opened in Jos, Nigeria, to provide a home for the children of EMS missionaries who were serving in the mission field. The idea was motivated by a finding that 25 per cent of missionaries ...

People Groups: the Beja of Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt

The Beja people are nomads who have occupied their homelands across the Sudan, Eritrea and Egypt for more than 4,000 years. Some scholars believe they are related to the ancient Egyptians. In the course of their history, they accepte...

Language learning and culture

When a group of Kenyans and Malagasies were sent to a third country to serve as missionaries, it was a lot harder to communicate than they imagined. One team member already knew the trade language, and most had five or six other lang...