In early January, 50 missionaries and 20 missionary kids (MKs) from across the Americas gathered along with several staff and some guests in the mountains outside San José, Costa Rica. The event was the Latin America/USA regional gathering of The Mission Society. Such events provide an important opportunity to minister to our MKs, many of whom are not in settings where they have opportunities to get together. Thing is, MKs love to get together. In fact, when we were discussing the role of a coordinator for MK ministry at The Mission Society, I asked the “professional opinion” of two of my children, Jonathan and Naomi, what are some of the best ways we can minister to MKs? They responded without hesitation, “Get them together!”

So we knew for the regional gathering to be a success, we had to have an excellent program for the 20 MKs, ranging in age from 1 to 17, who would be attending. We knew it had to go way beyond babysitting or cheesy programming! We knew we needed help.

What happened next changed everything. We started to wonder if a church would adopt our MK ministry as a short-term mission trip? We floated this idea by our missionaries. Laura Drum, missionary in Peru, put us in touch with Judy Foster, an active member of Christ United Methodist Church in College Station, Texas. Judy was very interested in the idea and agreed to form a team and help us develop this.

Over the months leading up to the gathering, Judy assembled a team of four women. They planned the program, working closely with Vicki Decker, The Mission Society coordinator of MK ministry.

No surprise; the event went very well. Parents were able to focus on their sessions, knowing their kids were having a great and meaningful time. The kids bonded immediately. One of our young teens told me during a Facebook chat that she left the retreat a “changed person” with new lifelong friends. Judy and her team worked tirelessly with the kids, from leading sessions with the older ones to holding and changing diapers on the little ones.

Giver, receiver
But as we so often see in God’s economy, the giver also receives. The feedback we got from the four women was very positive. They had opportunities to interact on a very personal level with missionaries and missions specialists. They were able to see missionaries as they really are, to perceive the joys and the challenges in a way that a normal short-term trip would rarely allow. As Judy shared with me, “Every time one of us sat down to eat, or go on a walk or bus ride, we were all touched and taught deeply by you ALL” [emphasis hers].

This trip may not have sounded as exciting or task-oriented as a typical short-term mission trip. But the impact these women made by helping us further equip our long-term missionaries and by entering into the lives of our MKs will have an important, ongoing impact for the gospel, perhaps more so than if they’d gone and built something somewhere.

We hope to build upon this concept, expanding it to other settings and encouraging group members to bring other skills that could bless the missionaries or MKs, from hair cutting to tax consulting. God can use whatever we bring to Him for His Kingdom purposes!

Jim Ramsay, former missionary to Central Asia, is The Mission Society's senior director of field ministry.