Honouring and Supporting Single Mission Workers

Single mission workers are a key part of God’s Kingdom work. Even though they play such a crucial role in fulfilling the Great Commission, they can often be a demographic that is overlooked. With that in mind, here are some practical things to consider when caring for singles in missions.

Listen to Their Story

Single mission workers will face unique challenges on the field; namely the reality that, depending on their team context, they will likely have to adjust to the field without the benefit of a partner to help them process. For example, a single will probably attend language school alone without someone to come home and practice with or to speak in their native tongue to offer some respite. The transition is a heavy season for anyone to bear and isolation can quickly double that weight.

The most practical advice we can give you in term of caring for your single mission worker is to make yourself available as a listening ear and a safe place to process the field. Like any relationship, it may take time to develop the trust for them to share openly, but this is the most crucial investment you can make in your single mission worker.  

As an aside, some mission workers feel a pressure to only report good news back to their supporters because they don’t want to disappoint their support base or compromise their financial support. An easy way to combat this insecurity is to be clear with your mission worker before and on the field that you are partnered not based on performance but as long-term investors in God’s Kingdom work. Reassuring them that they won’t lose your financial support because of their honesty will go a long way in building mutual trust.

Just as not all marriages look the same, no two individuals will have an identical experience in their singleness. Your mission worker may delight in their gift of singleness and the many opportunities that open as a result. On the flip side, they may struggle with the reality of their singleness and feel quite isolated on the field.  

This is why we encourage you to get to know your single mission worker. They may fall anywhere on the spectrum from enjoying to resenting their singleness at any given point. One month or year can look different from the next: in the same way that marriages deepen and grow, a single mission worker's relation to their own singleness changes and matures over time. 

Just like we need to realize that all single mission workers have unique experiences and needs associated with their singleness, we also need to recognize that singleness is not static. Rather than assuming what your mission worker told you the last time they were home is still how they are feeling, or, really, making any assumptions at all, allow them to share with you. Listen without recommendations, solutions, or matchmaking. Just be present with them.

The Body of Christ is a vital part of the Christian walk because the church is the spiritual family for not only the single mission worker, but for every believer. Since single workers do not have a family of their own and the support that comes with it, the spiritual family becomes that much more important. There is something much more powerful in the unity found in Christ than even in blood relations.  

Along with that, singles need community beyond only singles. While it certainly is special to fellowship with other people who have a similar life experience, the Body of Christ is made up of every generation, nationality, and familial status. Each part of the Body is meant to encourage and build up the others, so don’t hesitate to invite your singles into small groups with young families, older couples, and everyone in between.

For any mission worker, home visits include organizing many details, such as arranging travel, lodging, and rental cars just to name a few. Making these arrangements is certainly more complex when accounting for a family unit with multiple adults and children than it is for one person, so we understand the instinct to assist workers in that situation. We also encourage you to let that instinct prompt you to offer the same support to your single mission workers. Yes, there is only one of them to provide for, but there is also no one else to split the decision-making load with.

One advantage to being married is the ability to play off of each others’ strengths in different aspects of life. One person might manage the household while the other takes care of taxes, visas, among other responsibilities. For singles, they don’t have the option to split the load. Not only that, they also need to learn to balance all these details in a language, context, and system that is foreign to them. They might be used to doing all of these things by themselves, but it doesn’t mean that it’s an easy thing to do. You probably can’t help them in the day-to-day while they are in their ministry context, but can help make their visits home as seamless as possible to intentionally refresh them.

There are a number of challenges that single workers face on the mission field. We invite you to consider how you can best offer your support to the single workers in your church.  

This article was adapted from the Global Missions Podcast episode 157: Honoring and Supporting Single Missionaries with Barry Danylak. If you’re interested in learning more about ways to care for single workers, we invite you to check out the full conversation. Some other helpful resources on the topic are the books Redeeming Singleness by Barry Danylak or Sacred Siblings by Sue Eenigenburg.