Pre-field and supported missionaries travel many hours, take great effort, and exert much energy in ministering to churches. Encourage traveling missionaries by extending the following acts of kindness:
1. Prepare for their arrival by praying for their ministry, knowing their names, meeting them at church on time, and having a display table and technology assistance available.
2. Welcome them with a basket containing snacks, drinks, fruits, maps, a schedule, and expectations of meetings.
3. Pay for their hotel lodging, especially if they have small children (check www.hotwire.com).
4. Provide a local map featuring locations of the church, post office, discount stores, library, parks, mall, free Internet access, coffee and sandwich shops, and special attractions.
5. Stretch their dollars by providing prepaid credit cards, gas cards, restaurant cards, phone cards, and discount-store cards.
6. Outfit them with over-the-counter drugs that have long-term expiration dates.
7. Supply church and/or school curriculum and teaching aids; for example, workbooks, flannelgraph, maps, flashcard stories, craft kits, and posters.
8. Provide gift certificates to local museums, professional ball games, beauty shops, Christian bookstores, bowling lanes, miniature golf courses, or indoor/outdoor swimming pools.
9. Pack a picnic, blanket, and directions to a local park so they can enjoy a relaxed lunch.
10. Provide travel kits for children, including items such as snacks, juice boxes, travel games, Aquadoodle toys, color/activity books, crayons, magnet pictures, and Old Maid/Go Fish cards.
11. Send them off with a wrapped surprise box (to be opened after they’ve traveled fifty miles) containing snacks, fruits, drinks, candy, gum, restaurant and gas cards, a Christian CD, granola bars, and lotion.
Deb Hindal, GARBC International Ministries
GARBC Resource Center
Schaumburg, Illinois
