Long-term mission, defined as not less than one year, but more often two-to-three years, is a true commitment to the Gospel and a witness to the Christian faith. It requires missioners to fully and actively engage in the lives of the people they go to serve, to immerse themselves in the culture, language, history and current realities of the foreign country. It requires the missioner to enter into a special relationship with the people they serve, one which values and respects their dignity. The relationship recognizes that God was present long before the missioner arrived. Missioners work in humility side by side with the people. They build upon shared faith and experiences, on an exchange of culture and ideas. It is a relationship in which the missioner is transformed by his or her experience and the love and compassion they exchange with the people with whom they work and live.

Long-term mission has taken many forms in the past, primarily proclaiming, evangelizing and witnessing to the reign of God and salvation through Jesus Christ. And while proclaiming and witnessing is still an integral part of mission, today it is performed through the lens of accompaniment. Accompaniment requires dialogue, a spirit of service, a total engagement with the poor and marginalized as they search for liberation – spiritually, economically and politically. It is a mutual search for peace and reconciliation in the context of justice. Long-term missioners become today’s prophets – living with, loving and serving the poor.

A missioner offers his or her skills in a variety of ministries: as an engineer, teacher, builder, farmer, health care worker, administrator, pastoral worker – but the missioner’s gifts are always offered through the praxis of accompaniment – learning together and sharing faith, lives and resources. Mission is intrinsically mutual.

Those who are interested in long-term mission should allow themselves a lengthy period of discernment, talking with their families and friends, co-workers, spiritual directors and parish representatives, asking questions of returned missioners who may live nearby, and contacting organizations who are engaged in long-term mission work. These interactions will help the potential missioner to determine if living mission in another country is what they are being called to do, because there are significant challenges to living in another country for an extended period of time.

Some of these challenges include:

1. learning a new language and the difficulties of communicating and translating
2. making new friends and feeling part of a community
3. being affected by homesickness and the psychological distress of being away from home and family for long periods of time
4. managing one’s medical care and financial needs in a foreign country
5. living in an environment that is often violent and where security is not assured, and most especially
6. sustaining one’s spiritual health and development.

If you are interested in further research and answers to your questions, please call or check out the websites of the following organizations who have a presence in the Archdiocese:

• The Volunteer Missionary Movement
• The Working Boys Center (Quito, Ecuador)

Many other organizations are listed in the following online directories:

• The Catholic Volunteer Network’s Response guide
• The St. Vincent Pallotti Center’s Connections guide.

You can also request a hard copy of these directories from World Mission Ministries by emailing wmo@archmil.org (please include your name and mailing address in the e-mail.)