One of the hardest parts of being a cross-cultural missionary is dealing with loneliness. More so if you are sent to one of the restricted countries where the preaching of the Gospel is forbidden and Christians are severely persecuted. Merly and Christy Suarez (not their real names)* are missionaries to such countries. Merly serves in the People's Republic of China (PRC) while Christy ministers in Vietnam.

"When you're homesick, you just want to go home," says Christy who is currently based in Hanoi, Vietnam. Loneliness for Merly, who ministers in Xianjiang, PRC is quite different. She relates, "Being a single lady is a real tough, especially when you're working among a people whose tradition and cultural idiosyncrasies dictate that women my age should be married and should not be living alone in a foreign land, unless of course, there's something wrong with them. It's pretty lonely when everyone you meet thinks there's something wrong with you."

But knowing that they would definitely feel homesick while ministering to people in a foreign land did not prevent these sisters from leaving behind family and friends for the sake of the call to long-term, cross-cultural missions.

Merly, who has been in PRC for almost three years, received her call to the mission fieldwhile attending four missions conferences and seminars in 1998. She responded to the altar calls for mission work on all four occasions. The following year, aside from training at the Asian Center for Missions, she also enrolled in a TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) program that prepared her missions platform-- teaching the English Language.

Christy is also an English teacher in Hanoi. Prior to her call and training for missions, Christy promised herself that she would not become a teacher like her mother. There wasn't anything she could do about it, though, when God called her to be an Englsh teacher in Hanoi. In preparation, she too trained at ACM and finished a TESOL program.

She was sent off to Vietnam in October of 2001. "It's been a year but I feel as though I've been here for so long. Although at other times, I feel as if I just got here. I guess it depends on my mood," Christy muses. When her pocket money ran out, the Lord provided her with English language tutorials that are her current means of supporting herself in the field and for which she is sincerely grateful to the Lord.

"Teaching English is a good platform…but to only teach English is not entirely desirable," comments Merly. "In terms of effectiveness, teaching is the ice breaker of communication. One gets to know the people (students mostly) and develop friendships. To be able to break them the Good News, one has to have more than that. One has to have their language," she further elaborates.

Note: * the names of the missionaries were changed for security purposes.