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Exposed: The untold story of what missionaries endure and how you can make all the difference in whether they remain in ministry.
Have you ever wondered what Missionary life is really like? The author exposes his missionary career by telling stories about his life with his family on the mission field. The good, the bad and the ugly are all revealed. The ultimate purpose of telling these stories is not for shock value. By simply revealing the truth it allows for opportunity to provide a solution to a big problem that faces global workers. Burnout is usually the end result when the warning signs are ignored for too long. Read about a solution that is simple in concept, but revolutionary in practice.
78 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 12, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 8, 2023
Enjoyable. I found many helpful thoughts for anyone serving in the area of missions. Below are some of my takeaways:
We end up worshiping the ministry of God rather than the God of Ministry!
Missionaries and Pastors are especially susceptible to this problem. Dysfunction, and ultimately burnout, is the result.
Missionaries and pastors especially need to find safe people and places where they can rest, learn and grow. When we don’t have the right people in our lives, the potential for failure rises dramatically.
Personality conflicts are very real and magnified in a mission context.
Ministry is really about God’s work and our co-laboring together with Him. How do you measure how God is doing when the results are truly up to Him? When we try to do so, pressure mounts as predictably we fail.
A missionary is often surrounded by people all day long and sometimes late into the night, yet meaningful relationships are often in short supply.
It has been my experience that missionaries who make deep connections with co-workers or fellow believers in their host countries stay in the work much longer than those who remain lonely.
We are the hands and feet of the Great Commission.
Often those in ministry focus on their work and forget that it should be on Jesus Christ. Ministry flows out of relationship.
It is in our moments of darkness that we somehow forget to rest in Christ.
We end up worshiping the ministry of God rather than the God of Ministry!
Missionaries and Pastors are especially susceptible to this problem. Dysfunction, and ultimately burnout, is the result.
Missionaries and pastors especially need to find safe people and places where they can rest, learn and grow. When we don’t have the right people in our lives, the potential for failure rises dramatically.
Personality conflicts are very real and magnified in a mission context.
Ministry is really about God’s work and our co-laboring together with Him. How do you measure how God is doing when the results are truly up to Him? When we try to do so, pressure mounts as predictably we fail.
A missionary is often surrounded by people all day long and sometimes late into the night, yet meaningful relationships are often in short supply.
It has been my experience that missionaries who make deep connections with co-workers or fellow believers in their host countries stay in the work much longer than those who remain lonely.
We are the hands and feet of the Great Commission.
Often those in ministry focus on their work and forget that it should be on Jesus Christ. Ministry flows out of relationship.
It is in our moments of darkness that we somehow forget to rest in Christ.
April 14, 2016
A Review by Anthony T. Riggio of the book Exposed by Franz Martens April 1, 2016
I read a .pdf version of this book provided to me by the author. He subsequently gave me a printed edition of this book. I know the author and I find him to be very strong in his convictions about the Lord Jesus Christ. I suppose he found in me a kindred soul, and if so, I am very flattered. While a Christian, I am one of those that is continually searching for a greater understanding of Gods purpose. As Franz knows, I am very strong in my Catholic faith but I have great respect for those that are willing to go out and preach the Gospel.
Exposed, is a small book with a very powerful message and one that reinforces the goodness of people like Franz and the struggles that he and his family experienced.
It takes a truly inspired soul to go out to preach to non Christians who are steeped in a tradition of belief systems which do not include Jesus Christ, through whom we are only qualified to see the Father.
Franz' initial appearance, seemed to me to be unlikely to be so dedicated to God and desirous of becoming a missionary. But once you get through talking with him, he leaves little doubt about his knowledge of the Gospel and his gifted ability to preach it. The book goes through the different stages of his calling to do God's work and to take on the burdens of dealing with people/natives in other cultures to expose them to Jesus Christ. Franz was raised in a family of believers and was encouraged to follow his dreams. He talks about how he was inspired by reading of the book of James at age seventeen and trough this experience developed a relation ship with Jesus Christ.
Unhampered by doctrinaire parents and filled with a desire to do God's work, he embarked on his initial experience as a missionary in the jungles of Venezuela as a fulfillment of his desire to leave the Canadian farm country, and experience what God was calling him to. Franz in setting out his own story weaves details of his wife Kristie's up bringing in a family of missionaries. Providing him with real life experiences of what lay ahead of him as he embraced this life and a partnership with her was part of God's plan.
Franz and his bride em-barqued on a missionary to Papua New Guinea with his children in toe and with a fair but limited knowledge of what would befall all of them. God's work is not for the feint heart-ed but for the truly inspired. What happens to the Martens' family is difficult and inspiring and reinforced Franz and Kristie's faith in God. They experienced all the self doubts you would expect and included near death experiences for his children and the kindness of other missionaries and strangers.
After experiencing several years in missionary work and the concomitant dangers associated with this grueling and selfless work, the Marten's returned home to nurse back to health theirs and their own children's physical strength, they decided that there was real room for the counseling of missionaries perspectives of what struggles were in-store for them and how to deal with the struggles that would befall them. They also recognized the need to have a place for missionaries to decompress from these daunting physical and emotional burdens and to refresh their need to re-connect with God's desire for them in the areas where the need to spread the Gospel os most needed. This became the Marten's goal to provide a ministry of Oasis for other struggling families of the missionaries who take upon their shoulders this much needed vocation.
I have to say, this book, albeit short, was inspirational and spoke volumes of the need these people have for both spiritual and financial support. I truly enjoyed reading this book and experiencing, at least, vicariously the struggles faced by these dedicated missionaries in fulfilling God's desires for the spread of Christianity. It was a well written work and enjoyable to the reader. Consequently, I gave this book five stars for my rating. Buy this book and indirectly support God's work.
I read a .pdf version of this book provided to me by the author. He subsequently gave me a printed edition of this book. I know the author and I find him to be very strong in his convictions about the Lord Jesus Christ. I suppose he found in me a kindred soul, and if so, I am very flattered. While a Christian, I am one of those that is continually searching for a greater understanding of Gods purpose. As Franz knows, I am very strong in my Catholic faith but I have great respect for those that are willing to go out and preach the Gospel.
Exposed, is a small book with a very powerful message and one that reinforces the goodness of people like Franz and the struggles that he and his family experienced.
It takes a truly inspired soul to go out to preach to non Christians who are steeped in a tradition of belief systems which do not include Jesus Christ, through whom we are only qualified to see the Father.
Franz' initial appearance, seemed to me to be unlikely to be so dedicated to God and desirous of becoming a missionary. But once you get through talking with him, he leaves little doubt about his knowledge of the Gospel and his gifted ability to preach it. The book goes through the different stages of his calling to do God's work and to take on the burdens of dealing with people/natives in other cultures to expose them to Jesus Christ. Franz was raised in a family of believers and was encouraged to follow his dreams. He talks about how he was inspired by reading of the book of James at age seventeen and trough this experience developed a relation ship with Jesus Christ.
Unhampered by doctrinaire parents and filled with a desire to do God's work, he embarked on his initial experience as a missionary in the jungles of Venezuela as a fulfillment of his desire to leave the Canadian farm country, and experience what God was calling him to. Franz in setting out his own story weaves details of his wife Kristie's up bringing in a family of missionaries. Providing him with real life experiences of what lay ahead of him as he embraced this life and a partnership with her was part of God's plan.
Franz and his bride em-barqued on a missionary to Papua New Guinea with his children in toe and with a fair but limited knowledge of what would befall all of them. God's work is not for the feint heart-ed but for the truly inspired. What happens to the Martens' family is difficult and inspiring and reinforced Franz and Kristie's faith in God. They experienced all the self doubts you would expect and included near death experiences for his children and the kindness of other missionaries and strangers.
After experiencing several years in missionary work and the concomitant dangers associated with this grueling and selfless work, the Marten's returned home to nurse back to health theirs and their own children's physical strength, they decided that there was real room for the counseling of missionaries perspectives of what struggles were in-store for them and how to deal with the struggles that would befall them. They also recognized the need to have a place for missionaries to decompress from these daunting physical and emotional burdens and to refresh their need to re-connect with God's desire for them in the areas where the need to spread the Gospel os most needed. This became the Marten's goal to provide a ministry of Oasis for other struggling families of the missionaries who take upon their shoulders this much needed vocation.
I have to say, this book, albeit short, was inspirational and spoke volumes of the need these people have for both spiritual and financial support. I truly enjoyed reading this book and experiencing, at least, vicariously the struggles faced by these dedicated missionaries in fulfilling God's desires for the spread of Christianity. It was a well written work and enjoyable to the reader. Consequently, I gave this book five stars for my rating. Buy this book and indirectly support God's work.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews