GARY SHARES: Things your missionary might not tell you
It’s early Sunday morning. We pull into your church’s parking lot and start unloading our literature and signs. People come forward to greet us, giving us the rundown on how and when we’ll be participating in today’s service. It’s always a great time, finally catching up with all of you while we are on “furlough.”
Years ago, we were home from Costa Rica when it occurred to me to jot down a few observations before they slipped my mind. The result? A piece titled “14 Things Your Missionaries Might Not Tell You!” Looking back, those points strike me as valid still, so I’ve reworked some of the highlights for you today. Enjoy!
Living in the “In-Between”
When we’re visiting your church, we haven’t actually “come home.” We live elsewhere, and are just temporarily passing through the place where we once lived. This is especially true for missionary kids; for them, “home” is far from here. That’s why some missionaries use the term “my passport country” rather than “my home country.”
Speaking of the kids: if you happen to offer them some small treat while we’re visiting your church, even the simplest gesture, your thoughtfulness will be remembered for years to come. Do keep in mind, though: you might recognize them, but to them, you may look like semi-strangers.
The Reality of the Mission
Missionaries believe in missions. So, you might suppose that since we have already “given all,” we have already checked off that box. In reality, the missionaries I’ve asked tell me that they support other missionaries as part of their monthly contributions to God’s work. It even happens that missionaries send in monthly support for missionaries on the very same field!
When we chat after the service, here is a bit of “inside info” on what we might want to tell you:
Language is our toolbox
And working in a new language is really, really hard. You might have picked up some Spanish in high school—enough to ask, Por favor, ¿dónde está el baño?—but could you explain in Spanish and Greek what I’m teaching my Greek 3 students this week? Okay, let’s examine the “Genitive of Relationship.” It is a special application of the possessive genitive found perhaps a dozen times in the New Testament. The word for the relative is omitted; the sentence retains its article, and that missing word must be inferred. Example: Εὗρον Δαυὶδ τὸν τοῦ Ἰεσσαί (Acts 13:22)—”I have found David the ___ of Jesse…”
Gary teaches internationally, in front of the digital beach!
Learning a new language is a lifelong, tiring process; you cannot just “pick it up as you go along.” There is a common myth that adults learn languages as easily as children—but science tells us otherwise. Being able to absorb a new language is “hardwired” into the brains of the young, until maybe the age of 7. For the rest of us, it takes years of discipline to reach fluency. And fluency is what we need! As I tell new missionaries: “What do you call a missionary who skimped on language study? A former missionary!”
Ask good questions
One of the best visits we ever had included “an interview with our missionaries”: the pastor sat us on the platform and asked us some well-informed, thoughtful questions, some of which it would not have occurred to us to bring up!
The “Entrepreneurial” Temptation
Please, don’t try to convert us to Multi-level Marketing (MLM). Assume we have already heard recruitment stories about how God led a missionary recruit away from “old-fashioned” fundraising. By faith the man stood outside of a factory gate and within an hour raised 100% of his support by recruiting people to Amway.
A Changing Home Landscape
Backstory: whenever we returned to the States, we see things in part as “outsiders.” And so people asked us if “things had changed” since we were last here. “Yes”, but not in the way they were asking. My impression is that it is the church has shifted just as noticeably as the world: defining evangelical identity defensively against current social trends; giving certain church issues a higher priority than where they previously stood (the appropriateness of women in church leadership, for example). And the world we came home to is one where clergy abuse is hardly a “Catholic” problem: every day an evangelical leader, especially one who is “too big to fail”, is caught in sin and cover-up.
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I figured you would enjoy a look at what “furlough in the States” is like. Karen and I value our partnership with you, and I hope this helps us stay connected in the work we are doing together. We look forward to our next visit!
PRAYER, Please!
* PRAY for Gary as he continues through the Old Testament, giving the finishing touches to the Symbolic Universal Notation. (SUN) Bible for the deaf and deaf-and-blind non-reader. He is about 60% through and would like to finish in 2026.
* PRAY for Karen as she teaches a new course at ESEPA, her first one on their college level.
* TAKE a look at all Gary’s books, CLICK HERE.
He is up to around 15 (if you count 4 languages, has another coming out later this year, and a part of a new commentary coming out in September). In particular, Iceberg Ahead fits well with this month’s newsletter.
* PRAY for Karen. In April she had a successful knee replacement and is recovering very well.
Blessings! Gary and Karen
Karen Shogren
Gary Shogren
Shogrens in Costa Rica 