FAQs

Q?How can Interserve help you?: A.
Interserve can help you fulfil your calling and find where God wants you to serve by helping you with your job placement, orientation materials and programmes, and linking you with mission partners and tentmakers overseas, whenever possible.
Q?What is Home Assignment/Furlough?: A.
The period of time when the missionary is home from the field for a set period of rest, reentry (adjustment to the changes in one’s home country), taking care of personal and family needs, and giving reports to supporters. Since the 1980s, the word “furlough” has been replaced with the term “home assignment,” for the missionary is still on active duty while at home. Missionaries are often assigned a percentage of time to spend in active ministry in churches.
Q?Who is an MK?: A.
A missionary kid or “MK” is someone who accompanies his or her parents to the mission field in a culture other than the parents’ home culture. Every MK’s experience is varied and unique. They may live abroad for as little as one year or as many as twenty years. Some attend international schools or boarding schools, while others attend local schools. Some have regular contact with family or friends in the home culture, while others do not. Some MKs are familiar with their home culture before leaving it behind, while for others the host culture is the first one they experience. Some MKs move to several different host cultures, while others will only experience one. All of these factors influence an MK’s sense of personal and cultural identity to some degree.
Q?Who is a TCK?: A.
MKs are part of a larger group called “third culture kids” or “TCKs” which includes other globally mobile kids, such as children of expatriate workers, diplomats and military personnel. According to David Pollock of Interaction International, “a Third-Culture Kid is an individual who, having spent a significant part of the developmental years in a culture other than the parents’ culture, develops a sense of relationship to all of the cultures while not having full ownership in any. Elements from each culture are incorporated into the life experience, but the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar experience.”
Q?Who are tentmakers?: A.
Missions-motivated Christians who support themselves in secular work, yet do full-time, cross-cultural evangelism on the job and elsewhere. Most Christians who go to work in a foreign country are not tentmakers since they do little or nothing to win local people. True tentmakers work steadily to reach the local people.
Q?How does the term “tentmaking” come about?: A.
Because the Apostle Paul literally made tents to support his cross-cultural mission. Today, “tentmaking” is a missiological term for Paul’s model of missionary finance and strategy.
Q?What preparation do tentmakers need?: A.
They need to be spiritually mature with adequate Bible knowledge and inductive Bible study and discussion skills.
Q?What is Business As Mission (BAM)?: A.
While Marketplace Ministry and Tentmaking are promoting the evangelistic potential of individual Christians in a workplace setting, “Business as Mission” stresses the redemptive potential of a business itself; sometimes this distinction is referred to as a focus on “job taking” versus “job making”. It must be pointed out that “Business as Mission” should not be confused with “Business for Mission”, which tends to be carried out within a local setting by Christian business entrepreneurs and as its name implies, is more related to the generation of profits from business that can be used to finance mission endeavours or to support missionaries and tentmakers.