Joining Family Missions Company

We learned on December 15^th that we've been accepted to serve as full-time foreign missionaries with Family Missions Company (FMC)!!!! We'll start a 3-month Intake in September at FMC's base in Louisiana.  There, we will prepare for missions as a family while we learn, serve, and grow together.  We'll then leave for our first mission in January 2019!

We're committing to doing this for 2 years. The first year, FMC staff will prayerfully decide which country we will be going to. They currently have missions in Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Haiti, Tanzania, India, the Philippines, and Taiwan, so it will likely be one of those places. In deciding where we go, they take into account their current needs at the time and what strengths/gifts they see in our family that would match up well with the people/needs of that area. We will be sent to an established mission where current missionaries will mentor us for that year. The second year we can decide to stay where we're at or go to a new mission. This could be an already established mission (one of the places above) or someplace completely new, as long as the local bishop has invited us.

Before our two-year commitment comes to an end, we will be discerning whether God is calling us to continue His work as foreign missionaries or if He is calling us to further His Kingdom in some other way. 

As missionaries with FMC, our focus will be to serve the poor while proclaiming and witnessing to Christ in our words and actions.  We will live among the people we serve, living out gospel poverty ourselves.  Having children on mission, we envision reaching out to many families around us and building fellowship and community among them, but we will follow where the Spirit leads us.  We likely will have a variety of ministries that our kids will participate in with us.  

We have learned through talking with current missionary families and adults who were missionaries as children that the witness and effectiveness of families in foreign missions is particularly impactful because of the children.  People seem to let their guards down more quickly and are less skeptical of a missionary family than they can be of singles sometimes.  Children also make excellent missionaries because many people are drawn to them, both young and old.  The adults that we've talked to who spent time doing mission work as children have shared how their experiences have had a tremendous impact on them.  They learned to appreciate and be grateful for what they have and are less indifferent to the needs of others, being more keenly aware of Christ's presence in the poor. 

   

In 1990, Pope John Paul II wrote an encyclical titled, "Mission of the Redeemer" (Redemptoris Missio).  In it, he writes, "From the beginning of my Pontificate I have chosen to travel to the ends of the earth in order to show this missionary concern.  My direct contact with peoples who do not know Christ has convinced me even more of the urgency of missionary activity, a subject to which I am devoting the present encyclical."  Later, he says, "The number of those who do not know Christ and do not belong to the Church is constantly on the increase.  Indeed, since the end of the Council it has almost doubled.  When we consider this immense portion of humanity which is loved by the Father and for whom he sent his Son, the urgency of the Church's mission is obvious."  

He also speaks about how all the laity are missionaries by virtue of their baptism and that, "The mission ad gentes (to the nations) is incumbent upon the entire People of God... [It] is the task of all the Christian faithful."  He goes on, "It is clear that from the very origins of Christianity, the laity - as individuals, families, and entire communities - shared in spreading the faith." 

Certainly God doesn't call every person to a foreign missionary vocation.  We are all one body with many parts (1 Corinthians 12:12ff), each having our own role in participating in the work of evangelization.  So how can the supreme duty of the Church in bringing the gospel to all the nations be incumbent upon the entire People of God?  There are many ways! John Paul II lists several: 

1.) "Prayer should accompany the journey of missionaries so that the proclamation of the word will be effective through God's grace."

2.) "Prayer needs to be accompanied by sacrifice. The redemptive value of suffering, accepted and offered to God with love, derives from the sacrifice of Christ himself, who calls the members of his Mystical Body to share in his sufferings, to complete them in their own flesh (cf. Col 1:24)."

3.) "Cooperation is expressed above all by promoting missionary vocations... Preaching the Gospel requires preachers; the harvest needs laborers."

4.) "The material and financial needs of the missions are many... it is important to consider the spirit in which donations are made...the missions ask not only for a contribution but for a sharing in the work of preaching and charity toward the poor.  Generosity in giving must always be enlightened and inspired by faith: then we will truly be more blessed in giving than in receiving."

5.) "...Individual believers extend the reach of their charity and show concern for those both far and near...They help missionaries and follow their work with interest.  And when missionaries return, they welcome them with the same joy with which the first Christian communities heard from the apostles the marvelous things which God had wrought through their preaching (cf. Acts 14:27)" 

As we begin our missionary journey, we are in search of people who feel called to enter into mission with us in this way that John Paul II says by helping us with our financial and spiritual needs.  We may be called but we cannot be sent without the funds to do so.  The financial support that we receive will enable us to go proclaim Christ to all that we meet and to serve the needs of the poor with whom we'll be living alongside.  Likewise, without the intercessory prayers of others, our work won't bear much fruit. By having a team of people who are remembering us and those we serve in their daily prayers (even offering up sacrifices), we will be more effective in sharing the gospel, and hearts will be more open and receptive to hearing this Good News.  Therefore, the financial and spiritual support that we receive from those who partner with us in our mission is vital!  Mission partners are as much a part of our mission as we are.  

We will be sending quarterly newsletters along with other electronic updates to our mission partners to share glory stories and pictures so they can see how their support is making a difference in the lives of the poor and marginalized.  We'll also be praying for our mission partners every day.  In fact, we're already praying for these families and individuals - God knows who they are!  

If your heart is stirred to enter into mission with us, please let us know!  We're in great need of mission partners for both finances and prayers.  The work we do as missionaries can only be done by the generous support of a team of people who are just as involved as we will be in the Great Commission Jesus gave to "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature."  

To learn more about Family Missions Company and see how other families and singles are serving the needs of the poor throughout the world, visit their website at www.familymissionscompany.com.  You can also see our own bio page on their website: www.erismanfamily.familymissionscompany.com.  If you are interested in supporting our mission through a donation, there is a place to do that on that page.  

In Christ,
Robert & Tami

Who is Family Missions Company? (5 min video) 

Preaching the Gospel & Serving the Poor // Family Missions Company (2 min video) 

“We talk of the Second Coming; half of the world has never heard of the first." – Oswald J. Smith

“Our God of Grace often gives us a second chance, but there is no second chance to harvest a ripe crop." – Kurt von Schleicher