10 Common Missionary Problems

Post by Micah Heath

Missionaries are often held in high regard by churches and Christian leaders.

We look up to them as spiritually mature people who have sacrificed so much to help others. They often have impressive abilities and opportunities. They travel the world, speak multiple languages sending Christmas cards from exotic locations. I remember getting a Christmas card from a missionary that I knew living in a tropical location. Even though they worked terribly hard in the medical field, their spontaneous family photo (which happened to be on a beach) looked more like most of my friend’s vacation photos.  

However, the life of an overseas worker can be full of problems that aren’t obvious to someone who has lived in one country their whole life. 

Here are some of the problems that we often hear from missionaries, and that counseling can help with.  

The life of a missionary is full of loss of various kinds. Overseas workers leave their friends and family behind and don’t get to visit very often. Often the work itself places the missionary is a position to experience loss.  Those involved in humanitarian missions see sickness and death daily from disease, accidents, or malnutrition.  Often, individuals whom they are trying to help succumb to their illnesses.

Day-to-day life overseas is stressful. Anything from learning and living in a foreign language, different standards of health and safety and adjusting to the differing cultural expectations that many locals would take for granted.  Most missionaries I know are very driven, as evidenced by their willingness to move to remote or exotic locations and to meet needs that haven’t been met before. However, it’s easy to feel stressed when high expectations have been placed on you by yourself or others.  

Living overseas can be culturally and socially lonely, but missionaries can often find themselves spiritually isolated.  It makes sense that if someone feels a call to share their faith with a population of people who may not have heard it, that person will be a religious minority while they are living in that location.  Without the robust support of a spiritual community around them, and in the face of challenging circumstances, missionaries often find their faith challenged and may have to reconsider what they believe about some traditions, and beliefs that may have been helpful in the past but may not continue to be helpful in the current situation.  

The needs that missionaries work to meet often change, and as they change, the definition and scope of the mission can change as well. Missionaries can easily find themselves doing work that they never anticipated doing. This doesn’t have to be a problem, but it can be a significant stressor, especially if the missionary doesn’t feel called or equipped for that type of work.

Sometimes it’s necessary for missionaries to return to their sending country.

When this happens, it frequently involves considering changing careers.  

Families serving a mission have a highly mobile lifestyle.  It’s not uncommon for families to relocate to new communities every few years. This may be due to the needs of the job, requirements for visas to live in a foreign country or raising the requires finances for their salary and special projects. Each relocation involves adjustments to new cultures, as well as the personal rhythms, habits and needs of the family.  

Some locations in which missionaries serve are rife with danger. Natural disasters, crime, diseases, and even war are some of the many experiences that missionaries can face. But even negative experiences that are much less intense than these examples can leave a lasting impact.

The loss or shattering of relationships can also be traumatizing. In fact, any experience that makes demands beyond a person's ability to cope at the time can be traumatic. I once worked with a child who was mildly bullied at school, but because the child had not yet mastered the local language, the affect was much more intense that his parents expected.  

Missionaries go through so many changes and many of them are stressful. It can be difficult to personally navigate these changes.  A common challenge that I’ve seen missionaries struggle with is discerning what changes in their lives that have control over and which ones they don’t.  Many, especially those who place an especially high value on responsibility struggle to know how to engage with these stressors.  Sometimes this can lead to symptoms that resemble anxiety or depression or behaving in a way that their family and collogues don’t understand.  

One of the main reasons that Missionaries must leave their field of service is because of team conflict grows out of control or is unmanageable. This is often due to a lack of understanding or training in how to deal with conflict in a healthy and positive way.

Conflict in teams, families, and even marriages is unavoidable. But often, the emergence so many other serious needs tend to make some conflicts look unimportant.  This is too bad because, even small conflicts, if left unresolved can begin to effect how we view others and begin to affect our relationships.

Sometimes, because they believe that it is the most loving or spiritual thing to do, people will avoid conflict, seeking peace but not finding it because the conflict continues to be unresolved.  

All these challenges that I’ve mentioned (and more) don’t just affect the individual going through the experience.  It will also affect those closest to them.  Spouses and children often bear the weight of a family members struggles. In a similar way to how team conflict can become a problem over time, the health of a family and a marriage can easily be taken for granted, especially when the needs of others might seem more pressing.  

Sickness, injuries, and other medical concerns can happen anywhere, but in some locations, access to proper medical care can be more difficult to acquire. Medical issues big or small can impact a family in significant ways. Even in mild cases, it can be another added stressor to an already stress filled life, and in more serious cases cause the family to need to take time away from mission projects and even be a reason for the family to relocate, short term, long term or even permanently.  

Debriefing as an intervention: 

Debriefing is a process that can be helpful in a variety of contexts including missionaries.  Debriefing is not therapy but can be a helpful step in determining if it would be helpful. The purpose of debriefing is to help gain perspective from your experience.  In many helping professions such as police officers, fire fighters, doctors (and including missionaries) the sensations nature of their work can begin to seem ordinary.

Debriefing helps individuals to understand what is going well in their jobs and personal lives, but also how their experiences might have affected them in ways they didn’t expect.  Gaining this perspective can help the individual to make changes necessary to find more satisfaction in their work, healthier personal relationships and avoid burnout.