How much will it cost? What about our home? How will the kids cope? These are just some of the questions that families ask when applying to serve overseas with AIM. However, Peter Root reminds us that God is in control.

Frequent questions
When a person senses that God is calling them to leave their job, home, family, church and friends to engage in cross-cultural mission overseas one of the frequently asked questions is, “How much will it cost?” Very often the question is couched in financial terms, and the answer depends on circumstances, but what are the costs in non-financial terms?

In times of recession, and cut-backs, people need to think about whether leaving secure employment means, if the need to return arises, that there’ll not necessarily be the opportunity to regain employment in the same field.
What should we do with our home? This is not an issue for folks who are not on the housing ladder, but for those who are, do they sell? Do they let it out and hope for good tenants? Will the mortgage company permit this?

It is often a real growing experience for candidates to see God provide for their every need in remarkable ways…

What preparation and additional training is required? How can I fit that in with everything else I need to be doing? How long will it take?

How will my children cope with moving across continents to a new culture? What educational resources will be available for them? Who will teach them? Will they be able to fit back into mainstream European education again in the future? Will they be able to qualify for ‘home student’ status when applying for a university place? What will happen if they or I get seriously sick?

All these questions are valid, and there are a whole host of others too that our Area Directors and Mobilisers, together with the Personnel Department, help answer. There are some questions that we cannot answer and try to find someone who can. But many of the questions we can answer as we go through our orientation programme and link parents up with our TCK Ministries Director to arrange education plans and source materials; we organise health screening and arrange travel and medical insurance etc., all to alleviate concerns in these areas.

More than financial costs

There are costs to serving overseas which are more than financial; they are emotional, physical and spiritual, and it is one of our roles to seek to answer these questions and be available to the enquirer and their sending church. Jesus said, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men”. No doubt the disciples too had questions, but they seemed to not verbally express them, finding it sufficient to follow Jesus and trust him alone. It is often a real growing experience for candidates to see God provide for their every need in remarkable ways, and a challenge too for us as we journey with them.

Peter Root

Peter is AIM Europe’s Personnel Director. He and his family served in Mozambique for 13 years before moving back to the UK.