Cross-cultural mission is one of the most demanding callings a Christian can pursue — and one of the least well-supported. In a candid article published by Crosslinks on 28 March 2026, Kerstin Prill draws on her own experience of mission work in Namibia to make a case that the Church urgently needs to hear: pastoral care for mission partners is not a luxury or an afterthought. It is essential to the long-term sustainability of global mission.

Prill's article, originally published in Evangelicals Now, describes the emotional and traumatic weight that mission workers carry — often in silence. Cross-cultural workers face compounded stressors: language barriers, cultural dislocation, grief over leaving family and community behind, exposure to poverty and suffering, and the particular loneliness of ministry in contexts where the gospel is unwelcome. Without intentional pastoral support, the cumulative effect can be devastating — leading to burnout, breakdown, and premature return from the field.

The solution Prill advocates is not complex, but it requires genuine commitment: active listening, regular pastoral check-ins, and a sending church culture that creates space for mission partners to be honest about their struggles without fear of judgement. "Member care" — the formal term for the pastoral support of cross-cultural workers — has grown as a discipline within mission organisations, but Prill's argument is that it needs to be embedded in the DNA of sending churches, not outsourced to specialists.

For UK churches that support mission partners — whether through Crosslinks, CMS, BMS, or other agencies — this article is a timely challenge. It is easy to celebrate the work of mission partners in newsletters and prayer meetings while failing to ask the harder questions: How are you really? What do you need? What has been hardest this year? The Church's calling to "bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2) does not stop at the departure gate. If anything, it intensifies when someone is serving far from home.

Crosslinks, as an Anglican mission agency, has long emphasised the importance of partnership between sending churches and mission partners. Prill's article is a valuable contribution to that conversation — a reminder that the health of the missionary is inseparable from the health of the mission itself.