Living faithful, fruitful and fulfilled on the mission field
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God is able to heal. I am certain of that! I’ve experienced miraculous healing in my own life again and again. I’ve prayed for others and seen them healed, some instantly, and some over a period of time. Many missionaries believe in God’s miraculous power. Knowing that, do we, as field workers need health insurance? It can certainly put a significant strain on our already stretched budgets.
Some mission agencies require health insurance. It’s either paid for by the agency or a necessary part of the missionary’s budget they must raise. Faith missions, like YWAM for instance, normally do not require their staff to have health insurance. Is that right or wrong?
When my husband and I first went to the field, we were in our early twenties. Our support was very low, and our budget bare-bones. It didn’t include health insurance. We trusted God for protection and provision. He was faithful.
Later, we were able to include this item in our budget. When life-threatening hepatitis and other illness hit us, we were extremely grateful we’d made the decision to invest in insurance.
Years later, the question arose again. We trained and sent out Indian cross-cultural missionaries to other Asian countries. Should they be required to have health insurance?
They were going to a place in East Asia. Many of the missionaries they would work with were Westerners. The vast majority of these workers had health insurance. When sickness or accidents happened, they went to the best hospitals in town. Was that the same standard that should be required of Indian, African or Latino missionaries going to those nations?
The Indians we were sending, had never had health insurance in their own nation. They had never gone to the best hospitals. The countries they were going to generally had better health care facilities than they did back home.
As Indian missionaries, if we required them to have insurance, were we giving them “Saul’s armor to wear”? If we required them to raise the finances needed for international health insurance, was that too heavy a burden?
David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off.
1 Sam. 17:39 NIV.
My heart was torn about this issue. I puzzled over what should be done.
Their budgets were already high. The money they needed for travel, visas, and study in the nations they were going to was significant. It was already more per month than national pastors of large churches in India earned! Trying to help them be sent out by the Indian church was hard enough, with the budgets such as they were. I desperately didn’t want them to feel they could only go if Westerners supported them!
Yet, I didn’t want to see them suffer and struggle on the field. If they got sick or had an accident, I wanted them to get the help they needed. It was a tough decision.
Most health insurance plans do not provide full coverage. You still need to see healing and miraculous provision, even if you purchase health insurance. On the mission field, sickness is common. Malaria, dengue fever, typhoid, hepatitis and many other illnesses are easy to contract. Working and living with local people and in foreign environments, they are common. The enemy often attacks Christian workers in areas of health. You can expect to struggle with health issues in the mission field.
What we also should anticipate is that God will show His glory to us in those times. Whether you end up with health insurance or not, be prepared to ask God for miracles! Also, be prepared to struggle and sometimes suffer on the field.
As stated above, some agencies pay their staff salaries and provide insurance. This article is written more for faith missions like Campus Crusade (Cru), Youth With A Mission (YWAM), and Operation Mobilization (OM).
We can allow individuals to prayerfully choose for themselves whether or not to invest in health insurance. When they do that, they take responsibility for their own lives and decisions. This is almost always better than making a rule for them.
As a leader, you can counsel and encourage them in a particular direction. If you mandate insurance, though, you may need to help pick up the cost as well. This could create an unhealthy dependency. Be cautious about going in this direction. Dialogue with your staff about this. Encourage them to ask God what He is saying to them about health insurance and needs.
One size doesn’t fit all. If your mission is international, and people are coming from many different countries to work with you, be careful. Global South missionaries have different needs. They have different desires and ways of thinking about health issues.
They may be used to going to government hospitals and waiting in longer lines than a Western missionary finds tolerable. This is okay, especially in the beginning as they are starting out. They may also have a greater understanding of faith and the miraculous. Many will have experienced this in their lives more than their Americans or Europeans colleagues. Don’t rob them of their faith stance by requiring something beyond what they are comfortable with.
For some, believing God for the money for health insurance is harder than believing for a healing miracle. For others, raising funds is easier. Allow for that variety of experience and strengths to function together.
Be responsible for your health needs either way. You may decide to not have health insurance. In that case, be diligent to budget and save money. Be ready for the time when you need to go to the dentist, are hospitalized a few days, or end up in a car accident.
Don’t expect that your missionary friends and colleagues will pick up those bills. Often, local health insurance in the country you work in can also be purchased cheaply. This is another cheaper option as compared to international health insurance.
Other options are sometimes available. Things like Missionary Upholder’s Trust (MUT), programs like (Love Your Neighbor) are worth considering. These insurance programs are a bit different. Each month you pay into a group fund. Then, if someone has health expenses, the group fund covers it as well as an additional charge to all the members.
Research and learn about all the various options available to you. Then, prayerfully make a wise choice about what is right for you and your family right now. Your circumstances may change in the future.
When I was evacuated from a hardship country and flown for medical care to Thailand, I was so grateful we had insurance to pay for that. It was a huge blessing! Looking back though, I know that if we’d not had that in place, God would still have taken care of us.
Remember, our trust is never in health insurance. It is in God. He is our provider and healer. Whether through insurance or other means, we can be sure that He will lovingly care for us.
What inexpensive options for missionary insurance are you aware of? I’d love to hear about them, or your thoughts on this in the comments below. Or, feel free to start a discussion on this in the Missionary Life Facebook group. In the meantime, stay healthy!
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Advent is a time of waiting for the arrival of Christ. We celebrate His first coming to Earth. We look forward to His second return. It is also a time where we long for Him to come into the brokenness of our lives.
Longing for God is a beautiful thing. As we wait, expecting His arrival, He too is longing for us.
I recently read The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning. A pastor friend gave it to me. If you are looking for a good read or gift, it’s on my recommended reading list. Buy it via this blog’s links and we get a small commission on your purchase.
The Furious Longing of God explores and imparts a beautiful truth. Furious can be a confusing word. It’s often associated with anger. In this book, its meaning has more to do with intensity, as in the sense of a “furious storm.”
In his characteristic way, Brennan calls our attention to the incredible, overwhelming power of God’s intense desire for us. As hard to comprehend as it is, the Creator of the Universe wants to be near us. He longs for closeness with us.
Jesus pursues us with fierce and absolutely unconditional affection. “His love is never based on our performance or moods,” says Manning.
The Furious Longing of God is a call to accept and internalize the reality of His passionate love. It challenges us to embrace the transformation that reality brings to every aspect of our lives. It calls us to be healed by it, to be ministers of healing through it. The message of His furious love is meant to be shared.
The book inspired me again with this simple truth. It’s not new content for me, but Manning has a powerful way of bringing this truth home. I felt called once again to love others the way God has loved me. He saw good in me before I saw it in myself.
Within us rests great power to speak life. “To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary,” writes Manning. We call forth goodness through our unconditional, accepting words.
We are to love deeply, profoundly, and selflessly. We obey Christ’s command to love one another as He loves us. As we do this, it is a sign, a true wonder, to a doubting world. Brennan challenged me to examine my life, areas where I am selfish, unloving, critical and condemning. I must pursue loving family, friends, and colleagues as furiously and faithfully as God loves me.
This is easier said than done.
Manning’s book is not a book of shoulds though. Quite the opposite. It calls us to embrace our darkness and struggles. “The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.”
I found myself asking this question as I read. How furious is my love for God? For others? For the lost?
Let your longing for Jesus’ arrival grow more furious this Advent. Soak for a moment in the reality of His passionate desire for a closer relationship with you.
This truth has the power to transform. In that place of wholeness, acceptance, and intimacy, we are gently changed. It is out of that place we can share about Him with others. It’s from there that we reflect His life, love, and healing to a waiting, broken world.
This Advent season be willing to speak of Him to those around you. Start spiritual conversations. Share with others about your longing for Him and your growing awareness of His desire for you. Affirm and bless, pray for and encourage all you come in contact with. Let your love for your family, your friends, and the lost shine as brightly as stars on a dark night.
We aren’t the only ones God furiously longs for. Partner with God to bring others into His loving arms. What better gift could we give to Jesus this Christmas?
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Ambition. It’s not necessarily a good thing. It can be positive when properly focused. In his well-known book, Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about Level 5 leaders. He describes the kinds of leaders who take their companies from a good company to becoming a great company.
These leaders are incredibly ambitious and driven. He goes on to clarify this however, “their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organization and its purpose, not themselves.”
Are you driven by a passion for God and the expansion of His Kingdom? Though Collins is talking about business, the principles are universal. They easily translate to Kingdom work as well.
Ambition for God’s Kingdom is not wrong. Sometimes, we mistake ministry ambition, though, for an unhealthy striving to earn God’s acceptance. This leads to burnout, family problems, addictions, and many unhealthy things within us.
Ministry goals can push you into a performance-based mentality. Rather than living from a place of rest in the Father’s acceptance, you are always wanting more. This isn’t God’s intention for us!
He places big dreams in our hearts. We must always remember, however, it is God who will accomplish these things. It’s not us. While pursuing God-given dreams in an ambitious way, we must also rest in His amazing, absolute and unconditional love.
Paul, the apostle, was incredibly ambitious for God’s Kingdom to grow. Collins would definitely have called him a Level 5 leader. He pressed on toward the goal God had given him with all he had. In Corinthians, he tells those he is discipling to strive to excel in building up and growing the church.
“So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.”
1 Cor 14:12 ESV
Ambition isn’t wrong. But, there are some things to carefully avoid.
This is so subtle! We can easily confuse our passionate desires for expanding God’s Kingdom, with a need to “make something of ourselves.” We want to be noticed as being someone who is successful. Having a big ministry and growing church will make us feel “worthy” of the praise and recognition of others, we think. This perspective is self-motivated, not God motivated.
We must regularly evaluate our hearts as we do ministry! Why are we doing what we are doing…really? Is it so God will be glorified? Or so we will be well-known, recognized, and valued by others?
It is easy to tell when you are swinging into selfish motivations. Do you feel slighted or angry when others don’t notice what you have done? That is a warning sign.
Guard your heart against motivations that flow from a desire to be recognized for what you accomplish.
You don’t need to earn something you’ve already received from God. He loves us! Nothing we can do in ministry or life can make Him love us more. We are already His beloved ones in whom He is well pleased. When you see yourself striving and over-working, ask yourself if you might be trying to earn His love.
Did you have parents or key influencers in your life who loved you only when you succeeded? This can easily be transferred to your view of God. Did you have a father who only praised you when you got high marks in school? Or a teacher who scolded you?
God isn’t like that. His love is unconditional. Relax a bit, and enjoy His blessing. He takes great pleasure in you simply because you are His child.
As much as we wish missionary marriages and family life would be automatically good, that is far from true. Keeping your marriage and family healthy takes careful thought and hard work. It is so easy to let ministry demands push in and rob you of quality time with your spouse or children. Don’t allow this! It isn’t worth it.
There are seasons when demands of ministry are greater. Certainly, there are times when we have to sacrifice family time in order to serve. Don’t let that become your norm.
Take quality sabbath days of rest. Play with your kids and enjoy your spouse. Do fun things together. Take a vacation at least once a year.
Be sure that your ambition doesn’t cost you your marriage or your health. That would never be God’s desire or plan. He wants us to be healthy and thriving in our missionary lives and families. Lean into God for better understanding of how to live in that place.
Maybe you have been reading this and thinking, “I’m really not very ambitious. I used to be but somehow I’ve lost my drive to see the Kingdom grow.” If that is you, ask God to renew your godly ambition once again. It’s a good thing to have!
Or, perhaps you identify with one of the three things above. You realize there are some things you need to avoid. Take a moment to pray and invite God to work in your life. Then, find a friend to share with about that, someone to help you stay accountable to change in this area.
What is God speaking to you about this today? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or on the Missionary Life Facebook group.
Do you ever feel empty? Exhausted? I do. We all face seasons of life when we are severely stretched. Ministry and family demands pile up and suddenly you realize you are “running on empty.” God desires us to live life full, not run on fumes. …