Life support for missionaries

Throughout my years as a missionary in Japan, I have struggled with a variety of issues and challenges. I have also observed numerous missionaries enduring hard times and heartbreaking situations. The missionary life can be full of stress and struggles. It is no easy task to navigate through various life stages while living in a foreign culture—without the support from family and friends that would be available in our home country—never mind learning a foreign language and culture.

To help missionaries navigate the challenges of serving in Japan, a variety of support services are available for encouragement and growth: life coaches, counselors, spiritual directors, and mentors. Each of these roles offer a distinct service to support missionaries.

Support services

A life coach is a person who meets with someone regularly to support, listen, ask questions, and encourage.

A counselor helps someone sort through their past and find healing and restoration from traumas, bad experiences, and deep wounds inflicted by others. A professionally trained counselor can help the missionary move forward through a variety of therapies that can result in emotional healing and wholeness.

A spiritual director can help a missionary to grow in faith and help them hear God’s voice more clearly. Spiritual directors can introduce spiritual practices for renewal and enlightenment, helping to draw the missionary closer to God. If a person is feeling spiritually dry or feels like they have reached a plateau in their walk with God, a spiritual director can help that person to break through to new levels of spiritual maturity.

A mentor is someone who has expertise in a certain area and can help the missionary grow in that area. A mentor teaches and guides the missionary through experiences and wisdom from on-the-job training. Often a mentor is someone older who has gone through similar experiences and life lessons who can offer advice and feedback to help the missionary grow and mature.

Missionaries can benefit from using these four supportive services. Many support services are now available online and are accessible to people around the world with a stable internet connection. More than any other time in history, these kinds of support services are accessible from the mission field.

Our needs change as we mature through various life stages. We could use a spiritual director in one season, a counselor at a different time, and a life coach at yet another stage of life. All are useful and beneficial. Understanding the differences can help us to discern which service would be most helpful to use according to our particular needs.

Areas where life coaches can help

I serve as a life coach to missionaries, and I see missionaries finding a life coach useful in the following areas.

Transitions: Missionaries live through a variety of transitions as they move across an ocean, deal with cultural differences, and adjust to new communication styles and languages. A life coach can help the missionary to adjust to these dramatic shifts and changes. Transition times are a good time to seek support from a life coach.

Family matters: A variety of family issues can arise on the mission field. The support of a life coach can help with marriage issues, children’s education, financial strains (including support raising), singleness, health, and aging parents.

Encouragement: Missionaries often struggle with discouragement and failures. Often a life coach can encourage the missionary to not just “survive” but to “thrive” in ministry.

Developing a new ministry: Missionaries often want to develop new ministries and plant new churches. A life coach can help fine-tune the vision and move forward with plans and goals.

Discern calling: When God wants to affirm or redirect a calling, a life coach can help to discern the direction the Lord may be taking the missionary. Someone who can listen and ask clarifying questions may help the missionary solidify their calling.

These four distinct support services are useful to missionaries at various stages in their life and ministry. How can you discern the best fit for your needs? Exploring various support services and leaning on the Holy Spirit to guide you can lead you to the best person to help. You may find some crossover between these services based on the person’s gifting, training, and experience. For example, a life coach could also be qualified and gifted to be a mentor or spiritual director. Ask God to match you with the right person to benefit your personal need and growth.

God may use any of these services to help you minister in Japan. Do not hesitate to utilize these support services to help improve your ministry and life and to move forward into the calling God has placed in your heart.