I have just returned back from the Mission field, and have been asked to speak to a group of people who are considering going.
I am going to be speaking on things I would have liked to have been told before I went. I would like to keep it nice and light and practical, but also not just based on my own experiences.
I am looking at covering everything from forms I should have filled in before I went (which became a nightmare to do from overseas) to managing to source Salad Cream :)
I'd be grateful of any assistance, stories or ideas you can provide.
Thank you
Tim Cobham
Replies
Hi Tim
As missionaries out in Macedonia there are several things we wish short term mission teams had talked to us about before coming out. Contact with the missionaries who are out there already is so useful, I can't stress enough! It's so easy with skype or facebook nowadays in most places. We're really pushing for this because it's so frustrating when people come out here and say "I wish I'd known..." Here it's useful to learn to read cyrillic script before coming so they can at least read a few of the choruses we sing. We usually ask people if they have space to bring a few good, used children's clothes as that's a huge need. Knowing specific needs is so helpful. And of course bring as much Tetleys or PG tips as possible!
Hi - I'm a mum with two small children. Not sure if this is the sort of thing you wanting but hope it helps:
A very practical thing I wish I'd been reminded to think about and plan for: keeping up to date with immunisations. Certainly where we are in Uganda, it's been really hard to get the right jabs at the right time. Having abit more detailed advice would have been really helpful.
The other thing was about doing the old tax return - what a nightmare! We had to do lots of registering online, getting passwords and everything. If you want to do tax forms online, definately set everything up before you leave. You also have to purchase some software (about £25) to actually be able to fill the form online - again good to check out before you leave.
A useful book for cooking - More with Less (very helpful for those in developing countries). Oh and bring a pressure cooker (good for cooking tough meat!).
Finally a bit of a plug but I wrote 'Steps on the Missionary Road', for first time missionaries. They're aimed at giving some spiritual support - something I wish I'd had a bit more of.
Do hope your talks go well - God bless, Claudia
practical things... take more copies of your birth certificate than you can possibly imagine ever needing, also take your marriage certificate, your academic qualifications, and your police check (and if you haven't had one then it might be worth getting one done through your mission organisation before you leave, as they are a nightmare to organise if you're not currently residing at a UK address... we're lucky we had a tame contact in the police)... depends how long you're going for of course; a six week trip and you might not need any of the above, but as soon as you get into applying for any sort of residence then you probably will.
We deeply wish we had known the implications for couples at different stages in language learning (or for couples who learn languages at different rates, which probably applies to quite a lot of people even if both parties were originally starting from zero.) When one of the pair is (or becomes) better than the other, then, like water, it takes the easiest course... everything gets directed at the stronger communicator, who then gets plenty of chance to practise in a million contexts, while the other is left out, doesn't get as much chance to practise, becomes socially more isolated, and also becomes reliant on the stronger communicator. This means that what is already a disparity becomes ever wider, and causes a lot of frustration to all concerned. Eventually we figured out what was going on, and made some simple decisions, like dividing tasks up so that the person who was struggling had more chance to practise without the other one being on-hand to bail them out. We also deliberately went in two different directions at the end of church so that folk were persuaded to interact with both of us, albeit seperately. When we have since shared this scenario with folk, we get a lot of empathy from others who went through similar experiences, which is partly why it amazes us that no-one ever thought to say anything before (or even during!) the process.
The real costs aren't the ones you can measure... talk to local people here and they will mostly wax lyrical about how we have "given up our first world comforts" to go to Latin America. They don't realise that we used to live on a dodgy housing estate in Hatfield(!) The real costs are about family... kids growing up nine-thousand miles from their grandparents; about professional status... my seven years studying in the UK is worth absolutely nothing here so although I'm legally entitled to work, my options are limited to unskilled jobs such as cleaning; about relationships... people put us on a pedestal as "spiritual gurus" and it is pretty rare to find people who are interested in changing that image and getting to know how we really tick... life can be a pretty lonely place at times, you have to find your own ways of support and survival. That probably sounds pretty negative... I'm having a tough week!