Frontiers team leaders and members face enormous stress on the field. In addition to the strain of leaving friends and family, they endure culture shock and daily difficulties in figuring out life in a new country.
The Barnabas Team—Frontiers’ team of pastoral and family coaches—helps over 600 field workers thrive emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Amy, one of our dedicated coaches, shares what it’s like to serve Frontiers teams, helping them flourish as they share the Gospel in difficult places.
What is field worker care?
Amy: Field worker care is a lot like deep-sea diving. That’s how it’s described in a really great book called Tender Care. Picture a diver connected to a tender—a person on the boat who keeps watch over the safety line that supplies the diver’s air and communications. As the diver goes into deep waters, he or she can hear the tender’s voice, asking “How are you doing?” The tender monitors the diver’s breathing and vital signs and keeps an eye out for dangers. The tender can even pull the diver up if needed.
This is what field workers need, too—to be tethered to a safe person who asks, “How are you doing? What’s been difficult? How are you connecting with God? How are your kids adjusting?” Or “How are you doing with singleness?” That lifeline helps them stay healthy and steer clear of potential dangers.
Frontiers’ research shows that 70% of early field departures are due to preventable reasons. A pastoral coach can help field workers address problems that, if left unchecked, might bring them off the field prematurely.
What’s your greatest challenge in caring for workers?
Amy: As a pastoral coach to field workers, I hear about the hard things they experience. At the end of a recent week-long conference for Frontiers workers, I felt burdened by the hard stories shared with me. I walked into the last worship session asking God, Is all this pain worth it? And I just sat down and wept.
Then we started singing a song called “Worthy of It All.” Workers serving in countries all over the world sang with gusto around me. They’d all faced really hard things on the field—things I can’t imagine going through. And yet they could still declare, “God, You’re the only one worthy of it all!”
It can be hard to understand why a person would leave everything behind for Christ. But Frontiers workers find their joy in Him. The sacrifices may be painful, but they hold on to the vision God gave them, believing they’ll see Him work in amazing ways.
Who’s qualified to care for field workers?
Amy: Everyone! Start by reading and praying through their newsletters. Then send them a message, even if it’s a simple one-line email that says, “I just prayed for you.” These small things mean so much. Workers have left everything familiar, and they want to stay connected. You can be that lifeline that helps them stay on the field and bear eternal fruit.
Read Amy’s story on the blog—and how God led her and her husband to leave a high-paying career to do the most important thing to help workers stay on the field.
Original article: https://www.frontiersusa.org/blog/keeping-watch-interview
