How to Energize and Support Your Missionaries

I. Refuel Your Missionaries

Have you ever received a box of goodies in the mail with your name on it? Didn’t it just make you want to shout with joy? That’s the kind of refueling missionaries need to remind them that someone far away is thinking about them. Here are some tips on who, what, when, why, and how.

Who?

Missionaries love receiving care packages for the whole family, but getting a personal package is extra special. Send a personal package to a missionary kid about your age, and it will brighten his or her whole week! Check the information boxes by the articles in Adventist Frontiers. There are lots of missionaries to choose from.

What?

“What would I like to receive in a care package if I were a missionary far from home?” That’s what you should ask yourself. Fun books, properly packaged foods and spices, magazines, games … the sky is the limit. You can also Email missionaries and get to know them so they can give you ideas of what they like. Don’t forget to include a note to introduce yourself and pass along a warm hello.

When?

Several small packages spread over a year will bring more joy than a single large one, and they are more likely to survive the journey and get through customs. If you want packages to arrive in time for holidays, ask the missionaries when you need to send them. Packages to some countries may take months to deliver. Plan ahead!

Why?

Because it’s great fun! You can hardly imagine how much they’ll appreciate your package!

How?

Open an issue of Adventist Frontiers magazine or visit our website and click on “Missionaries” to choose a missionary family. Each missionary home page has a section called “How you can help.” See if they have any suggestions. Some missionaries even include a wish list. Email your missionary and ask them if they can receive packages and how best to send them. Carefully follow any instructions they give you.

For a great laugh and some excellent advice about sending missionary care packages, read Kent George’s article, Postal Package Mysteries—the Untold Story, on our website. You can find it by typing “postal package mysteries” into the search box on the index page.

II. Build a Home Front Support Team

Another great way to help missionaries is to become part of their home-front team. By reminding your school and Sabbath School classes about your missionaries’ work and asking them to pray or give an offering, you are helping make your missionary even more effective in their work. Here are some ideas, or get creative and think up your own!

• Ask your teacher to read your missionary’s stories in class.
• Make a mission-project offering box to put in your school or Sabbath School. You could make a decoupage art project out of it and cover it with pictures you cut from old Adventist Frontiers magazines. When it’s full, send in your donation and be sure to mark where you want it to go.
• Ask your teacher to arrange a Skype call with your missionaries. Talk to them face to face over the Internet.
• Post your missionary’s photo on your classroom board and pray for them each day.
• To spread the blessing, pick a new missionary to focus on each quarter.
• Your ideas