These past weeks have seen a number of tentmakers returning to their overseas jobs and mission. They’ve been waiting for months for the permission to return and also to receive permission from their home country officials to leave.
One family who returned to South Asia reported how complicated the travel process was with multiple tests, screenings, interviews, medical checkups, evaluations at multiple airports along the way and of course the joy of returning to the place they had to suddenly flee from.
Of course this is good news but much caution must be exercised as the dangers of this pandemic are real and can be life altering.
In our ongoing research of returned tentmakers for the past 20 years, we have seen definite trends in what makes for fruitful ministry in the hard places. At the same time recognizing that there are no templates that work for everyone, as we have also seen tremendous spiritual breakthroughs through people who were ill prepared to go. God is bigger than man’s best laid out plans. This does not mean that people should deliberately leave unprepared.
I recently visited with a Christian couple who went to Central Asia on a teaching contract for two years. Even though we had urged them to attend some kind of specific tentmaker training before going, they had chosen not to. Even while they were already abroad, they declined our free scholarship offer to attend one of our GO Equipped courses not too far from where they were living which also coincided with their holidays.
In listening to their story, it was full of exciting events and on the whole it had been a very positive experience for the family. They had attended the international church (locals were not allowed) where they had made many friendships that resulted in visiting each other’s homes and being a part of festivities. They had traveled in the region and made many friends among local people and with their students. They enjoyed eating out in restaurants and were well known in their community.
GO Discover – is a group mentoring program for people wanting to investigate tentmaking. The program lasts for six months with monthly meetings from 1.5 to 2 hours
GO Equipped – tentmaking course which includes all the components of the classroom courses.
GO Ahead – a mentoring program for graduates of the GO Equipped Course
GO Together – a member care program for those who are ready to go or have already gone abroad.
The stories from returned tentmakers due to the pandemic are heartbreaking. It seems almost all of them have now returned home to an uncertain future.
Here are some of their comments.
“It took us years to prepare to go and we had just settled in and started our work when we had to leave in a hurry. What was it all for?”
“We were seeing our friends and coworkers showing interest in our faith for the first time since arriving and then we had to leave! What will happen to those people that did not get a chance to learn more or even to read a bible?”
