Missions Baskets & More

My church just celebrated its 25th annual missions conference. It was an incredible time! We took on four new missionaries, ordained a man from our church who will be leaving in a few weeks with his family for the mission field, and had three returning missionary families. They will be scattered throughout the entire globe - Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and the remote Pacific islands. Some of them I know personally and some of them I met for the first time, but by the end of the conference they all felt like family.

In effort to honor missionaries, I mentioned a few weeks ago about missions store or closet. This idea certainly does not work for everyone. There is the whole concept of stocking it and storing it, not to mention maintaining it. Something that might be a little more a feasible for your ministry is something as simple as a missions basket or missions gift bag.

Instead of having a "store" where the missionary or their family get to go in and select all of the items that they want, you could instead put together a collection of similar items into a basket or a gift bag (or one of those fun reusable shopping bags with your church logo imprinted on it). This might help you control the value of the gifts that your missionaries receive - if you are on a strict budget. Or it will make sure that your missionaries receive a fair amount of product or gift.

It might even be fun if you had individual families sign up to put together the baskets. (Less work for you!)

Other ways to get additional families involved would be:

1. Allow families to host the missionaries in their homes overnight. It will save you money on hotels and will be a life-changing experience and wonderful memory for your church family. Be sure to carefully select the families that you allow to host missionaries though. You want this to be a good experience for the missionary and a good representation of your church.
2. Have families sign up to provide a meal for the missionaries in their home, at a restaurant, or on the church property. 
3. Let people volunteer to provide services for the missionaries, such as car washing or mechanic tuneups, computer repair, hair cuts & styles (if professionals), manicures & pedicures, babysitting so that mom & dad missionary can go on a date, etc. 

God didn't call me to the mission field, but I have always been completely willing to go. I love missionaries and want to do everything in my power to help them understand how much I love and appreciate all that they do. I may never be able to visit that missionary on the field, but I want them to know that they always have a home at my church.