by Jinnie Parsons

Cynthia Heald defines service in a thought-provoking way. She says that service is not our opportunity to show others how much we love Christ; but rather, service is our opportunity to show Christ how much we love Him. This thought is worthy of sharing with our ladies as we serve together in the local church.

Many churches have missionary closets as a service to visiting missionaries. Some of the biggest challenges coordinators of missionary closets face are missionaries who don’t want to appear selfish and church members who view the closet as a way to get rid of used but “good” items. We have come across a great idea from a church in South Carolina that we wanted to share with you that addresses these areas well. I know of a couple churches that use this method of organizing and operating the closet. Here are some of their tips and procedures.

1. Be sure to have a name for the closet besides missionary closet. Be creative. Get your ladies involved in naming the closet.
   Name ideas for a missionary closet: Hospitality Shoppe, Paraklesis Pantry, and the Caring Closet.
2. Stock only new items in the closet to avoid standardizing an evaluation system for when a used item is still nice enough. The principle is “give your best, not your leftovers.”
3. Assign each item in your closet a value using a point system. For instance, if an item costs $5 in the store, it would be worth 5 points in the closet.
4. When a missionary visits, let the missionary know how many points he/she can “spend” in the closet. By giving an expectation, the missionary does not wonder if he/she is taking too much or not enough. A good base amount is 25 points. (You can add 10 if your church supports the missionary family, 10 more if they are on a foreign field, 10 more if they have 1-3 children, 10 more if they have more than three.)
5. Set up a team of ladies to oversee the missionary efforts. One of these ladies can be assigned to oversee the shop, keep it neat, and let you know when items are needed. That lady can also be responsible to meet any visiting missionaries and set up a time to take them through the shop (before or after a service, or a different time that would work for both). With the help of your pastor, decide if you want to open the closet to just supporting missionaries or any visiting missionaries. Another lady can oversee getting church members to purchase items for the closet. You can break down the sections of the closet for ladies to oversee and handle stocking. Be sure to rotate your ladies so everyone who wants to get involved can get involved.
6. More Tips and Ideas…avoid clothing items except for infant clothes…sheets and towels tend to be popular items that missionaries need…stock children’s items such as coloring books, school supplies, and good novels…household items such as toiletries, kitchen tools, small appliances, small tools for men, and cleaners are also helpful…music for all ages is a great addition…snack type of foods that don’t spoil but are handy for traveling are also helpful for missionaries.

How do you get ladies and church members involved in stocking a missionary closet? Set up a table in the back of the church and have envelopes placed on the table with either dollar amounts or names of items that need to be purchased for the closet. Be sure to also have a “drop off” place clearly designated. One church called it their Hospitality Shoppe area. Members would then drop off money envelopes or items they purchased in the designated areas. Many churches will actually have the table and/or envelopes set up year round, and others do it quarterly. Much depends on how often missionaries visit and how often the closet needs re-stocking.

Keep in mind that the closet doesn’t have to stay put! There are ways that you can bring the closet to the missionaries on the field! Here are some ideas:

1. Announce to your church families that you will be hosting a baby shower, wedding shower, or house warming party for a missionary family. Oftentimes you can combine this with one of your ladies’ meetings. Package up the gifts and send them to the family. Have a money tree set up for shipping costs.
2. Minister to college students—those who are from your church but leave to attend college and those who attend your church from local colleges—by putting together care packages or what one church calls their “study survival kits.”
3. Have an “adopt a missionary family” program that lasts for a year or 6 months. Families in the church can adopt one of the missionary families and then write letters of encouragement, send birthday packages, and pray regularly for them. This idea can easily get children involved in ministering to missionary children.
4. Send pastors on the mission field free subscriptions to pastoral magazines, or send a book or a commentary each quarter encouraging the pastors to keep reading and to keep in the Word.
5. Send packages to the military men and women with extra Bibles and goodies that will assist them in sharing the Gospel.
6. Coordinate with the pastor when missionaries will be in town and arrange activities or fellowships that would allow the ladies in your church to get to know the missionary wives. One church calls this fellowship their “Koffee Klatch.”

How do you get ladies involved in missions? Here is a list of “jobs” that one church uses in order to get many ladies involved—activity coordinator, speaker coordinator, secretary to keep minutes and maintain financial records or collect money, prayer coordinator to summarize missionary’s weekly prayer requests, refreshment coordinator, decorating coordinator, gift coordinator, missionary closet coordinator, correspondence coordinator who organizes birthday and anniversary cards as well as keeping the missionary display updated, publicity coordinator who organizes announcements that need to be made for church as well as any flyers that need to go in bulletin, and a memories coordinator who takes pictures and keeps correspondence filed in their proper places.

How do you get church members involved in ministering to missionaries? Talk about missionaries as if they are fellow church members and organize events in such a way that church members can personalize their giving.