An Interview with Missionary Kent Morton

Greetings and welcome to the Faith Chapel Podcast. My name is Jason and I am

the pastor of Faith Chapel.

In this episode, we will be hearing an interview of Kent Morton,

who spent more than a decade as a missionary in the European country of Albania.

He and his wife Angie have since taken up a position stateside as missionaries

who are equipping and sending other missionaries, as well as taking care of

missionaries who are still out on the mission field.

He is a missionary of the organization European Christian Mission.

He begins by telling the story of how he and his family came to be missionaries

in Albania for more than a decade. Thanks for joining us today.

It's great to be able to share a bit about that and that story and how that

came to pass and hopefully be an inspiration to others that may be considering a similar path.

For my wife and I, we sense kind of an unusual focus on a particular area.

That region was Eastern Europe. And so we were looking at two places, primarily.

One was potentially Hungary. The other one was potentially Albania.

We had the opportunity to go on a short-term missions trip to Albania and really

fell in love with the people that we met and saw a great need for more to be done.

And so that's kind of what started that process that we're really interested

in just following up with that interest and that focus.

The more we investigated and prayed about it, the stronger that sense of,

yeah, this is the right thing to do in our hearts.

I mean, that peace about going and working and serving there was there. It was present.

We took that to mean God's call in our lives to uproot from here and to move

to Albania and begin our ministry process there.

Were there any practical things that you did outside of the spiritual,

discerning what God wanted you to do to get you ready to be a missionary.

Part of that was going through a licensing process with our denomination.

And so being credentialed as ministers, we also went through an application

process with mission and pre-field training.

There's a place out in Colorado called Mission Training International.

And they do a wonderful job of training people, not in learning a specific language,

but how to learn another language.

And so they gave us a whole toolbox full of different tools and things that

we could use linguistically to acquire a target language.

And then also resources and helps on adapting culturally. So some common things

to avoid and things to learn about another culture of where you will be going.

And so that was a great sort of preparation step in that whole process.

It took a long time, from my recollection, for you to really feel like you have

mastered the Albanian language That was a whole process on the ground that you still had to go through.

Yeah, of course. And you're phrasing it as mastering Albanian language.

That's probably pretty generous. So thanks for that. But it's a process for sure.

Different people that were serving in Albania had the different abilities and

were learning, you know, at different paces. One thing that I learned early

on is to avoid the comparison trap of comparing my language abilities with somebody else.

Whether for better or for worse, it's never a good result when that comparison was happening.

For both Angie and I, it took probably two to two and a half years before we

felt that our language proficiency was at a point where we could sit in a discussion

and converse about a variety of topics, and the topics would change,

and we could follow along with those changes from topic to topic,

and being able to understand and comprehend what was being said,

then also to talk and to share some own thoughts.

Comprehension is one thing but being able to express yourself is is another

and so be able to to be able to do both of those to carry on a conversation

on a variety of topics yeah for us it took again two to two and a half years of language study.

In that process, with your goal of being there as a Christian missionary,

did you feel like it was hard to get on the learning cap to learn the language

rather than being in a mode where your goal is to make disciples of Jesus?

Or were they kind of coinciding together?

There's a great thought that in the process of learning language,

that language learning is ministry. So in a sense that as you're practicing

what you're learning and you're talking with others, you're also building a relationship.

You're getting to know the other person. The other person is getting to know you.

And so they're already starting to get to know your personality,

what makes you tick as a person, as an individual, your values,

what's important to you, how you operate as a family, how you show love together,

how you support others, your thoughts on God.

Great many different types of conversations that can happen even while somebody's

learning another language.

And so in that sense, language learning can be ministry. And then as your language

and vocabulary further develops and grows and expands,

then you can start having those deeper conversations about God,

about Jesus, and how salvation works.

You had a family that was there as well.

When you look back and think about being a missionary family,

what are some of the benefits of that? And what are some of the challenges?

Yeah, that's definitely true. There were benefits and challenges to being there as a family.

One of the benefits of being there as a family is that, you know,

our kids were natural inroads, You know, as we were walking down the street

and other kids were going to come up and interact with our kids or other people

would interact with our kids.

We could also just show, just by way of example, how we would interact with

our children and how that happens from a Christian worldview and the Christian faith.

The conversations that we had

with our kids, what we allowed them to do versus not allowing them to do.

The kind of ways that we would discipline our kids, you know,

when they acted up. That was a really great thing.

And of course, great to be able to raise our kids in a different culture,

exposed to a different worldview and different way of living.

And I think that's been a real plus for them.

Challenges for sure. It took a certain amount of energy and attention to make

sure that the kids were up and dressed and at school starting their normal activity

of things and kind of keeping track of where they are,

making sure that they have everything that they need to grow and develop and thrive.

Extra attention, just like any family anywhere would have, you know,

a certain amount of energy and attention to focus on their kids to make sure

that they're placed in the best possible position for growth in all areas of their lives as well.

In Albania, what were your specific duties?

So we were there for the majority of our time. We were focused on helping a

church plant that was there.

That was from about 2014 until 2023 in the capital. We were involved in a church plant.

Before that time, we were about three years in a coastal city called Duras.

And I was preparing to be involved at a local Bible institute.

But during my time there, as I was progressing and learning language and culture

and kind of felt more uneasy about my involvement in that, I thought maybe God

was calling me something else in Albania.

God, you know, redirects. And I would say probably the majority of people that

go to a country end up doing something other than what they thought when they

initially went to that country.

So for the majority of our time involved in a church plant in the capital called Tirana. Yeah.

Wonderful people in that church doing wonderful things, you know, for the kingdom.

And it was really a privilege to be able to be a part of that.

What were some of the discipleship things that you were able to accomplish over in Albania?

I would say there were a lot of one-on-one conversations or small groups of

people getting together was instrumental in encouraging others in the faith,

having those faith-focused conversations.

You know, not every time you go out for coffee with someone is it strictly,

you know, let's talk about Jesus, Jesus, you know, your faith.

But that's certainly got to be a part of those conversations,

their relationship with God and their relationship with others.

What we try to do is, you know, to the very best of our abilities is live out

our faith in ways that others could see,

you know, not hide it in any way and encourage others to do that,

encourage others to live according to the ways that Scripture tells us,

inviting others to church services and evangelistic meetings that we had for

like Easter and Christmas.

You know, for example, those were big times where a lot more people would come

to church, create opportunities to have conversations.

Some of those contacts and conversations entered up, you know,

God using those and producing fruits and people, you know, stuck around.

Other times, you know, there wasn't necessarily an interest to continue on in

church attendance or having those kind of conversations.

We really just try to do our best to live out our faith and to help others do the same.

There are times where you have to dig into the Word and see what the Word, you know, says.

Allow God's Word to speak to our hearts.

Formal studies, going through a book together, or certainly preaching,

you know, from the pulpit and attending Bible studies, you know, with the church.

All those different ways, those avenues of, you know, typical church,

of not only evangelism, but also discipleship, where you're encouraging others

to grow in their faith and to consider the truths of the gospel.

And so all of the different, you know, sorts of ministries, you know,

those were all centered around the word,

digging in, understanding on a deeper and deeper level what the Bible says about

a variety of topics and helping to align our lives to coincide with what the Bible teaches.

If we could do that, then we have spiritual growth and sanctification, holiness.

And so, and I think those things glorify God and I think he'll use those.

You mentioned a little bit earlier that when you were inviting people to Easter

or Christmas services or to have coffee, sometimes they would not want to continue.

Obviously, that's a threat to anyone who's going out there and trying to proclaim

the gospel, that people are going to say, no, that's not for me.

How do you handle those sort of interactions?

I think continue to have a relationship, a friendship with that person.

Continue to show love and kindness towards them. Over time, they may change

their mind or they may not.

It's not us that changes people's hearts.

It's only God through the power of the Holy Spirit. All we can do is pray for

people and pray for those interactions, that they'll be drawn to the gospel

and being willing to listen to the gospel and what that means for their lives.

And hope that, you know, there's a deep-rooted faith that comes out of that.

Outside of that reaction, how was the response in Albania?

One thing that we always did in terms of the lead pastor, his name is Fabi Ivani,

wonderful pastor, wonderful friend.

He and the rest of the elders, which I was one of them, we would have different

facets of ministry within the church.

Part of that was preaching kind of on a rotation.

Fabi preached most of the time, but men's ministries, women's ministries, a couple's ministry.

And we had a family camp in the summer every year and different times of maybe

going and playing volleyball and inviting people to those kinds of events.

Wonderful times of continuing to build those bridges and those contacts of friends,

neighbors, co-workers, you know, whoever.

And as we you know shared some of that stuck

and was attractive to to some people other times

it was people coming for just for the social aspect didn't maybe didn't have

an interest in the the spiritual stuff but you know again we you know continue

being there being a friend continuing on saying hi to that person when you see

them you know in the streets let god do what he does best in terms of working on people's hearts.

So you mentioned volleyball. Is that kind of the national sport over there?

Or is that just something that you were good at and invited people to?

Well, I wouldn't say I was particularly good at it.

It's a nice sport for both men and women to partake in.

Soccer is definitely the number one sport, as it is in most countries.

But Europe, for sure, soccer is number one. I'm not particularly good at soccer.

Usually it was the men playing soccer together, but the times that we went to

the volleyball courts, that was

something that both men and women could partake in, and that was great.

And usually, you know, there's some snacks involved, some drinks and chips or

cookies or something, you know, as well. Or we just have a picnic in the park.

That would be another opportunity to invite people, you know, as well.

So just to be a part of our lives and

to share life together and have the

spiritual conversations from time to time and see what

happens as a result of those There came a time where you felt that God was moving

you in a different direction from being at that church plant Can you describe

how that came about with discerning God was leading you away from Albania?

You know, this goes back to what we were sensing when we were feeling called

to Albania in the sense that we had a peace in our hearts and in our spirits

about, yeah, this is the right thing to do for us.

And we have a peace about that. And that peace that we had stayed with us the

entire time that we were there until a little bit before the end where we started sensing that,

no, that peace that was there in the beginning.

And was there with us the entire time was not there any longer.

Where that sense of, yeah, for us to be here is the right thing to do,

that sense just wasn't there any longer.

And so through some prayer and the process of discernment and talking with some

other people, we came to the conclusion that, yeah, God had lifted our call

to be in Albania and that it would be time for us to return back to the States.

And so that was 2023.

Obviously, with what you've described as to what you were doing over there,

there were a lot of close ties and connections.

What was that closeness like and how hard was it to say goodbye to the friends

that you had had since 2014? Oh, wow.

The closeness of those relationships was really amazing.

Albanians do a wonderful job of going deep in friendships and relationships,

a real sense of brotherhood and unity, which is great.

And wonderful times of getting together, not only those times that were ministry-focused,

but also just together because maybe it was a holiday and, you know,

we did something together or we just got together for a meal or got together

for a coffee and just sharing life together.

And both saw, you know, the positives, but also just the challenges and sharing those with each other.

So it was a real blessing to be able to experience that.

So as you can imagine, and, you know, the strong ties and friendships when it

came time to part ways and say goodbye. Yeah, it was hard.

There were a lot of tears shed in those moments. Yeah, it's...

Sweet memories and grateful that, you know, to this day, so close friends,

dear, meaningful friendships with that group.

So definitely a blessing and grateful for it.

How would you advise people to put God first and be obedient to him no matter

what your heart desires?

Oh, yeah, I think that's being willing to give up your own ambitions and desires

and wants in order to follow God's leading in your life.

And, you know, for people that are feeling led by God to move or relocate,

the most God-honorating thing that we can do is to follow that leading wherever it is.

That may be hard. It was hard leaving because, you know, we were leaving people

behind and it was hard for other people.

We know that. It was hard for everybody. and following God's leading,

starting, you know, to figure out how to live in a new culture,

the new language, you know, and you start developing relationships.

And then the time came to step away from that because of God's leading,

again, wanting to honor God and follow where he was leading.

But again, there's that separation and saying goodbye and sense of loss.

Which, you know, leads to grieving.

Again, you know, affected not only us, but the church,

pastor and his wife and family and the other elders

with our teammates that were there that we were serving

you know alongside with in our mission all those very difficult

to part ways and say goodbye we were you know just trying to do do our best

follow god's leading and that's where he was leading being in albania for a

time for a season and then returning each one of those times involves goodbyes

and that's not always a pleasant pleasant part of you know guys leading is saying those goodbyes.

But we do have ways, thankfully, with modern technology, easy ways to stay in

touch, stay in communication with different people.

And that's been a big blessing. That's been a big help as well.

Your role technically as a missionary has not ended. So can you talk about what you're doing now?

We're missionaries. We're on financial

support through financial gifts of friends and family and others.

Our role with the mission, European Christian mission, has not ended, but it has changed.

Before, we were focused on just serving in Albania. And now we serve in the

mission across 25 different countries across Europe.

As we were praying about this next season of ministry and what that looked like,

there was a phrase that kept resurfacing, more long-term kingdom workers establishing

churches across Europe.

To date, the evangelical church in Europe is about 2%, and that's not good enough.

We need more long-term workers.

And so out of this idea of more long-term kingdom workers doing activities to

build the kingdom in Europe, that falls into two categories,

one of which is called mobilization.

Part of that's recruiting, getting new missionaries from here to there and to sign up.

So that means setting up a display table at church, you know,

events or conferences or local Christian universities.

Angie and I offer mentoring and missions for anybody that wants mentoring.

So also, mobilization has a broader connotation to it, and that's more of an

all-hands-on-deck mentality, is that every believer finding their role in the Great Commission.

In that sense, we're helping to mobilize everyone, every believer, to find their role.

And so, kind of like in World War II, where the whole nation was mobilized in

some aspect to help further along the efforts for the war.

There were victory gardens, people growing produce to ease the demand on food.

There were scrap metal drives.

There were women going to work in the factories because the men were enlisted for the war.

And so not that everyone was doing the same thing, but people were doing different

things in an effort to support the efforts. And that's what this is.

So on a broader connotation, broader meaning of every believer finding the

their role or roles in the Great Commission. And so that's part of what we do with mobilization.

The other part is that we want not only new people to go and to serve in Europe,

but we want them to be there and to last and to thrive and not be there for

six months or a year and then it gets too hard.

They don't have what they need to thrive and they end up burning out and they

get pulled off the field.

We want them there thriving and being able to have what they need in order to

stay for effective ministry.

That part is called member care.

And so Angie and I are both also serving in the area of member care.

So not only helping to get people from here to there as workers,

but also to help train and lead and empower and resource so that they have everything

that they need in order to have effective ministries and be there long term.

Part of that is leading and having resources available for people and providing member care.

We also are trained debriefers, and so we can offer debriefing for free to our

workers within the mission.

The goal is healthy, thriving workers to have healthy and thriving families

and ministries and teams so that the work can continue and move forward.

Now, that's not always the case.

You know, not everyone is going to be thriving, but that's the goal.

That's what we're working towards, is so that people can have the vibrancy,

the vitality in their ministries, in their lives, so that they can keep moving

forward with the work that God's called them to do.

You mentioned the word debriefing. Could you just describe what that debriefing looks like?

Yeah, debriefing, it can happen on the field, but it can also happen when somebody

has taken a step away from the field.

Maybe they're on home assignments and a home visit for, you know, a few months.

That's a good time to do a debriefing. It can be either one of those.

And it's a reflection and looking back over a set period of time to consider

what happened and how it affected, you know, what you think about that,

what you feel about that,

areas where God was at work, some challenges, you know, that were there,

acknowledging those losses.

Naming them and sitting with them with those times of loss, being able to reflect

on that, to be able to be better positioned for the next chapter or the next phase moving forward.

It can also act as a sort of triage for counseling to bring some of those topics

to the surface that may need to be dealt with by a professional counselor,

which is another really good benefit of debriefing.

We've benefited greatly from various debriefings over the years,

and we encourage our workers to go through a debriefing.

Not just a one-time thing, but for us, we went through a debriefing every time

we came back to the States for a visit.

And those can vary in length, anything from the one to two day debriefing to a week long debriefing.

There are some debriefing programs that are about three weeks long for severe cases, situations.

But, you know, on average, I would say most benefit from anywhere from a couple

days to a week long debriefing program. They can be really helpful.

Debriefing is normally something that happens when somebody returns back to

their country, or it's usually done by somebody outside, either from the mobilization office,

the home sending country office, or somebody that they, you know,

a contact that they would have, and that would be outsourced normally,

and that would be a service that you pay for.

So every time that we did it, I think it was a different context and situation,

like different people would debrief us. It was always somebody outside of the mission.

I don't know that there's been a lot of people within the mission that are trained debriefers.

There are a few, but for us, being able to offer that to our workers for free

at no cost, I think is a real benefit.

I think I ran some numbers one time in that if something like 25% of our workers,

you know, took advantage of us debriefing them,

it would save somewhere around $45,000 in fees that it would cost to be debriefed.

And so that's $45,000 of kingdom funds that can be used for other things.

That's just, you know, it's something that we can offer to other people.

Maybe they would prefer to be debriefed by somebody outside the mission,

and that's totally fine too.

But at least that's something that's, you know, we've gone through the training

to be able to do that and something that we can offer others.

So when you think about what your new role is, what are things that excite you about it?

Wow, so much. To help somebody who is interested in missions,

to help guide them and walk alongside them.

Journey with them as they're exploring their options, as they're leaning into

the possibility of God calling them to somewhere else to be a part of what he's

doing and somewhere else in a different country and to be able to talk with

them, answer their questions,

maybe share with them, when you go through this, these are maybe some expectations

or things that may happen, just so you're aware, just from our experience and

being able to share experientially to somebody who's going through it for the first time.

To be able to help somebody take those steps towards following God, it's tremendous.

So excited to be able to help other people in that process.

And then the other side of that is, once they're there, be walking with them

and helping them, giving them information and resources, providing member care

in ways that would enable them to thrive for effective and long-term ministry.

I think that's a beautiful thing. Thrilled to be able to be in a position where

we can help others get to the mission field in Europe, but then also to be able

to walk with people so that they have what they need for long-term ministry.

Yeah, so praise the Lord for what he's doing and what he will do across Europe

through the mission and through those efforts.

What are the challenging aspects of trying to equip people to do their part

in the Great Commission?

You know, I think for some, unfortunately, I think for some believers,

they kind of take the Great Commission...

And they understand it as the great suggestion. You know, it's really a commandment.

And for all believers to be involved in kingdom activities on some level,

either locally, regionally, or internationally.

You know, I think of Acts 1-8 and that model of there was, you know,

locally in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, the other parts of the earth.

And knowing that Jesus will be with us in this work and to hold on to it and

to find their role, whatever that may be.

I have a sermon that talks about believers' roles in the Great Commission and

encouraging everyone to be part of that effort in the Great Commission.

Normally, there's two common roles that people might think of when it comes

to missions, and that's the role of goer and the role of sender.

I was talking to a friend that lives down the road, Dave Jacobs.

He has a list of seven different roles of the Great Commission that people can play a part in that.

And so going and sending is part of that, but so is the role of mobilizer,

the role of teacher, the encourager, and you would fit member care along with

that part of encouragement.

The role of establisher, of establishing a prayer network or missionary support group.

And then finally, the role of welcomer. And that's welcoming the nations as

they come here, whether that be an international student or somebody here on a work visa.

You know, lots of different reasons why somebody might be coming here.

So reaching out to the refugee that has come to us on our doorsteps.

And that's another role that we can play in the Great Commission.

So we encourage people to find their role, find their place,

find something they're passionate about, interested in, and put forth some effort

in being involved in that.

Do you have a story of the Great Commission being lived out?

Well, certainly lots of stories for our time there. I can remember,

you know, a time where there was a group that came from the States to help us

with a summer camp that we were helping to organize as a church.

It was a family camp. And so all the church was there, all the kids were there,

and the people that were coming to

be a part of that short-term team were families with their kids as well.

For people to be willing to give up their vacation time and to raise funds so

that they could travel and come and be with us in this camp and building relationships.

I think in that camp we were teaching English and we were using Bible stories as part of that.

Then we were sharing, you know, our lives and sharing testimonies.

So just a wonderful time of being together. Lovely time of people being willing

to give up their vacation time, again, to come and serve for the purpose of

helping a church plant in Albania.

That was one example of a time where I saw people living out the Great Commission.

That was a real blessing and it was a great camp.

Can you talk a little bit about European Christian Mission?

Yeah, as the name would suggest, European Christian Mission, we only work in Europe.

We've been around since 1904, so quite a long time.

It really is an international mission in the sense that we have different sending

offices in different countries around the world.

There's eight or nine different sending offices. So New Zealand and Australia,

Brazil, America, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, the UK.

There are others that are all mobilizing and they're all recruiting for the

purposes of sending people to Europe to join the work.

The majority of what we do is church work, so church planting,

church development. There are some other things that we do as well that are

kingdom-oriented, but a major thrust, a major focus of what we do is church work, church planting.

For us, Angie and myself, we firmly

believe that the best hope for a local community is the local church.

It's culturally appropriate in the way that it does ministry.

It's reaching out to its own people and sustainable in that way as well.

So the church is a major focus of what we do, but it really is an international mission.

I had some meetings both earlier today and yesterday with different people with

different nationalities coming together to discuss different things.

Our team in Albania was international.

Such a rich experience to experience life with different cultures interacting.

And when we got together for a meal and everyone brought something, man, did we eat well.

Wonderful times of richness, and I think that reflects what heaven is going

to be like with all the nations standing around the throne.

Do you have any idea of the number of missionaries you have in the church planting

world in Europe? For us, we have about 250 on the ground in Europe.

I know that this past spring, we had a mission-wide conference.

We had a little over 500 in attendance in that conference.

And so that would have included the mobilization offices from the different

countries, board members, and friends of the mission as well.

But in terms of workers on the ground, about 250. In all the countries.

Is the goal to have the same type of discipleship?

Or do you think different strategies are useful in different cultures?

I think that different cultures would find their own best way forward in terms

of reaching out to their friends, neighbors, and contacts in terms of reaching them with the gospel.

Ministry could look different in those different ministry contexts,

all contextualized for culturally appropriate ways of reaching out and doing ministry.

But the end goal is the same. So to reach out to non-believers,

share the gospel, and for those that profess faith in Christ for their salvation,

start a process of walking with them in that new faith,

discipling them into mature believers, helping them integrate and get plugged

into a local church. The end goal is the same.

We want to see people connected with God and worshiping and mature believers.

So that's going to look different, but the end goal is the same.

For people in the United States and they want to support missionaries overseas,

what would be some things that you would suggest we could do to support the

Great Commission and those who God is calling overseas?

So many different ways and possibilities.

You know, one area is if a missionary family has children, so missionary kids,

you can find lists of good questions for MKs, because not every question asked

to an MK is one that is super comfortable for them.

Like, for example, I would not ask a missionary kid, where do you like it better, here or there?

Or saying something like, welcome home, welcome.

Because now where is home for them? That may cause a little bit of uneasiness

for that child, for that teenager.

On that same topic of missionary kids and teens, one thing that would be,

I think, a great benefit and blessing is somebody to take the effort to gather

some financial donations specifically for missionary kids.

There are workshops and coaching sessions that can be purchased specifically

for missionary kids and third culture kids.

That are very specific topics by experts. Some of those might be $25 to $50

for specific workshops.

Coaching sessions might be in the range of $400 to maybe $650.

So that would take place over the course of several months, but something like

that would be a great benefit. Care packages are always a blessing.

There were times that we received care packages in the mail filled with treats

that we couldn't maybe get, but things that just really satisfied our American

palates, things that just reminded us of home.

Handwritten letters are always great. Emails are great as well,

but handwritten letters are super.

It communicates to the missionary that we were worth the time to sit down with

pen and paper and to hand write out something.

We were worth the cost of a stamp and worth the effort of going down to the

mailbox or down to the post office.

So handwritten letters are extra special. Of course, if somebody has the interest

and availability and the means, an on-field visit is always greatly encouraging.

We were always really encouraged and uplifted when we were able to host visitors

that were able to come and be with us for a little bit.

Another avenue would be in the area of soul care or spiritual nourishment.

Forwarding a podcast or a sermon, putting a book in the mail that's new and

come out is not available everywhere yet.

So those would be great ways to speak into the spiritual lives of the missionary.

When the missionary is coming back to their passport country for home assignment,

a lot of times that means a lot of logistical details, especially when there's

a move involved, a big move.

And so helping with logistics, furniture, gathering, personal belongings,

and moving those from one place to another, that's a huge blessing and a practical

way to support the missionary.

I would say another way is not only supporting the missionary,

but also being an advocate for them to be able to share with others about the

work that a missionary is doing.

Missionaries only have a certain level of their contacts before they reach everyone that they know.

One way to explain on that is for the supporters of that person to reach out

to their contacts, to help get the word out about the ministry that's taking place and happening.

And maybe they can together work on either a fundraiser if funds are low,

or introduce that person to the missionary.

That would be a great way to support the missionaries by being an advocate for them.

During somebody's transition time to a new culture and a new country,

the culture shock curve starts off really high, and that's called the honeymoon phase.

And then after a few months, what normally happens is that curve drops and it

goes way down below what's a normal range of what feels comfortable.

During that downswing, there's a higher need for those supporter touch points,

for those member care touch points.

Consider it as an inverse correlation where culture shock is now in the down curve,

but the need for that care and those extra touch points are higher during that

time until things start to equalize later on.

And different people experience culture shock sometimes in different ways.

Sometimes it is a different amount of time overall.

In almost all cases, that curve is going to look the same.

Pay special attention to the new missionary somewhere around six months and

probably for the next year,

at least, until they start to come out of the downswing of culture shock when

they can normalize things in their new location.

Those are some really great practical ways that people can support missionaries

that are serving in other countries.

When you mention mission kids, the programs that get offered to them,

are they when they are back on home assignment or is they're available to them

even on the field? There are some of both.

We have resources as part of our member care efforts that are specifically for

our kids and our mission.

And teenagers, we have camp. If it's not every year, it's every other year specifically for them.

For American missionaries, when they come back, there are lots of resources available.

Other programs, training opportunities that are part of a debriefing program.

There's also for when older MKs, so in their teenage years, if they're transitioning

out of high school, maybe they're coming back to the States for college or university.

And there's transition camps that can help with that.

And then the different coaching programs available to walk with somebody as

they continue to figure out how to live for them in a new country.

A lot of universities have a chapter of MOOCAPA for missionary kids and third-cultural kids.

So as they're coming back to the States, those communities built around the

idea of different people from different places coming together and sharing their

experiences, sharing some food and finding some community.

So there's definitely ways to engage with MKs and TCKs that are available.

And then another thing that you mentioned that I just was thinking about is

the care packages that you mentioned.

Are there things that you know of that don't travel well, like potato chips

get crunched or things that just don't travel well?

And when you talked about writing a letter to them, would you include those

in the care packages or are those okay to mail just as individual letters?

Let's start with the letters first. Both ways are fine. I would say it's a little

extra special if it comes separate apart from the care package because it kind

of goes back to the extra step of not just, you know, throwing it in the box

with a bunch of other things.

Certainly that's fine. But to get a letter out of the blue that you weren't

expecting, you know, just by itself, those spoke to my heart.

The intention behind those and the time that it took to handwrite those with

the care packages. Yeah, certainly chips don't travel the best.

Packages sometimes get tossed around in transit.

Fragile things, not the best things. You know, for us in the early years,

it was hard to get peanut butter. Peanut butter cups were always a great treat.

Cadbury eggs, if it's around Easter time. Little, you know, special notebooks are great as well.

Special pens and things. Lots of different things that could be in there.

There was one particular care package that we got, and in there was a stack of cards.

These cards, there's about 38 of them or so, and they were written by different people in a church.

There's scripture, there's little notes of encouragement, there's prayers on them.

Sometimes little kids just drew a few pictures. Even though these cards are small,

about the size of a normal deck of cards, These notes I've had for about a decade

because it reminds me that people were for us and somebody took the time to

organize these cards and to have other people fill them out,

collect them back and include this in that care package.

You know, when times got rough and discouraging, I would pull these cards out and read through them.

I've had them, it's been about 10 years and still benefiting from reading those to this day.

It seems to me that one of the biggest needs missionaries have is they need to be remembered,

seen, be acknowledged that people are still thinking and praying about them.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, very much so. To know that there's people that are back home holding the

rope that are there for you, that are with you, that are partnering with you,

helping in any way they can.

It's kind of like when William Carey went to the mission field in India,

his missionary support group, he said, I'm willing to go if you will hold that rope.

And as he was walking away, he turned around and he said, don't you dare let

go of that rope. It's a great reminder that it's a team effort.

It really is. You know, it's really important for everyone to not only tell

the missionary that they're loved and supported, but also show them.

Do some of these tangible things from time to time. Get a hold of them over

WhatsApp. You know, get on a video call with them at FaceTime. Touch base with them.

Send them a letter. You know, it doesn't have to be big, expensive things.

But knowing that there's people that are for you and they're wanting to help

and be a part of it is immensely powerful.

Anything that you would want to encourage someone who is feeling a nudge from

God? Like, what are some of the steps that they could take?

If somebody's feeling led or interested in missions and thinking,

yeah, maybe this is, you know, something that, you know, God is calling me to.

A couple of things that I think somebody could do to follow up with that sort of feeling or sense.

Obviously, prayer is very important, utmost importance.

Keeping a journal, journaling your thoughts in there, sort of a prayer diary

of your prayers and how God answers those prayers.

Talking with other missionaries to get their firsthand experience.

Talking with elders and with their pastor about it as well.

So the counsel of others to see if that call is affirmed. go on a short-term trip.

If there's a specific place or region that somebody is thinking about.

You consider a short-term trip going there, maybe seven to 10 days to kind of

get a feel and a sense of what that's like.

And then reflect on that experience during your time there, but also then for

a short time afterwards when you've returned, what did that do? Did it strengthen?

Did it resurface those thoughts of being called somewhere?

Was that a great experience in that now you're more focused on what's going

on, that sense of calling isn't really as strong as it was before.

So I think those are some steps that I would take if somebody came to me and

said, Ken, I'm interested in missions.

What can I do to help discern this call and if it's of God or not?

If someone would be interested in getting a hold of you, what would be the best way?

Is it email or is there a website that you would direct them to?

How would you encourage people to keep up to date on what you're doing? I would love that.

To get to know more about our mission, they can go to www.ecmi-usa.org,

and that'll go to our website and you can learn more about us as a mission.

To contact me directly, my email address is kent.morton at ecmi.org.

So k-e-n-t dot m-o-r-t-o-n at ecmi.org.

I would love to touch base with people and help them in any way that I could.

Thank you again for joining us in this podcast where we heard Kent Morton speak

on a variety of topics, including his work in Albania, his role now in recruiting

and taking care of missionaries,

as well as ways we who are in the United States can help take care of missionaries who are overseas.

For more information about Faith Chapel and its ministries, please visit gofaithchapel.org.

Next week, we will start a six-part series on Scripture. We will start with

an overview of the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. Have a great week.