Tag: children

How to Build Community as a Missionary Overseas

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build community

Editor’s note: Tucked away in my family room sits a box made of exotic African wood, lugged back using precious luggage weight when my family returned from Uganda. It is one of our most beautiful possessions–not physically, but in its emotional cargo. It was fashioned by hand in the workshop of our organization as one-of-a-kind. Tucked within are loads of letters and laminated photographs of lives we loved and shared in our efforts to build community overseas. 

You likely share the goal of my family: to dig in deeply enough to love well, intimately enough to change each other. To work toward the brand of enduring, life-on-life love that models God’s Body. read more

We Were Missionary Kids. Here’s What My Parents Did Right

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Recently Go. Serve. Love has enjoyed a flood of traffic and dialogue from our post, 10 Realities a Missionary Probably Won’t Tell You. One of its tenets? “We feel like our children are getting shortchanged by our choices.” Here, contributor and Third Culture Kid (TCK) Rebecca Skinner explores ways her parents succeeded in nurturing Rebecca and her brothers as missionary kids. 

Pistachio or Rum and Raisin? read more

10 Realities a Missionary Probably Won’t Tell You

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missionary realities overseas global work hard truth Go. Serve. Love is psyched about featuring this post from missionary Joe Holman; it originally posted on his blog and is gratefully used with permission. Fun fact about Joe: He and his wife totally pull off the missionary thing amidst a family of 13. They’ve served in Bolivia since 2007. 

First, the Disclaimers.

I’m going out on a limb here, so I’ll put some disclaimers up in advance.

1. I love being a missionary.

This post points out bad aspects you’ll not hear us normally say.  It doesn’t mean I’m unhappy or unfulfilled.

2. I’m speaking of feelings and perceptions.

I know what the Bible says and can give a counterpoint to each of these.  For example, when I share how we feel about shortchanging my children, I know that there are 100 positive things that people can point out to me. read more

How to Tell Kids You’re Moving Overseas as Missionaries

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“When Should We Tell Them?”

I’d say–and most sites agree–as soon as possible. Your goal is well-adjusted kids who have ownership in your decision, and who can eventually follow God courageously in their own life decisions.

If your kids keep secrets as well as mine did didn’t, I know it can be hard to discern (“What if they tell people in Sunday School and our cover is blown? We’re not ready to tell the whole church”). But even before you tell-them-tell-them, you can start planting seeds in your kids’ heads. read more

Meet an Agency: Christ for the City International

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We dig this new, ongoing series–a little cup of coffee with organizations to help you go there, serve Him, and love them even better. (For more thoughts about why you might join an agency–and a handful of reasons you might not–make sure to check out He Said/She Said/You Say? “Should I go overseas with an organization?”, both the pros and the cons.)

Today, we’re grabbing a peppermint mocha, extra foam with Christ for the City International. Pull up a chair.

Tell us what your agency specializes in. What are you passionate about? 

We’re completely committed to the transformation of communities by transforming lives and developing leaders in Jesus’ name. Our major focus is on the people most marginalized by society, reaching the lost with the Gospel. read more

#BestoftheBestFriday: Why not to say “God called me”; Exposing Your Kids to Danger; Surprised by North Korea & China

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Could “God called me” be destructive?

What effect does language have when we’re considering “calling”–something that’s definitely become a buzzword beckoning forth a generation that longs for purpose and certainty. As a global worker in Tanzania, Amy Medina relays wise sentiments you might not have thought of as you consider the nebulous concept–and possibly damaging language–of the phrase “God called me.”