Missionaries are among the heroes of our day. It is our responsibility to love them, pray for them, and care for them as much as we can. I personally love the idea of treating the missionaries like royalty or celebrities. They are the heroes and we should make it clear that we really feel that way about them!
How can we be a blessing to the missionaries, especially as they travel on the road for deputation or furlough?
The Missions Closet
A fun way to be a blessing to the missionaries is to set up a little closet or place for them to "go shopping" for supplies that they need on the road. Now let me stress a few things... The missionaries are on the road a lot. So when you are thinking of supplies, consider things that are useful on the road. (I heard of one church that asked for donations for their missions closet and received items such as lamps, large picture frames, and curtains.) Also many times the missionary families are living out of their cars, so you want to provide items that won't take up valuable real estate in the vehicle. A wholesale club-size bottle of body lotion would not be appropriate in most situations.
One church that has a missions closet determines that they are only going to supply things that they can get for free. This is a good idea. Free is always a great price. So they solicit local companies to donate items. The local companies give generously, but the reality is the church ends up with expired products and dollar store cast-offs. Not really a great way to honor our missionaries or make them feel special.
With the idea of "living out of the car," here are some generic items that you can purchase at a range of prices.
- Car maintenance items - window washer fluid, Armor-all, Rainex spray
- Coloring books, crayons, colored pencils, pencil sharpeners (the kind that catches the pencil shavings until you can empty it in a trash can)
- Pens & pencils, various sizes of notepads
- Crossword puzzles, word search, sudoku books
- Fresh set of quality earbuds - You can probably skip the cheap ones that you will often find at the dollar store or the check out aisles. Apple earbuds can be expensive, although they are quality and often preferred. There is an abundance of nice earbuds that range from $7-15.
- $5-10 Itunes or Amazon gift cards for portable devices, so they stock up on some reading material or music
- Pocket hand sanitizers and lotions, Wet Wipes (in the individual packages)
- First aid kits or loose medical items that typically go in them, like bandaids and neosporin
- Diapers and wipes
- Rolls of quarters - I personally have had missionaries request this!! Great for toll booths, car washes, and the laundry mat!
- Selection of snack items, gum, mints, and 6 or 12-packs of water
I would also like to suggest travel size or small toiletries items, but with this note: Toiletry items are personal products. Some people can only use certain brands for health reasons; some people will only use particular brands; and other people don't care at all. The travel size items would be helpful just to hold a family over until they are able to get to the store in a few days. So if you are going to have these items available, make sure they are decent brands and a reasonable size.
Whenever you are choosing items for your own "store," be selective. Choose items that you would want to receive. Remember that these missionaries are special people, and they should be treated as such.
How do you stock your closet if the church budget cannot afford it? Share your vision with the church family, then once a year ask the church family to donate these specific items or designate their offering to the "Missions Closet." For those who are donating items, you could ask them to bring them in those fun reusable shopping bags. Then you could use the bags as shopping bags for the missionaries.
Additional ideas for gift baskets will come in Part 2, coming soon!!
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