hey, what are some good places to volunteer as a missionary? if i want a long term position?

[this is not my name]

I am looking for a long term position to serve, though I am looking for a place where I can serve for 6 to 8 hours a day, and have the rest to seek God. I have a thousand dollars saved up, and wondering if there is a position where I could get paid for it? if not, that is fine too. though I only need a shelter, basic clothes, and enough food to live, should not be that expensive. (internet would be cool though). I am looking more for a position taking care of children than anything else, or service, more of a servant position than a preaching or sharing the gospel position. also, I am not sure if this is the best spot on the forum to post this, if there is a better place, please move it there, thanks.

 

[Danielwright2311]

On the streets to the homeless, in shelters, go where people need the word of God.

 

[this is not my name]

On the streets to the homeless, in shelters, go where people need the word of God.

I am more looking for a place that provides room and minimal food, and that is out of country, something that I can do full time. in Alaska, we can volunteer at the homeless shelter, but only part time because it is so expensive to live here, and we need a full time job. so I will only be able to help a few hours a week, and have no time to seek God... I am looking for a place where I can serve full time.

 

[Danielwright2311]

I am more looking for a place that provides room and minimal food, and that is out of country, something that I can do full time. in Alaska, we can volunteer at the homeless shelter, but only part time because it is so expensive to live here, and we need a full time job. so I will only be able to help a few hours a week, and have no time to seek God... I am looking for a place where I can serve full time.

Sometimes, we must start small to meet the one who will send us to where we can preach big.

 

[this is not my name]

true.

 

[Richard T]

Ask God to bring the right information and people across your path. I would also suggest to ask God where he would like you to serve, at least some general ideas like what country? I can't say this is for you, but one idea might be to look at Christian orphanages around the world that have similar Christian beliefs as you do. Google is full of such listings. It is a great idea too to let your church leaders in on your plan to see what contacts suggestions and advice that they have.

 

[this is not my name]

and facebook.

 

[this is not my name]

I was looking on facebook for restaurants to work at, though that is not perfectly related to this question.

 

[JosephZ]

I am looking for a long term position to serve, though I am looking for a place where I can serve for 6 to 8 hours a day, and have the rest to seek God. I have a thousand dollars saved up, and wondering if there is a position where I could get paid for it? if not, that is fine too.

I am more looking for a place that provides room and minimal food, and that is out of country, something that I can do full time.

I think it's great that you are looking at options to serve and if that is God's will for you, then it will come to pass.

The good news is that there are plenty of opportunities and organizations throughout the world that will allow you to volunteer your time. The bad news is that very few are willing to pay you for your time. Maybe you could look at one of the many missionary sending agencies that have paid positions for missionaries and/or help with raising support or a church you have connections to that is willing to support you in the field. Without a church or sending agency behind you, you will have to rely on your own efforts and/or family and friends that believe in your mission to support you.

The one thousand dollars you have saved up will not go very far. Depending on the country you decide to go to, much of that will be eaten up in travel expenses and establishing yourself in your host country. You really need to have more than that on hand before setting out on a journey to a foreign country especially if you have no one backing you.

Many countries also have restrictions on foreign nationals working, so finding a job to support yourself once you arrive may be difficult or near impossible. Even if you are able to find a job, you will be paid local wages which are far less than what you would be used to in the US, so keep that in mind. Here in Davao City for example minimum wage is around 90 cents per hour and the average person earns less than $180 per month. While it can be done, that would be a difficult amount for a westerner to live on.

Looking into an online job such as teaching English as a second language or something similar could be an option to look into as that would pay more than local wages and wouldn't be as restricted by the government in most countries.

You can also try investing in a business in your host country, but that will require a significant amount of money upfront.

I only need a shelter, basic clothes, and enough food to live, should not be that expensive. (internet would be cool though).

More good news. If you serve in a developing country, your expenses can be minimal. For example, here in the Philippines a missionary can live a pretty comfortable life on $300 to $500 a month. This would cover rent on a decent house/apartment, electric, water, phone, food, local transportation, visa renewals, and internet. If you decided to live in a boarding house or a hostel, it can be done for even less. This would be true in many other developing countries as well.

I am looking more for a position taking care of children than anything else, or service, more of a servant position than a preaching or sharing the gospel position.

There are many opportunities for working with children around the world. If you find an organization that will allow you to work with them, you will most likely have to go through a criminal background check or they may require that you provide them with one in advance.

My advice would be to either find a church or organization that is willing to sponsor you in the field (Which may be difficult), or wait until you can save up enough money to cover all of your expenses for the duration of time you plan to be in the field before you embark on your journey.

 

[this is not my name]

I think it's great that you are looking at options to serve and if that is God's will for you, then it will come to pass.

The good news is that there are plenty of opportunities and organizations throughout the world that will allow you to volunteer your time. The bad news is that very few are willing to pay you for your time. Maybe you could look at one of the many missionary sending agencies that have paid positions for missionaries and/or help with raising support or a church you have connections to that is willing to support you in the field. Without a church or sending agency behind you, you will have to rely on your own efforts and/or family and friends that believe in your mission to support you.

The one thousand dollars you have saved up will not go very far. Depending on the country you decide to go to, much of that will be eaten up in travel expenses and establishing yourself in your host country. You really need to have more than that on hand before setting out on a journey to a foreign country especially if you have no one backing you.

Many countries also have restrictions on foreign nationals working, so finding a job to support yourself once you arrive may be difficult or near impossible. Even if you are able to find a job, you will be paid local wages which are far less than what you would be used to in the US, so keep that in mind. Here in Davao City for example minimum wage is around 90 cents per hour and the average person earns less than $180 per month. While it can be done, that would be a difficult amount for a westerner to live on.

Looking into an online job such as teaching English as a second language or something similar could be an option to look into as that would pay more than local wages and wouldn't be as restricted by the government in most countries.

You can also try investing in a business in your host country, but that will require a significant amount of money upfront.


More good news. If you serve in a developing country, your expenses can be minimal. For example, here in the Philippines a missionary can live a pretty comfortable life on $300 to $500 a month. This would cover rent on a decent house/apartment, electric, water, phone, food, local transportation, visa renewals, and internet. If you decided to live in a boarding house or a hostel, it can be done for even less. This would be true in many other developing countries as well.


There are many opportunities for working with children around the world. If you find an organization that will allow you to work with them, you will most likely have to go through a criminal background check or they may require that you provide them with one in advance.

My advice would be to either find a church or organization that is willing to sponsor you in the field (Which may be difficult), or wait until you can save up enough money to cover all of your expenses for the duration of time you plan to be in the field before you embark on your journey.

thank you for your feedback, also, do you know any good websites that would show me available options?

 

[JosephZ]

thank you for your feedback, also, do you know any good websites that would show me available options?

That I really can't help you with. There are so many variables to consider such as denominations, what type of people the ministries reach out to, what part of the world you are considering, etc... I would just suggest prayer and doing a search online.

Since you have $1,000 saved up already, maybe you should consider taking a vision trip to get an idea of what missionary life is like in a foreign country before making a full commitment. That amount can get you to many places from the US if you shop around for a promotional fare and depending on the country you visit you might even have enough to cover all of your expenses while you're there.

 

[ChristianGirl_96]

How much money do you have? I recommend taking a trip to get a idea of what exactly you would be expected to do first. Only then can you make a decision on committing yourself full time. My only piece of advice is to do a fair bit of research and ask questions.

 

[FireDragon76]

Larger churches often sponsor missionaries, because they can afford to. The Episcopal cathedral I went to sponsored two, one in France, the other in Honduras.

Alot of missionary works need to be done in the US, actually. There are many unchurched people in parts of the US, some parts of the US have third world poverty. You don't have to travel to a foreign country to get involved.

Just keep in mind that missionary work that really makes a difference is hard work. I read about a monk that went to Mother Theresa's hospital in Calcutta, and hard work was expected. But these kinds of activities produce more impact that simply going to a foreign country and expecting to win converts with little real connection to people.

 

[this is not my name]

thank you all, and I would consider staying here and doing missionary work in Alaska if I was strong with God, but as it is, I need a program where I can focus on getting right with God as well as helping others, I am not in a position where I can do the hard work, lest I be like one who shares the gospel so much that he forgets about his own position with God.

 

[mnphysicist]

thank you all, and I would consider staying here and doing missionary work in Alaska if I was strong with God, but as it is, I need a program where I can focus on getting right with God as well as helping others, I am not in a position where I can do the hard work, lest I be like one who shares the gospel so much that he forgets about his own position with God.

I hate to say it, but you are far from ready... the pressures of being in another country, daily survival, and the ever present need to continually raise sponsorship is pretty likely to throw a major wrench into your faith walk.

Seriously consider your local homeless shelter, work a full time job at 40-50 hours/week including commute time. Slowly scale up to 24 hours a week at the homeless shelter, and dedicate another 24 hours / week for study and prayer, and then commit to this for 3 months and see how you like it. If you can't see doing this for 5 years, off shore missions work is probably not for you. If you can, keep it up for another 3 years. At the that time, you've developed the financial, time management, people skills, and depth of faith necessary to thrive in an out of country mission or maybe you decide it might be best to serve in other ways. As a buddy used to say, missions work will expand to fill all available time plus another 10% if you don't nip it in the bud.

There are likely tons of local church ministries that would be overjoyed to get a volunteer for for a few hours a day, or maybe even a day or two a week. Granted, this might mean working 2nd shift at a "day job" such that you have mornings available to volunteer. It can also mean putting in volunteer hours at a church org with vastly different Christian beliefs, or perhaps even doing things you personally disagree with... but such is a real life scenario that many an off shore missionaries has to struggle with. (Thinking of the issues Compassion International runs into in a number of countries who restrict religious freedom).

Fwiw, Compassion is always looking for volunteers to work in the local community. You won't be paid, but you don't have to pay much out of pocket, short of gas, and its probably only a few hours every month or two.

 

[ChristianGirl_96]

Ask at your church. I volunteer at church events and occasionally help out with the foodbank run by the church. Slowly build up over time. Good luck to you!

 

[Robkal]

I've been looking at this myself lately so can't speak from direct experience, but other congregants and mentors form our Youth Group, have been helping and training us to take up various ministries in Europe. That seems to be the global focus of missionary work today for a lot of reasons, partly because it's a ripe moment in history for it, Europeans are in a receptive state, they're culturally still connected to Christian heritage but yearning for a more concrete spiritual and religious connection, churches are still intact and so infrastructure already there for young Europeans esp. with families to return to houses of worship, many countries like Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, some states in Germany give credits for building new churches even if your from overseas, general spiritual hunger in European lands, great returns for investment, missionaries in Europe can stay and naturalize there to raise their families esp. if they have family ancestry (Ireland, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, tons of countries have this), then also the refugees and migrants have very high rate of conversion from Islam to Christianity and as bonus, even though most return to Middle East, they then bring their new Christian faith back to their home lands. Sorry for the info-dump but the youth mentors have been giving us a lot of info on this and my wife and I have recently decided to join one of the European ministries, and this seems to be where best support is. We're looking mainly at areas around Stockholm in Sweden, or maybe Bergen in Norway or other Nordic countries. I have only distant ancestry, but Swedish apparently not too hard to learn, and you can work initially in English while they help you pick up the language, which of course you'll need for ministry. Anyone here have experience in Nordic ministries esp. Sweden?