Dear older missionaries, please write your stories. We need them!

Your work is truly incomplete if the story is left unwritten.

Whenever I’m talking with an elderly or experienced missionary, I hear so many stories of victories, struggles, challenges, testimonies, and their journeys. It’s always so interesting and inspiring to me.

As a 23-year-old missionary, the stories of senior missionaries always motivate me to do more — knowing that I can’t do less than what they did.

But it’s heartbreaking to me that almost all these stories are left unwritten, and leaving these stories untold means we are losing them.

We’ve been doing missions in Africa for years, yet you can still count the number of missionaries who have written their stories or journeys. This is one of the reasons some missions mobilizers still rely heavily on the stories and books of Western missionaries. (I’m not against using their books and stories.)

Even though we talk so much about mentorship in our missions organizations and churches, we hardly document our journeys. Many missionaries are leaving to meet our Master without writing down their stories.

To me, mentorship is all about helping someone reach where you are or where you have passed. So if you don’t write down your journeys and stories, how will the next generation of missionaries learn from you?

I don’t think anyone’s work is truly complete if their story is left unwritten. As Dr. Myles Munroe said:

We read stories of missionaries in the Bible (the book of Acts of the Apostles and other Epistles). If they had not written them, how would we know and learn from their experiences?

One thing I’ve observed is that people in other fields — business, academics, and others — write their stories because they know they’re leaving soon and want the next generation to replace them. We need to do the same in missions.

I recently read a research report showing that 40–50% of current missions leaders will soon retire. Who will replace them?

A missions mobilizer once said that only 10% of Nigerian youth are joining missions. Why?

Because many believe that missions are only for Western people.

Not writing your story is dangerous, especially now — in the age of AI and technology — when young people are turning to YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram for direction and inspiration. Writing your story is a form of mentorship, and it is biblical.

We, the young missionaries, are repeating some of the same mistakes you made because your stories remain unwritten. We need them. Let’s change this. We can’t continue like this.

Your story and journey can inspire and impact so many young people and missionaries.

Abdullahi Ismail Almasih

A Life reaching the Muslims

(writing from CAPRO Diaspora Southwest Nigeria)