Many people talk to us about the sacrifices we must make to be missionaries. In the past I think that was much truer than it is in today's climate of CNN, cable TV, jet planes, e-mails, digital pictures, etc. Years ago when we would leave to go to the field we knew that we wouldn't see our loved ones for a long four years. When something happened to our families, illness or death, we only learned about it many days later. But today in the blink of an eye we can receive news about both our families and our country.

When we were first appointed as missionaries we left our parents and other family members to come across the world to unknown lands. I didn't understand then how hard it was for our parents to say good-bye to us and our children. But after our commissioning in 2000 and we were the ones leaving our children and grandchildren behind I began to understand how our parents felt.

The sacrifices we make aren't not having American food, or American clothes or even worshiping in American churches. It's the Christmas pictures of all the family around the tree that we're not a part of, it's the birth of babies that won't know who we are, it's the deaths of aunts and uncles that we can't be a part of comforting family members, it's the ageing parents whom we can't care for, it's the months and years of growing and changing of grandchildren that we miss - these are the true sacrifices of missionaries.

So when you think of your missionaries away on foreign fields serving God in different cultures and languages pray for them and their families who are left behind.

Pat Brown