Ask a Missionary.com

Despite the many roles that your students could take in missions to help fulfill the Great Commission (i.e. Goer, Sender, Welcomer, or Mobilizer) many of them still only think of the Goer role when they feel a call to missions. When this happens it can be difficult to help them explore what it means to be this kind of Missionary and decide if that is truly the best role for them.

And sometimes you have a student that has known for a long time that they have been called to be a Missionary in the most traditional sense of the title. However, despite their distinct and clear calling they still have a lot of unanswered questions and concerns about entering the mission field after college.

In both circumstances a great website for you and your student to visit is AskaMissionary.com. This website has collected 400 answers to the most varied questions about missionary service from an array of experienced missionaries.

Features of the Site

400 answers about missions service categorized by:

Sophisticated Search Engine

Instead of looking through the categorized answers for the one that matches your student’s question, you can simply either enter the question in the search engine box, or filter the answers by the criteria that are most pertinent to your student’s question (i.e. agency, training, single adults, etc)

Ask New Questions

In the cases where your student has a question that has not been addressed satisfactorily or even at all, there is an option at the bottom of every search results page to “Ask a new question.” This feature allows the student submit their new question and await the response of an experienced missionary.

Warnings

1. This website makes it very clear that their answers only pertain to questions about missions one year or longer. If your student has questions about short-term missions this website is not created for them. There may, however, be some helpful advice that they can glean for their short-term missions if you read between the lines.

2. The answers provided on this website are from experienced missionaries, but these people are mostly answering from their personal experiences. With that in mind, answers must be understood as true for that missionary in their circumstance, not for everyone in all circumstances. As your student’s leader, you can help them know when an answer is lacking and needs to be supplemented with more information.

Some of the Best Answers for Students

Question: What if I am years away from finishing my education? When should I start to look at agencies?

Answer: Go on mission trips with an agency now…Check out their websites to see where they are serving and in what sort of ministries they’re involved. Try a short-term mission trip with your agency of choice to see how it would be to work with them. Also, if you can attend an orientation session prior to graduation you may be able to start support raising at graduation.

Question: What type of Biblical education requirements are there for a missionary?

Answer: It depends on your role…Whatever you do, some language and cultural training will be vital. Someone could be a pilot, a car mechanic, a linguist, or an accountant involved in mission work overseas…Others directly involved in church planting, discipleship or Bible translation would certainly require more in depth biblical education.

Question: What if a parent opposes me becoming a missionary?

Answer: Be patient and prepare…Pray for God to change your parent’s hearts, pray for God to guide you and to make your calling sure, pray for God to bring people into your parent’s lives who would positively influence them towards missions…