Inspire me

If you’re a supporter of a CMS missionary or missionary family, there’s a good chance that there’s a photo of them on your fridge. Having your missionaries’ faces smiling down at you every time you go to get out the milk is a great way to help you to remember to pray for them. But CMS member Rebecca Bovey has a creative suggestion for making your fridge photos a lot more personal.

The missionary photos on our fridge are actually photos we take of the missionaries we support with our family. For example, we had lunch with Andrew Buchanan, CMS missionary to Indonesia, when he was back in Australia. We took a photo of Andrew with our boys, because we wanted them to be able to recognise Andrew when he comes back for Home Assignment in three years time. Otherwise the boys will say, “Who is this?”, and we will have to say, “Don’t you remember? It’s Andrew!”

Likewise, CMS missionary Karen Darda’s photo is on our fridge. Our family first got to know Karen when we were at church in Turramurra and she was in Australia for Home Assignment. From that moment on, we’ve been supporting Karen through prayer. But not only that: we encourage her to come and spend lots of time with us when she’s in Australia – because Karen loves going to the beach, and we live near the beach! We have really enjoyed extending hospitality to her by having her over for a meal and to stay with us. The photos we have of her on our fridge were taken during this time.

We have found that taking family shots with our missionaries is a great way to help our whole family to be more involved in mission. Each month one of the missionaries on our fridge becomes the focus of our devotions together. We also use the CMS kid’s prayer diary, ‘Pray Around the World’, to pray for CMS missionaries with our boys, along with some extra pages filled with bits and pieces that my husband Brett has put together to help us in praying.

It’s a real encouragement for our boys. It connects them to them to the missionaries – people we call our extended family. This means that when the missionaries we support are next back at Summer School, our boys can say, “We know you! You are on our fridge! You are in our prayer booklet! We know what your flag looks like!”

Here’s a step-by-step guide for taking truly personal missionary photos for your fridge...

What you need:
- A digital camera with a self-timer
- Your link missionary
- A tripod (or someone to take your family photo with your link missionary)

Email your link missionary and find out when they are going to be back in Australia for Home Assignment.

When your link missionary is back in the country, ask them when they can come and share a meal with you. Alternatively, you could arrange to see your missionary at their commissioning service or when they come to visit your church.

Grab your family, your link missionary, and your camera – and take a photo!

Print a copy of the photo for you and stick it on your fridge, and print a copy and send it in the mail to your missionary for their fridge. This will help them to remember to pray for you too!

Rebecca Bovey is a CMS member from St. Andrews’ Presbyterian church in Port Macquarie. She’s married to Brett and they have two kids, Carlos and Diego.