What Missionaries Say in Their Prayer Letters

by Donald R. Richards

A few of my students worked through 24 missionary prayer letters. We were searching for attitudes of all kinds that might show up in such letters. Our research was limited to one letter per missionary.

A few of my students worked through 24 missionary prayer letters. We were searching for attitudes of all kinds that might show up in such letters. Our research was limited to one letter per missionary.

Since these letters had a primary goal of stimulating prayer, this topic constituted an area of major research. In most of the letters, prayer requests were very few and occupied only a small amount of space, usually in the final paragraph. Some concluded simply with, "Pray for us." These writers put great confidence in the imaginative qualities of their readers! Only one missionary correlated previous prayer requests with answered prayer.

This slim emphasis on prayer was not reflective of the true convictions of these missionaries. Yet their letters both belie their convictions and discourage their supporters.

In the matter of ministry, one-third of the missionaries attributed the success of their activities to the Lord’s working. There would appear to be a relationship between little emphasis on prayer and the recognition of the Lord’s hand in their ministry and its achievement.

None of the letters reflected negativism on the part of the missionaries. In fact, they were so positive that one received the impression that they were not realistic in presenting themselves or their work. Of the 24, ten expressed some excitement with what the Lord was doing, seven spoke of joy and, surprisingly, eight of them came out with, "Praise the Lord!"

Seven missionaries mentioned the national church and seven mentioned nationals by name. Great joy was expressed in these local Christians and the reproduction of disciples with almost total absence of any problems. This, too, was unrealistic. This lack of realism must be balanced with the danger of items getting back to authorities on the field.

Fourteen persons spoke of plans and aspirations, yet they did not relate these plans to any specific goals foundational to their ministry. In fact, not one letter-writer spoke of goals.

Seven spoke of finance, usually in the form of thanking their supporters. Only two asked readers to pray specifically for money-in both cases this was the only specific request that was made. It is interesting to note that in none of the letters was the mission board mentioned.

None of the letters communicated personal information on the missionary’s relationship with the Lord. Only one-third of them included a verse of Scripture. Just one missionary spoke of spiritual growth: "I was definitely built up in the faith through the summer’s spiritual activities."

It should be obvious, but it bears repeating, that letters should not consist simply of unrelated or unexplained statistics. Letters should include solid content of a realistic sort. Problems should be clearly described, and how prayer is needed. Prayer requests should be correlated to the answers in ensuing letters. Readers want a follow-through to what they have been remembering in prayer. Part of the blessing of reading a missionary prayer letter is to find out how God has been revealing his ways. Therefore, a missionary should share some of his growing pains. This can challenge the faith and yieldedness of his readers and is part of their return on invested time in prayer for that missionary.

The missionary’s family is important, but realistic exposure is needed. To spend an entire letter on baby’s first tooth is to insult your supporters! Yet the prayer warriors do want to remember those problems concerning the teenagers, or educational obstacles, trying prejudices, and frustrating living conditions. Goals should be periodically reviewed for the readers and a serious evaluation revealed.

The poor quality of most of the letters we examined indicates that some missionaries do not communicate effectively either their needs or their ministries to the folks at home. The effectiveness of a missionary’s work is related to the effectiveness of his prayer support, which is related to the quality of his prayer letter.

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