The tentmaker in the Central Asian nation was shocked when he received the email from the senior pastor in his home church. “To Our Missionary Heroes” was the headline of the email. The same greeting was also used in the subject field.

The email was sent to all the missionaries that the church was in contact with and the pastor wanted to encourage these front soldiers in God’s army. Most of them were working in areas where they could openly share the Gospel. But this tentmaker was not. Although he immediately deleted the email, he knew that it could cause harm to the ministry he had been doing for several years.

Emails and other data communication have become major sources that can harm a growing work in a sensitive area. The people who want to stay in touch with us are not trained in thinking about security. Even the people who are working in such areas are often not aware of the security issues that can harm their work.

Global Opportunities and Tent have together with current tentmakers developed some security guidelines for people working in areas where the Christian church is persecuted.  Here are some of the advices we give regarding emails:

– Remember that unencrypted emails are like postcards – everyone can read them.
  Thus we should never write things that can harm our work.

– Avoid writing about politics and religion.

– Avoid giving details about names and places.

– Make code signals you can use if there is a crisis.

– Give security guidelines to those who are going to write to you. 

– If you work in a very sensitive area, someone in your home country should scan
  through your emails and delete sensitive words before the emails are forwarded
  to you.

– Emails from people working in sensitive areas should never be forwarded without
  asking the sender.

– Never display emails from sensitive areas in public meeting places. 

Email correspondence is only one aspect you need to think through if you want to work in a sensitive area. How to plant churches in hostile environments, what to do with Bibles and other literature and how to inform your supporters back home are some other central areas of work that you will have to plan carefully.