What do you think?
Rate this book
Before You Go: Wisdom from Ten Men on Serving Internationally
Are you preparing to take the gospel to the nations?
You’ve said “yes” to God’s call to go, and now you will pack up your things and step into the unknown of a new location, people, and culture. The following years will likely include great joy, frustration, homesickness, difficulty, and excitement. In this book, ten men who have served in missions in various ways share what they wish they had known before they began.
This book is a handbook for entering the mission field, including essays Discerning Your Calling Leaving What You Love Identity and Task Integrity and Accountability Serving Well as a Team Prayer and Evangelism Going Single Family & Mission The Fellowship of the Suffering Spiritual Patterns of a Missionary
You’ve said “yes” to God’s call to go, and now you will pack up your things and step into the unknown of a new location, people, and culture. The following years will likely include great joy, frustration, homesickness, difficulty, and excitement. In this book, ten men who have served in missions in various ways share what they wish they had known before they began.
This book is a handbook for entering the mission field, including essays Discerning Your Calling Leaving What You Love Identity and Task Integrity and Accountability Serving Well as a Team Prayer and Evangelism Going Single Family & Mission The Fellowship of the Suffering Spiritual Patterns of a Missionary
187 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 4, 2024
5 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Bennett
120 books7 followersMatthew Bennett (b. 1954) is a historian specialising in Medieval warfare.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 26, 2024
EXCELLENT resource for people considering to go into cross-cultural missionary service. This is a helpful book for those who already have some knowledge on the topic of mission, but this serves as a great companion to some of the other books suggested within it.
March 24, 2025
Fabulous! Every missionary needs to read this book! Below are some very helpful personal takeaways from this good book:
Don’t let your calling be only between you and the Lord; lean into your church to evaluate, commission, and support you.
When you are leaving, think about your children and your spouse. Talk through things, cry, and understand the difficulty of departure.
Laziness, inadequate reports, and poor stewardship are some of the big character reasons missionaries have been dismissed.
If you don’t take care of your heart, you will not stay on the field.
A clear call is one of the greatest reasons to help a missionary stick on the mission field through difficult times.
A lack of integrity and accountability will cause a missionary to return from the field, even when he has clarity of God’s call.
In ministry, where fruit is out of our control, it is possible to blame God and others for a lack of growth when in reality we have settled into mediocrity.
Missionary service is not a solo enterprise. We serve in relationship with our church, mission agency, team, and ministry partners on the field.
Brethren, if we are going to continue to the end, we must cling ourselves to the Holy Spirit and discipline ourselves in purity.
It is said that 10,000 hours of dedication in any will make someone a professional, and yet when it comes to evangelism, people give up way too easily.
Prayer and evangelism are linked tightly together.
Make sure you go overseas to please God, not to please or impress others.
Lead your family with the end in mind – we want to hear God say well done thou good and faithful servant.
Help your spouse to carve out time for abiding in Christ. The mission field life has its challenges, not including ministry, so allow your spouse find the time to spend with Christ.
If you are married, God did not call you to the mission field alone.
Each of your family members are different, and if you are going to love and lead your children, you have to help them find how they fit in where God placed you.
Build your schedule around healthy rhythms. If you do not take time for the important things of life (God, family, rest, free time, etc.), you will not make it long.
If we read biographies, we will see that there’s a direct relationship between the gospel’s advance, and the suffering of those that carry the gospel.
If you are desirous to be a missionary, you must realize there will be suffering. As you prepare or go through suffering, here’s a few tips:
Know your Bible well. If you read and memorize the Bible, you will get to know the Author of the Bible. The sword (Hebrews 4:12) is not the printed Bible rather the memorized Scripture. Nothing will prepare you better for the difficult times like the Word of God etched upon your mind and ready upon your lips.
Read good books. Missionary biographies will help you, encourage you, and prepare you for the times you will face in life and ministry. Missionary biographies have a way of offering hope through suffering. One of the lies of the devil is that you are the only one suffering, but biographies will shatter that lie.
Keep a journal. This is a helpful endeavor to anyone who desires to have a record of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Looking back and seeing God’s hand of how He has sanctified and helped you through each moment.
Be a faithful church member. We are saved individually from sin, but placed into a community that has the same eternal hope, and that community is called the church. A danger of a missionary is to launch out making you think you do not need the church. God‘s church is the epicenter of His work on the Earth. To be lukewarm towards the church hurts a person way more than they know.
Do not believe the lie that missionaries do not need the same disciplines as other Christians. You cannot substitute your work for God for your time alone with God.
Just as a branch is lifeless when cut from the tree, so is the missionary that stops spending time with God.
We can be active in ministry and appear impressive, however, it will have no eternal significance, most likely not last, and we ourselves, depending on ourselves, will become lifeless as the branch cut from the tree.
You must be a disciple in order to produce disciples.
Success in missions is faithfulness to Christ and faithfulness to the task; not numerical results.
You are in for a time of pruning, and you must remember that however the pruning comes, it comes from a good God.
We need Bible input daily to clean our minds and restore our sanity.
There are two types of missionaries: those that are entitled, and those that are thankful. Entitled people are seldomly happy and frequently complain. The solution to entitlement is being thankful.
If you fill your calendar with activities and do not have intimate time with Christ, you will soon become lifeless. Those who prioritize their time with Christ are the ones that last on the mission field, bear fruit, and remain joyful.
Don’t let your calling be only between you and the Lord; lean into your church to evaluate, commission, and support you.
When you are leaving, think about your children and your spouse. Talk through things, cry, and understand the difficulty of departure.
Laziness, inadequate reports, and poor stewardship are some of the big character reasons missionaries have been dismissed.
If you don’t take care of your heart, you will not stay on the field.
A clear call is one of the greatest reasons to help a missionary stick on the mission field through difficult times.
A lack of integrity and accountability will cause a missionary to return from the field, even when he has clarity of God’s call.
In ministry, where fruit is out of our control, it is possible to blame God and others for a lack of growth when in reality we have settled into mediocrity.
Missionary service is not a solo enterprise. We serve in relationship with our church, mission agency, team, and ministry partners on the field.
Brethren, if we are going to continue to the end, we must cling ourselves to the Holy Spirit and discipline ourselves in purity.
It is said that 10,000 hours of dedication in any will make someone a professional, and yet when it comes to evangelism, people give up way too easily.
Prayer and evangelism are linked tightly together.
Make sure you go overseas to please God, not to please or impress others.
Lead your family with the end in mind – we want to hear God say well done thou good and faithful servant.
Help your spouse to carve out time for abiding in Christ. The mission field life has its challenges, not including ministry, so allow your spouse find the time to spend with Christ.
If you are married, God did not call you to the mission field alone.
Each of your family members are different, and if you are going to love and lead your children, you have to help them find how they fit in where God placed you.
Build your schedule around healthy rhythms. If you do not take time for the important things of life (God, family, rest, free time, etc.), you will not make it long.
If we read biographies, we will see that there’s a direct relationship between the gospel’s advance, and the suffering of those that carry the gospel.
If you are desirous to be a missionary, you must realize there will be suffering. As you prepare or go through suffering, here’s a few tips:
Know your Bible well. If you read and memorize the Bible, you will get to know the Author of the Bible. The sword (Hebrews 4:12) is not the printed Bible rather the memorized Scripture. Nothing will prepare you better for the difficult times like the Word of God etched upon your mind and ready upon your lips.
Read good books. Missionary biographies will help you, encourage you, and prepare you for the times you will face in life and ministry. Missionary biographies have a way of offering hope through suffering. One of the lies of the devil is that you are the only one suffering, but biographies will shatter that lie.
Keep a journal. This is a helpful endeavor to anyone who desires to have a record of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Looking back and seeing God’s hand of how He has sanctified and helped you through each moment.
Be a faithful church member. We are saved individually from sin, but placed into a community that has the same eternal hope, and that community is called the church. A danger of a missionary is to launch out making you think you do not need the church. God‘s church is the epicenter of His work on the Earth. To be lukewarm towards the church hurts a person way more than they know.
Do not believe the lie that missionaries do not need the same disciplines as other Christians. You cannot substitute your work for God for your time alone with God.
Just as a branch is lifeless when cut from the tree, so is the missionary that stops spending time with God.
We can be active in ministry and appear impressive, however, it will have no eternal significance, most likely not last, and we ourselves, depending on ourselves, will become lifeless as the branch cut from the tree.
You must be a disciple in order to produce disciples.
Success in missions is faithfulness to Christ and faithfulness to the task; not numerical results.
You are in for a time of pruning, and you must remember that however the pruning comes, it comes from a good God.
We need Bible input daily to clean our minds and restore our sanity.
There are two types of missionaries: those that are entitled, and those that are thankful. Entitled people are seldomly happy and frequently complain. The solution to entitlement is being thankful.
If you fill your calendar with activities and do not have intimate time with Christ, you will soon become lifeless. Those who prioritize their time with Christ are the ones that last on the mission field, bear fruit, and remain joyful.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews