Being Missionary Parents

The Watts’ Family (L-R: Micah, Susan, Alma, Matea, George—Not photographed: Jonah)

by Garry Dombrosky

When we think of missionaries, we picture those servants of God who hear the call of God to carry out their calling as servants of God in places far away. When my wife and I went to our first parish, mission work involved being eight hours away from our families—still easily accessible by car and phone. When our three girls were young teenagers, our ideas of mission work changed.

A young man knocked on our door and asked to stay with us. He was with Lutheran Bible Translators and was raising money to go and do full-time translation work in Liberia, Africa. He made a great impression on our family, and so it was no wonder that years later our two eldest daughters asked me to help them (as well as our middle daughter’s new husband) get involved with a short-term mission project.

When God calls our children to serve elsewhere, He also calls us as well. Missionaries need support in many different ways. We provide financial support, look after houses while they are away, deal with mail and bank accounts, and a multitude of other things.

With the help of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, they were soon planning to depart for Japan and Kazakhstan (a country that until then we had not heard of). Saying goodbye was hard. Those times were just before the world wide web and video calls. Would they be safe? Where would they stay? Where was the city they were going to? (It was hidden under the staple in our family atlas).

We missed them a lot but had the resources to visit them both over the next few years. In Kazakhstan, we learned what the return of the Gospel meant to people who had survived, cut off from any resources for their faith, for nearly one hundred years by Communist Russia. We learned that missionaries get sick and have to deal with bureaucracy. We laugh now, but when our eldest daughter flew from Japan (her mission site) to Almaty, we lost track of her for 24 long hours when she was held in a Moscow airport because of minute details and, of course, corruption. We are so thankful that the system of missionaries in the world is ready to help—and help they did.

Garry and Janet at Lake Kivu Rwanda

Three and a half years later they were all back in Canada and we rejoiced in being together again for Christmas, birthdays, and special events—even Canada Day. But when God calls us to mission, He can be persistent. Not many years later we were saying goodbye again to our middle daughter, her husband, and their three (soon to be four) children as they were off to France to learn French and finish a university program. We hoped they would return after their studies but they told us they were planning to go to Burundi to teach at an African Christian university that needed a professor in business to help rebuild a country torn by genocide and political unrest.

They left but things didn’t turn out the way we thought. Within a few months of arrival, they had to flee to Rwanda, because of riots and uprisings. In Rwanda, they helped a Christian hospital. Eventually, they returned to Burundi, but rather than going back to the university, they went to the mountains, one of the poorest areas on the planet, where they worked with young Christian doctors to build a hospital. There they served, adding their needed skills. The population was already Christian which reminds us that missionaries are not always just those who preach; it can include those who proclaim the love of Christ to those in need through their care and love. We are so proud of what God is doing through our children but it comes at a price most don’t always see.

Being missionary parents gives us a different understanding of God’s world. We are Canadians and so are our grandchildren. But though they may carry Canadian passports, their lives have been lived in other places, like Africa, which to them is home.

When God calls our children to serve elsewhere, He also calls us as well. Missionaries need support in many different ways. We provide financial support, look after houses while they are away, deal with mail and bank accounts, and a multitude of other things. A great blessing for missionary parents today is the ability to use email, texting apps, and video messaging programs with our children on a regular basis. To be able to see our grandchildren grow and to get to know them, even at a distance, is a blessing we cherish.

Being missionary parents gives us a different understanding of God’s world. We are Canadians and so are our grandchildren. But though they may carry Canadian passports, their lives have been lived in other places, like Africa, which to them is home. They see the world in much larger ways than their cousins here in Canada. They have seen things, done things, and met people that have changed them and called them also to serve.

Being missionary parents changes our lives as well. We have been blessed to see places whose names we might only otherwise hear of—places like Almaty, Kigali, and Kibuye—and to meet God’s people who share the same hope and victory we have in Christ. We have come home to ministry here changed: to see the work of the Lord more broadly, and to realize that missionaries come in many varieties, from evangelists, to translators, to doctors, engineers, and administrators. The opportunity to see missionaries in action is a marvelous thing, and helps us understand how God uses His people, many different people, to touch the world with His Grace.

We miss our kids. We cherish the time with them. But we rejoice that through them, God has chosen to bless us with a vision of ministry beyond our local church and country.

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Rev. Dr. Garry L. Dombrosky served parishes in Drumheller (Grace) and Camrose (Grace) He also served as Campus Chaplain/Assistant Professor of Applied Religion at Concordia in Edmonton. Dr. Gombrosky has been married to his wife, Janet, for 50 years. They have three daughters, all involved in church work.

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