I knew I was in trouble when I began to feel resistance to stepping into the classroom I once dearly loved. For nearly 15 years, I had lived and served in the field, pouring myself into building a school from the ground up. I loved the work. But over time, cross-cultural shock, loneliness, and exhaustion began to take a toll on my husband and me.
Burnout among missionaries is rarely spoken about in our Indian context. Missionaries are either seen as super-humans or looked down on as losers, or both, by their families, friends, and church communities. These perceptions create an unspoken pressure on the missionaries to perform and to present their best selves every time they visit home. So a vacation, meant to replenish and rejuvenate, becomes emotionally taxing.
The children of missionaries are the hidden ones who suffer equally, if not more. They neither belong to their parents’ hometown nor to the mission field where they created their growing-up memories. Language and cultural barriers cause the sting of unbelongingness to go even deeper for the children. This raises important questions.
The primary responsibility for the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of the missionaries lies with the missionaries themselves. As missionaries, we take on a lot. We talk much about burning out for the Lord and pay the price with our health and well-being. The Lord’s invitation for us is to live from a place of deep rest and communion with the Father instead of burning oneself out. The Triune God loves us deeply. We are His beloved children. He cares for our whole being–body, mind, and soul.
During my season of exhaustion, I encountered the word “soul care,” and it resonated deeply. As I explored what it means to care for my soul, I found helpful suggestions. Here are a few:
Along with the missionaries themselves, the church community, families, and friends of the missionaries are responsible for their care and well-being.
The community back home needs to accept that the missionaries’ calling is much more difficult and demanding. Though the missionaries love what they are called for and love doing what they are doing, the everyday spiritual warfare they face is different from regular jobs. So the first step in caring for missionaries is not to trivialise their work by saying that every follower of Christ is a missionary in whatever field they are in.
It is true that every follower of Christ is a disciple and is called to fulfill their unique purpose in their generation, but a missionary goes above and beyond in leaving their comfort zone. Another aspect of mission work is that missionaries and their families are on the field 24/7. The mission field is their home. Therefore, a need for increased space and time outside the field for rejuvenation.
One could consider creative options to offer loving care, but here are a few practical ideas the communities can begin with:
Looking back, I see how self-awareness—paying attention to my resistance—was the beginning of my healing journey. When we don’t pay heed to our body’s cry for help from tiredness and exhaustion, we are turning a deaf ear to a God-given way of knowing his will. Left unaddressed, burnout can cause long-term harm to our families and us.
My husband left his career as a software programmer in 2003 to serve among a tribal community in Odisha. I joined him in 2005 after our marriage. That same year, a church in Mumbai began supporting the work. By 2021, in the aftermath of COVID, we consulted a member-care counselor who assessed us with severe burnout. With her wise counsel, we stepped into a year-long sabbatical.
We thought this was a time to replenish ourselves and return to serve longer. But the Triune God, who loves us and our children more than our work, was inviting us into a different pathway. In 2022, a few months into the sabbatical, God led us to hand over the school—the teachers, our students, and the tribal community we had lovingly served—to a capable team of local teachers who had journeyed with us over the years.
What followed was not an ending, but an invitation into recuperation, restoration, wholeness, and a new season.
The Lover of our souls was inviting us to partner with Him in the next phase of our life from a place of deep rest, wellness and wholeness.
Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash
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