Most missionaries get extensive training before beginning cross-cultural ministry. They read missionary reports and biographies. They may take short-term mission trips or vision trips. They often attend Bible college or language school or other similar programs. They know many things as a result of all the training and preparations. And such knowledge is valuable (Proverbs 8:10). But sometimes a dissonance remains between what we know and what we expect.

We know that building cross-cultural relationships is challenging, but we may expect to develop deep relationships quickly.

We know that learning a new language takes time, but we may expect to have deep spiritual conversations with people our first term.

We know that living in a less-developed country is difficult, but we may expect the joys to outweigh the difficulties.

In other words, we know that missionaries experience suffering and trials, but we may still expect to thrive — to be happy and successful and doing well (according to our own definitions of those words). That was certainly the case for us and for many missionaries we know.

Unmet Expectations

In the Western world, we expect to thrive. Comfort, circumstantial happiness, and success are assumed to be worthy goals and may even be viewed as rights. When we are not thriving, we often believe something is amiss or that we are failing in some way. Missionaries, and Christians in general, can fall into the same ways of thinking. We may even believe that it is God’s will for us to thrive in these ways.

But is such an expectation biblical? From a certain angle, we might describe the Christian life as a thriving life — but the kind of thriving Scripture speaks of differs greatly from our typical definition. On page after page, the New Testament teaches us to expect something different.

Paul writes, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3–4). Jesus warns his disciples, “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21:17–19). James tells us to “count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2–3). And Peter says that to endure suffering for doing good “is a gracious thing in the sight of God” (1 Peter 2:19–20).

We may know we will experience suffering and trials. But what do we expect in the midst of them? And more importantly, what does God expect of us?

Note the twin threads of endurance and joy woven through the above passages. Scripture treats endurance as a bridge between suffering and joy, as a God-appointed means by which suffering is transformed, by our gracious Father, into hope and life. Or to put it another way, true thriving happens most often through patient endurance of suffering, not careful avoidance of suffering.

Four Strategies for Endurance

Especially in a cross-cultural setting, where trials take on new dimensions and missionaries can easily question God’s call, we need to learn the discipline of joyful endurance. Here are four of the strategies our family has learned to cultivate joyful and patient endurance for the sake of the gospel.

1. Encourage your heart through God’s word.

God carefully designed his word to encourage and give us hope. Paul links endurance with such Bible-based encouragement in Romans 15:4: “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

God designed our bodies to require daily sustenance, and he designed our souls to require the same. If you desire spiritual health, if you want to endure with joy, then stand fast in your commitment to feast on God’s word. Resist giving up if you don’t find sweet sustenance immediately. Press on. Keep reading. Keep eating. Day in and day out. Trust that God is feeding your soul as you read his word (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4).

“True thriving happens most often through patient endurance of suffering, not careful avoidance of suffering.”

Daily meditation on God’s word has been an ongoing source of strength and renewal in our own missionary service. But sometimes special feast days are necessary. When we feel most apathetic, most discouraged, and most like giving up in our ministry, we have found it helpful to take a spiritual retreat. Taking time away from the press and the pressure of ministry — whether in a hotel, a friend’s guest room, a campground — with our Bibles and notebooks has been a key component to our ongoing endurance on the field.

Make these scheduled times to feast on God’s word a regular practice. Treat them as critical elements of your work, remembering that you cannot live on bread alone.

2. Engage with God’s church.

Being a cross-cultural missionary can get lonely — especially if you labor in a context without a Bible-believing church. But even if there are few (or no) believers where you live and work, you are still part of God’s global church. Ask your sending church to pray for you and to encourage you through God’s word. Engage with your friends and prayer partners honestly and openly. Share your struggles and your doubts and your worries.

Before we left for the field, our sending church wisely required us to gather a small group to act as our primary prayer and care partners. For years, these faithful friends have met together monthly to pray with and for us. We are completely transparent with them; they share in our trials and our triumphs, our sorrows and our successes. Their endurance alongside us in prayer has served as sweet fuel for our own endurance. We would encourage all cross-cultural missionaries to build a team like this.

Remember also that you are not suffering alone. While your particular circumstances are unique, your sufferings as a missionary are not — this is no strange thing happening to you (1 Peter 4:12; 5:9). Take comfort from the fact that you are enduring the same sufferings other missionaries — past and present — have also experienced.

Sometimes we need a tangible reminder of this truth. After a particularly challenging term on the field, our family attended a weeklong debrief in our home country. Having the chance to share and hear stories with fellow missionaries was incredibly encouraging. We met people from widely different contexts and ministries, but we connected on a deep level almost immediately. We understood each other; we “got it” in a way that no one else could.

Such deep connections with fellow missionaries served to point us to the deep connection we have with Jesus himself — we experience sweet fellowship with him not in spite of our sufferings, but because of them (2 Corinthians 1:5; Philippians 3:10). This debrief was perhaps the main reason we returned to the field able to endure with joy once more.

Consider attending a debrief workshop, especially if you are in a particularly difficult season of suffering, to process some of your losses and sufferings in fellowship with other missionaries who “get it.” It may be just what you need to revive your journey of joyful endurance.

3. Examine the lives of steadfast saints.

Studying the lives of steadfast saints can help us to persevere in our calling. As we examine their endurance and how they put their faith and knowledge into practice, we can be both inspired and equipped to endure with joy.

Paul says that Timothy followed and studied his teaching, his conduct, his aim in life, his faith, his patience, his love, his steadfastness, and his persecutions and sufferings (2 Timothy 3:10–11). Timothy was wise to do so, for Paul’s example would keep him from error and help him to continue in what he had learned (2 Timothy 3:14).

Many missionaries — such as Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, John Paton, and William Carey — have endured in ministry despite incredible trials and challenges. Carey specifically described himself as a “plodder” and ascribed whatever success he may have achieved to this ability to plod and to endure (Memoir of William Carey, 623). As you examine the lives of steadfast saints and missionaries, you too will be encouraged to endure, to plod on in your calling.

4. Embrace the goal of endurance.

The author of Hebrews writes, “[We] have need of endurance, so that when [we] have done the will of God [we] may receive what is promised” (Hebrews 10:36). Embracing endurance as a God-given goal will help us endure. We do not have to escape a challenge or a trial immediately. God may be using it not to redirect our path but to build our character and to reveal his character.

Before God called us to cross-cultural missions, I spent a decade working as an engineer. Success was defined by producing products and improving processes — tangible and visible results that took at most two or three years to achieve. Unfortunately, these cultural definitions of success do not transfer well to cross-cultural ministry. We may spend decades faithfully planting seeds but see little fruit from them. It took years for me to adjust my definition of success and to embrace the God-given goal of endurance. But when I did, God graciously gave me a deep sense of peace and a joyful, settled conviction to continue in our challenging ministry for as long as he calls us.

God leads us through trials because he aims for our joy — a joy far better and deeper than the superficial “thriving” we may have once expected. May these strategies for perseverance serve, by the grace of God, to strengthen you “with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy” (Colossians 1:11).