A pioneering missionary and missionary trainer, K. Rajendran has over 25 years of experience with Operation Mobilisation India and with Logos. He has served as a director of programmes, conferences, training, and personnel. Now the general secretary of the India Missions Association, Rajendran lives in Chennai with his wife Pramila and their daughter and son. India Missions Association has 145 major missions under its umbrella with more than 25,000 workers in about 2,000 locations across and outside India.
The Asian Missions Congress II has said, “Each country in Asia must develop educational solutions appropriate for their missionaries’ children. They should be assisted in this by the resources and expertise of others.”i Except for some of the major organizations, missions in India have made very little provision for the education of the children. The problem increases when the missionaries’ children enter college since the large amount of money needed for higher education is hard to come by.
Mission X has a policy of paying for the missionary children’s education, since in most cases the children stay at home with their parents. This policy applies both to their schooling and to their college education. Mission Y pays a part of the fees for children who are still with their parents. If the children are sent to certain designated schools, mission Y pays the fees in full. For higher education, the children are given a loan, and they are expected to pay most of it back later when they become employed.ii
Most larger missions have arrangements similar to the above. Smaller missions spend very little as most of them concentrate their work among tribal people. The tendency has been to encourage parents to send their children to the designated boarding schools, leaving the parents free to concentrate on their missions work in rural areas.iii Some children have reacted negatively to such arrangements:
They [the missionaries’ children] were born into the situation, while their parents were able to decide for themselves.... This “sacrifice” was demanded of them. Some of them may well have just accepted their childhood as it was, while others felt real bitterness towards their parents, even at an advanced age.iv
Many missionaries in rural areas appreciate the provision made for their children through hostels [boarding homes]. They feel that being away from their children is a sacrifice they have to make in order to take the gospel to unreached people. Some parents see their children only once in a year when they come to visit on summer holidays.v “It is never easy for a parent to send a child away for school, whether it is 100 or 10,000 miles away. This is a heartache which must be bravely borne by parents and children alike.”vi Oswald J. Smith summarises it aptly:
Perhaps the greatest hardship of all will be the leaving of the children behind, and that cross no one can understand except those who have borne it.... The heartbreak of life in a foreign land, with the children at home, thousands of miles away, is simply indescribable.vii
Some parents resent sending their children far away to a hostel, but they have no choice as there are insufficient funds for children to go to a more expensive hostel or school nearby. Most parents who live in the city manage to keep their children with them even though they may not get the full support from their mission for their children’s education.
Some missions do not have any money earmarked for children’s education, so the parents suffer. “A boarding school ... is another alternative.... Finances will be a factor in decisions of this kind.”viii One missionary couple pleaded for some scholarship help for their children’s schooling and for their placement in a better hostel.ix Another couple, Mr. and Mrs. David, were also eager to educate their children, but the funds were not available.x These missionaries were unable to send their children to a place close by. At times this struggle has made the missionaries leave missions work to seek a ministry station close to the cities. Those who could not afford to send their children to a good school nearby have suffered agonies.xi At times both parents and children had difficulties bearing such separations, which even affected their health:
Some of the missionaries have had their children separated from them on account of better educational opportunities. Others have their children living with them enduring the experience that their parents go through. In both the situations, the impact of the environment and the nature of the work will have their effect on the children, their personality, and their future.xii
Some people, concerned about these problems, have started good boarding schools to help the Indian missionaries and their children. The schools are situated on the campus of Yavatmal College of Leadership Training at Maharastra,xiii Shantosa Vidyalaya at Dohnavur, Ida Scudder at Vellore,xiv and Kotagiri in Tamil Nadu. There is also one at Delhi called Griha Shiksha.xv Isaac Israel, the leader of Rural Blessings Mission [RBM], started a boarding school for girls at Wardha, Maharastra. The boarding home is for both underprivileged girls and some missionaries’ children. The children go to local schools. There is also a small school for the local children. The support of the hostel comes through the fees collected from their school and from freewill offerings.xvi There are also other schools at Mussorie, U.P., and at Ooty, Tamil Nadu. However, they are costlier for the Indian missionaries, and they have a European and American syllabus [curriculum], which is not well suited to the Indian system. “Schools that cater to MKs may be funded to take in more MKs and also upgrade their standards.”xvii
Much social work has been done for many unreached peoples. However, if the missionaries’ children are neglected, neither they nor others who might consider missions work will do so:
When missionaries do not get sufficient support,... the parents of Christian children who commit themselves for missionary work hesitate to send their children for missionary work.... When there is opposition and resistance from family members and friends, particularly because of inadequate financial support, young people are discouraged from pursuing their missionary calling. If only their basic needs like the children’s education, medical care, post-retirement care and calamity relief are given consideration; there will be no dearth of committed and high-caliber people to join the missionary task force.xviii
To meet the needs of college-age missionary children, it was suggested that the following be set up: “a self-financed multi-disciplined college of which 50 percent is reserved for MKs, who will attend at highly subsidized fees and/or with sponsorship.”xix
There have to be many foundations that will give scholarships for missionaries’ children. Otherwise, neither the missionaries’ children nor other new missionaries will venture into missions, fearing the consequences if their children are neglected in hostels or are unable to study because of a lack of funds. Much research needs to be done and innovative ideas tried to assure that the missionaries’ children receive the education they deserve.
A Word on the Indian Missions Association
“Serving missions and churches to fulfill God’s vision”
India Missions Association is the national federation of missions in India, which assists missions and churches in proclaiming the Good News and in making disciples of Christ among the unreached peoples. Today IMA has around 140 missions and evangelistic organizations in its membership, representing around 15,000 missionaries, who work in about 1,400 locations across India and ten other nations beyond our borders. IMA is the largest missionary association in the world.
IMA Values
- To be a visionary and a catalyst
- To strive to be a model
- To be accountable and transparent
- To care and build staff
- To build teams
- To excel in performance
- To be guided by the Word and the Spirit
- To encourage being multicultural and multilinguistic in personnel and operations
- To comply with statutory requirements of the land To encourage and build indigenous leadership and finance
Endnotes
i “Into the 21st Century: Asian Churches in Missions,” Asian Missions Congress II, Pattaya, Thailand, 1997.
ii James Kaiser, personal interview, Chennai, July 1997.
iii The Matthews, IEM, personal interview, Bangalore, October 1996.
iv Waack, Church and Mission, 387.
v The Matthews, IEM, personal interview, Bangalore, October 1996.
vi Collins, Manual for Today’s Missionary, 194.
vii Oswald J. Smith, The Challenge of Missions (Bromley: STL Books, 1983), 103.
viii Collins, Manual for Today’s Missionary, 193.
ix Missionary couple [names of couple and mission withheld], August 1997.
x Davids, Missionaries to North India, personal interview, Chennai, August, 1997.
xi Mr. and Mrs. Prince [names of persons and agency withheld], personal interview, Bangalore, July 1996.
xii M. C. Matthew, IMA Health Care Support for Missionaries, A Proposal, September 1995.
xiii Dr. Swami Das, personal interview, Chennai, October 17, 1997.
xiv Chitrarasu, IEM Missionary, personal interview, SAIACS, Bangalore, January 1997.
xv Premi Koshy and Tracy West, “Griha Shiksha: Home Schooling in India. Development Plan Proposal 1997–2000,” March 1997. [C/O Interserve, C-20 Community Centre (First Floor) Janakpuri, New Delhi 110058]
xvi Isaac Israel, CEO Rural Blessing Mission, personal interview at Wardha, Maharastra, October 31, 1997.
xvii National Consultation on Evangelism, Hyderabad, September 1996.
xviii “Longings of a Supporter,” Mission and Vision Who and What? (Bangalore: MUT, 1996), 34.
xix National Consultation on Evangelism, Hyderabad, September 1996.
For more information, India Missions Association
The Educational Needs of Indian Missionaries' Children 5.4