My missionary training continued as I learned to teach.  My theory is that if you can teach the youngest students, you can teach anyone, anywhere, and in any language.  I watched and learned from skilled teachers and applied their best attributes.  I discovered the art of improvising --so very vital on the mission field-- by creating visual aides from items in my dorm room.  Future missionaries must learn to truly be teachers, not just mechanical transmitters of facts; real teaching creates appetite.


Ministering in a rescue mission prepared me for my future ministry.  Expecting nothing in return, I learned to love people where they were.  I volunteered at the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago where I saw compassion personified by those who, like Jesus, fed the hungry in body and soul.


Having a concern for the lost around me, prepared me to love those on the other side of the globe.  When I became concerned for my lost neighbor, God increased my burden to my neighborhood.  My burden now includes the world.  By my obedience, God enlarged my vision along with my responsibility.  Learning to win souls, distributing tracts and being involved in street evangelism, taught me to pray for boldness and the filling of the Holy Spirit, as well as being able to defend essential Bible doctrines.  Later, I would learn that though methods may vary, mission work must include some form of the above.


As my mission’s giving increased so did an interest in world missions.  I enrolled in mission related classes and read about the lives of great missionaries.  I studied geography, world religions, and missionary methods.  I took advantage of every opportunity to spend time with missionaries and surrounded myself with those also burdened to reach the world.


Halfway through Bible college, I was hooked.  God placed in my life a veteran missionary couple that had served in Africa and the Middle East for many years.  Dr. and Mrs. Maurice Paulson mentored me in the practical realm of missions as well as in the classroom.  I include details of their influence in the steps that prepared me for the mission field because there can be no substitute for spiritual apprenticeship.  I will forever be indebted to the example of these missionary heroes.


Dr. Paulson started a missionary club that met every other Friday.  It was a serious time of prayer for a certain missionary family, country, or people group.  On the other Fridays, we went to the Pacific Garden Mission where we sang, worked at the altars, and helped to serve a meal following the service.


Dr. Paulson loved missionaries.  I volunteered a few hours a week for him in his office and would often come in to find him weeping over a prayer letter.  Mission students and missionaries were not among the popular group.  However, this unsung hero received visiting missionaries as if they were royalty.  He sat with them in chapel, ate lunch with them, and talked to them sincerely about their ministries, hardships, and difficulties.  He encouraged his students to be around them and often planned question and answer times with the missionary and his family.


Further training for my future as a missionary came by the Paulsons’ example of hospitality.  Often overlooked in preparation for the mission field, many missionary ladies are not ready for and become overwhelmed by this very real part of missionary life.  The Paulsons’ lifestyle of frugality and practice of faith promise giving was a personal challenge to my own giving.  Dr. Paulson had aluminum can receptacles put around the campus to be redeemed for missions.  He and his wife were often seen scouring ditches along the road for cans.


If you believe that God is calling you to a life of missionary service, or you simply wish to take that next step of obedience, there are many ministry opportunities to take you to a new level.  Become absorbed in a missionary cause.  Research and adopt a people group.  Befriend a missionary family on or off the field.  However, be careful using the term “adopt” a missionary.  The missionary takes this seriously (We have been adopted by well-meaning people in churches who did not know our first names or our country of service, much less my birthday or my favorite color.).  Be a financial blessing to a missionary.  Consider purchasing their home school curricula, a set of tires for the land rover or replacement rings for the pressure cooker.  This is the real life of the missionary.  This is where he lives.  He does not need your sympathy, but a shoulder; she does not need more potholders, but some words of encouragement would be nice (I was given oodles of potholders.  In one country of service, I didn’t even have an oven!).  Missionaries appreciate phone calls.  Purchase some phone cards and save them for holidays or include an international calling plan in your phone contract.


There are many opportunities in your church to become more involved in missions.  Offer to help with the needs of the mission conference.  Be available to teach a missionary story regularly in a Sunday school department.  Start a children’s mission club.  Be available to minister to missionaries when they are off the field.  Missionaries often need temporary housing or a car.  Minister to older missionary kids who have returned to the home church.  Build relationships with them.  They are most likely experiencing reverse culture shock and would just like to go “home” for Christmas.


Research and discover the different language and ethnic groups within a fifty-mile radius of your church.  See if they have a gospel witness.  Start a prayer group for missions and missionaries:  Dr Charles Keen once said, “Prayer does not change God, it changes us.”


In looking back at my own non-classroom “field” preparation, I see that though my opportunities were not knowingly sought, they were obediently followed.  These were most definitely the steppingstones that have led me to the “great waters” and “to see His wonders in the deep.”