What books or resources do you recommend for interns before they head to the field?
I recently had a great conversation with a missionary who shared some of his top picks—and they’re worth checking out!
What’s on your go-to list? Drop a comment and let’s share ideas!
- Mary Slessor: Forward into Calabar – https://a.co/d/68KrmJH
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by Mark Comer – https://a.co/d/2XwZ9zq
- On Mission by Patrick Knaak – https://a.co/d/1xPZYcY
- Contagious Disciple Making by David Watson – https://a.co/d/1XOFXcX
I THINK GOD WANTS ME TO BE A MISSIONARY is an easy-read story of four young people who make that statement to their missions pastor. Through the seven chapter story line, 34 issues that these interns should consider are addressed. The solutions worked out will give them a good “heads-up” to issues they will probably face. Available at https://eri.org/eri-resources/english-resources/publications/i-think-god-wants-me-to-be-a-missionary. ~~~NEAL
Foreign to Familiar by Sarah Lanier is an excellent introduction to broad cultural differences using a hot-cold metaphor.
Also, Crucial Conversations by Joseph Grenny, et al. Although not written from a Christian perspective, it’s an excellent guide on how to have difficult conversations in any kind of relationship, but especially within a team.
New cross-cultural workers are often unprepared for keeping themselves connected to God without the spiritual infrastructure they are used to. We use “Journey With Me: Spiritual Formation for Global Workers” by Herbert F. Lamp with our interns at Studio to help them grow in their identity in Christ and stay spiritually resilient on the field.
Didasko Missions Academy courses are high quality video-based online courses that are available for free. All courses are taught by experienced missionaries. The “Discovering Missions” series is especially useful, consisting of “The Bible and Missions”, “Missions 101” and “My role in missions”. Missions 101 covers the challenges they will face on the field and ways these can be overcome. There are more advanced courses too, such as “Cross-cultural communications”, “Fruitful Practices”, etc. https://www.dasko.org