How should we prepare people for ministry to nomads?

Abstract

Ministry to nomads is challenging due to the demands of living in nomadic contexts. New workers for nomads need to be able to persevere and, eventually, thrive in the face of these challenges. This article explores the views of 37 missionaries to nomads concerning how best to prepare new workers. It outlines the major initial challenges new workers face and presents the personal characteristics that may promote success. The particular qualities, skills, and knowledge that experienced workers recommend for novices and how these could be developed are explained. There is a strong emphasis on learning by immersion, with experienced missionaries and local people walking alongside to help new workers. Just as ministry among nomads must be holistic, training for workers to nomads should holistically integrate spiritual, character, relational, skill, and knowledge development.

Introduction

Ministry to nomads is particularly challenging due to the remoteness and unpredictability of nomadic life and the marginalization of many nomadic societies. Missionaries to nomads face all the normal challenges of cross-cultural mission work (Hibbert et al., 2023). But these challenges are amplified by environmental, geographic, and logistical hazards to survival, the transience of nomads, security issues, and conflicts with settled Christians. An additional major challenge is missionaries’ own inclination toward settling, which risks nomads assuming they must settle in order to become Christians.

In this article, we explore what current workers among nomads think is essential when selecting and preparing people to work effectively in nomadic contexts. Although each nomadic context is unique, in this research we explored the commonalities that missionaries to nomads experience rather than the specific variations between their contexts. Our focus is on the preparation of new workers rather than training existing workers.

Missionary training

All missionary preparation aims to ensure that potential missionaries have a mature spiritual life. This includes a solid biblical foundation including being able to apply the Bible to life. In addition, missionaries must have good interpersonal skills. Like all ministry training, missionary training is best done in a way that integrates character, skills, and knowledge (Brynjolfson and Lewis, 2006; Ferris, 1995; Hibbert and Hibbert, 2014a; Moon, 2018). The starting place for developing this is their home church (Alvarez, 2000; Hibbert and Hibbert, 2016).

Intercultural understanding is also essential. Pre-field intercultural training can help with initial adjustment (Lee, 2019; Strand et al., 2016). But there is no shortcut for learning language and culture. It is best learnt through immersion (e.g., Kraft, 1996; Rynkiewich, 2020). Strand et al. (2016) note, however, that an increase in pre-field cross-cultural training for missionary health workers has not decreased their attrition. This is perhaps due to the way it is taught and its being non-specific to the context of ministry. Instead, the authors propose “real-time training” on the field delivered face-to-face or online, “at the time of the greatest perceived need” (2016: 57). They suggest mentoring as the best approach as it allows for individualized training and support based on “real experiences” (2016: 66).

Rynkiewich (2020) also affirms the limitations of what can be provided pre-field. He recommends training in ethnography and historical analysis so that through research new workers “can figure it out for themselves” (2020: 343) through “the humility of serious listening” (2020: 344). Karapanagiotis (2017) also recommends personal research as a way of teaching world religions to prospective missionaries.

Alvarez (2000: 101) asserts that a degree is not essential for missionaries but that “the ability to learn is definitely essential.” Although Rynkiewich (2020: 342) does not comment on the necessity for a degree, he does stress that the pace of change in the world means that content from the past will not “serve well in the future.”

Missionary training literature is clear in its emphasis on integral ministry training that occurs in the ministry context. In this approach, experience, research, and mentoring work together to promote an orientation toward lifelong learning. The assumption that this also applies to work among nomads, as well as the specific needs of nomadic work, has been tested and explored through interviewing missionaries who work with nomads.

Method

This article reports further on structured individual interviews conducted in 2018 with 37 people working among nomads. As reported previously (Hibbert et al., 2023), 15 of the interviewees were from the USA. The remaining interviewees came from Australia (3), Canada (1), the Caribbean (1), Central Asia (2), East Africa (3), East Asia (2), South Asia (2), Switzerland (2), and the UK (1). Five did not provide their nationality. Fifteen interviewees were women. Seven interviewees were from national churches, and one was from a Majority World sending agency. Nine major mission agencies were represented: Christian and Missionary Alliance (1), Christian Veterinary Mission (5), Frontiers (5), IMB (2), OM (1), Pioneers (2), SIM (5), United World Mission (1), and Wycliffe Bible Translators (2). The affiliation of five expatriate interviewees was not given.

This article reports the answers to the following four questions:

• What are the main challenges that new workers starting out in this ministry face?

• What kind of people (character, understanding, and skills) would you like to join you in this (or in similar) ministry?

• Are there things you feel you could have been better prepared for before you arrived on the field?

• Do you have any suggestions for missionary training institutions or entities for how to prepare people for this kind of ministry?

The interview recordings were transcribed and coded in NVivo 13 specifically with a view to identifying the particular challenges new workers face and to gather their practical recommendations for pre-field and early on-field preparation and learning.

In the next sections, we first describe interviewees’ views regarding the main challenges new workers to nomads face. Following this, we outline what interviewees consider are essential selection criteria for workers for nomads. Then, the specific character qualities, skills, and knowledge interviewees think new workers need are described. After this, we summarize their views on helpful means of learning for new workers. Finally, we discuss the implications of these things for preparing new workers to work with nomads. Our focus is on the specific preparation needed for ministry to nomads rather than general discussion of missionary training or theological education.

New worker challenges

Our assumption is that understanding the specific challenges of workers’ initial years on the field means we can better prepare prospective workers for these. This section outlines interviewees’ views of what new workers encounter and what they find hard to cope with. The three main areas they struggled with were living conditions, marriage and singleness, and language learning.

Interviewees mentioned many things as being particularly difficult for new workers including quality-of-life, isolation in remote areas, health and stench in nomad camps, heat, unstable power or lack of electricity, lack of clean water, children’s schooling, having to have guards, travel hazards, lack of privacy, and poverty. It also takes a long time for locals to begin to trust them. Karen ¹ explained that “life there takes longer” meaning “rarely being able to achieve what you set out to do in a morning.” Sickness is common and discouraging. Rhonda explained, “you have very different diseases . . . and those can just wipe us out. . . . and you’re already emotionally drained or spiritually drained and then you have physical drain.” Susan commented, “When people are in the States they say . . . ‘I want to go to the hardest place’ . . . they’re sincere about that. But then when they get up there, they say ‘well, I didn’t mean this hard.’”

The living and working conditions put strain on marriages. Alex did not realize “how hard my marriage would be attacked coming to the field.” Evan commented on relationship strain due to gender expectations in the culture. This can affect expectations of working together and sharing household work.

For singles, expectations regarding marriage can be difficult to navigate. Rhonda observes that they do not fit into the social structure of nomads:

every single conversation for the first, like, three years of my being there was all centered around marriage and children. . . . you have to learn how to be not pulled down by those things. . . . They’re like, so what’s broken about you?

One of the major challenges for workers among nomads is the need to learn multiple languages. This extends the language learning time significantly. Robert describes “language fatigue:”

the same tasks over and over every day, week in and week out. And then you feel like you’ve made progress and then you have to go back to square one again with another language. . . . You can’t function in life because people don’t understand you.

Often, the nomads’ language has few resources and no language schools, with some having no orthography. It can be difficult to find a language helper. There are also differences between town and nomad dialects.

The normal new worker challenges of adjusting to a new context and learning language and culture appear to be amplified for those seeking to work among nomads. In particular, the physical demands of living, along with the challenge of needing to learn multiple languages with minimal resources, increase personal and relational strain.

Selection and recruiting

Given these difficulties, the question arises of how to find workers who will thrive despite the challenges. Colin suggests, “we need real tough boy scouts that can live there” or “cowboys” who are willing to live a long way from “any good town.” Susan observed that “very strong characters” tend to be “the ones that are willing to stay in and persevere.” Other terms interviewees used were “physically strong” (Abdhi) and “someone who’s hardy” (Alex). Hans thought that people who like adventure and challenges would do well. Alex describes it as “someone who’s willing to rough it a little.” Maria gave more details:

flexible, like traveling, being on the move, . . . love camping, love outside, you know? . . . they should like animals; if they like children [it] makes it also easier. Even dirty children climbing on your lap; not too fussy about hygiene and clean food.

Other selection criteria that interviewees listed included not being too young (Linda) and having some life experience (Maria, Craig). However, they should not be too old because of the challenge of learning at least two languages (Evan).

Abdhi and Ujas stressed the need for women and families. They explained, “ladies who can talk to a lady and can understand the problem of ladies. Men can go. So the door does not open. If we go with family then the door is opened.” Aylin also stressed the need for women so that local women “can say all their problems” and find healing for their hearts and homes. In Charles’ situation, locals are likely to trust a single woman, but they are suspicious that unmarried male workers might steal their women. In contrast, in their context of hospital work, Jane and Donna would like single men who have time to interact with men (as opposed to married men who have little time to spare between work and family).

Because of the difficulty of living among nomads, interviewees strongly emphasized the value of short-term immersion trips for recruiting. Their recommendation is for one to three months. They should be connected with long-term workers and have exposure that helps them “to get a feel of what it is all about” (Donna). Mehmet says “they have to see hard life,” preferably with a local teacher. Matt endorsed this from his personal experience as it helped him to see “how hard it was going to be.” It meant he could also help his supporters understand.

There was a consensus among interviewees that, ideally, recruits are physically hardy, flexible, adventure lovers. Both men and women are needed. To overcome any tendency by potential recruits to romanticize this type of work, short-term immersion exposure of at least one month was recommended.

Pre- and early on-field training

In order to train, trainers need to understand what they are trying to achieve. In educational planning, this is usually expressed in terms of “be, do, know” or character qualities, skills, and knowledge (Brynjolfson, 2006: 5–6). This section reports what interviewees considered critical character qualities, skills, and knowledge that need to be developed in new workers.

BE: spiritual resilience and character

Relationship with God

According to interviewees, new workers for nomads need to be “genuine followers” of Jesus (Don) with “a solid relationship with God” (Jane) and a passion for the people to be saved (Hans). Alex says they must have “a walk with God that sustains them in the midst of a spiritual battle.” Maria describes it as, “you need to be close to Jesus . . . able to listen to God and obey.”

Matt and Amari stressed the importance of establishing disciplined habits relating to prayer and devotional life prior to going to the field so that these are maintained in the midst of the stress after arrival. Donna affirmed the importance of developing habits that promote spiritual resilience and the ability to maintain emotional stability “with very little external outputs and inputs.” Both Alan and Robert commented on the need to prepare people “to embrace suffering.”

Robert thought that a major thing people need to learn before coming to the field is spiritual warfare. By this he meant knowing how to deal with “direct, noticeable opposition” from the enemy, caring for their own spiritual life and health, knowing how to manage people in bondage who “exhibit all manner of strange things, which you probably can’t explain,” and nightmares, strange experiences, and sensing of demonic presence. Maria added, “how to deal with witchcraft and know how to deal with curses.” Robert thought there was a need for “specialized tools in the toolbox for spiritual warfare.” Maria reflected that westerners tend not to be aware of “the whole spiritual battle issue.”

In summary, interviewees emphasized the importance of a close walk with God. This should be characterized by a disciplined spiritual life that supports spiritual and personal resilience. New workers also need to be specifically prepared for spiritual warfare.

Attitude

Perseverance and patience were emphasized by several interviewees. Craig described it as “the ability to handle mentally, physically . . . slow, laborious, monotonous, unpleasant things.” It is being able to “stick with it” when “you’re inadequate, you’re ineffective and unproductive” until you are able to contribute (Robert) or feel competent and successful (Jane).

Flexibility was also considered critical. Donna talked about how “our plans change constantly. . . . you may have this on the schedule, but that doesn’t mean anything.” For Matt, being flexible means, “Putting aside our approaches and our opinions. . . . I have a kind of idea what I want to do. But I’m willing to move. Not to be tied to one idea.” Jane believes that new workers need to learn “to keep a joyful attitude and to look for the best in situations” rather than complaining, being “rigid in their schedule” or feeling “entitled to certain things.”

Interviewees highlighted that missionaries should be humble and come as learners, not just to train, teach, or lead locals. Amari called for open-mindedness: “it’s good that we prepare ahead of time. . . . [but] some of the things that we learn ahead of time might not be applicable to where we are minister[ing]. So, we need to balance it.” Marv refers to a local brother who told him:

even if you think you’re superior to me in some area, you need to hear me out. And consider me to have the right answer, even if you think I’m wrong. . . . what I need from you is to really feel respected.

Craig advised, “you’re observant, you’re respectful, . . . you pause, . . . and seek to understand before just jumping in with the initiative of your own agenda.” Mehmet commented on foreigners presuming to teach locals how to live. Instead, he says, “first, he has to live in my life.”

Interviewees stressed the importance of self-awareness. This means being “aware of who they are. Aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, aware of their own personality . . . your own limits, your capacity . . . aware of how they how they function with others on a team” (Robert). Donna thought that being self-aware means knowing personal specific triggers and warning signs, especially in the early years when team members do not know new people well enough to help them be aware of issues. Craig further expanded self-awareness by describing the need for appreciating how people appear in relation to others:

the ability to kind of perceive how . . . you’re making them feel or how they’re feeling as you’re saying something or in a situation . . . That’s a mentality and a desire, you know, to want to know how people are experiencing you or the situation.

Attitude, for the interviewees, encompassed perseverance, flexibility, humility, openness to learn, respect for local people, and self-awareness. Self-awareness included understanding self as well as perceiving self in relation to others.

DO: Skills

Language and culture learning

Like for all cross-cultural missionary work, language and culture learning was identified by interviewees as being of major importance. Hans said language learning should be the “top priority, not just to get around but to become fluent.” He explained that speaking the language well made it easier for people to listen to him and helped to win locals’ respect. Susan urged that they have to be committed to learn the language “no matter how long it takes.” Robert reflected, “everybody I know . . . says I wish I had gone to a higher level in . . . language proficiency. And we all say I will do it down the road. And it doesn’t happen.” Jane observed that some people assume that “she’s done with her language learning.” However, once formal language learning is completed, learning continues as a “lifelong process.”

Steve felt that he “could have used more linguistic preparation” and Colin wished there were better methods of language learning. Traditional language schools helped where they existed. Susan thought it would have been helpful if she had been given some tools for language learning before arrival. Alex understood that such tools now exist but commented that he had not been given any before he began working among nomads in the early 1980s. He wished he had been. Maria thought that linguistics training is especially important “where the language is not written.”

Hans suggested that it may be better to learn in a multicultural city where “there’s much less pressure on you . . . and if you make a mistake . . . in a mixed city, it might not really be that serious.” On the other hand, Abraham commented that unless there are enough of that specific people group living in the city, it may be difficult to find a language helper, resulting in wasting years in city living. He asserted, “You have to live actually among the people.”

Learning culture means learning “to listen, to hear” to understand “what is going on” (Matt). Maria said that it is “most important that people walk with open eyes and learn to observe.” It means learning “what’s expected of you; when you’re supposed to do this and . . . what you’re supposed to wear” (Karen). Colin emphasized that people need to learn “how to analyze a culture . . . the sources of knowledge and sources of right and wrong. . . . [how to] ask the right questions.” Abdhi stressed the importance of just being with people: “When you sit with them [and] spend time with them they start opening up and start telling you about their family needs.”

As in all cross-cultural missionary situations, language and culture learning should be prioritized. In nomadic contexts, it is often more challenging to find language helpers and to have consistent, sufficient immersion among the people. New workers for nomads would benefit from language learning preparation that provides them with specific tools.

Interpersonal

As for all missionary work, relationships are critical. Abdhi stated: “they should know [how] to build relationship. . . . Ready to give time. And listen. And listen.” Matt emphasized, “The ministry is in the relationships. . . . just to waste time. To have time for people. . . . If you don’t have relationship, you can’t speak into people’s lives.”

Jack and Martha observed that one of the greatest challenges for new workers was “working together as a team, especially if they were a multicultural team.” They remarked on the importance of “asking for forgiveness” from each other. Mehmet commented on the prevalence of arguments among new workers. Mike’s team was “struggling with each other so much that we didn’t have time to struggle against the enemy who was distracting and building division and distrust even within our own team.”

Craig observed that “this line of work draws pretty independent people” but he sees the importance of this being coupled with humility, “interdependence,” and “synergistic collaboration” for teamwork. He wondered if there is an overemphasis on individualism in recruiting, which results in an “unhealthy independence once they actually go.” He believed that “the scale of the obstacles that we face and the nature of the issues that we have” require teamwork to have “substantive impact.”

Professional

According to interviewees, there is a need for “a strong, marketable skill set” (Marv) so that “you can really contribute” (Sarah). Craig observed that these skills can help to open doors, “bring you into some of these closed, difficult environments.” Specific skills identified by interviewees that could be helpful were medicine, nursing and midwifery, therapies (physical, speech, occupational), public health, agriculture, veterinary medicine, animal husbandry, business, accounting, book-keeping, microfinance, building and construction, well-digging and engineering (for drilling wells), mechanics, development, refugee work, adult education/teaching, media, and literacy. Amari observed that it is helpful to know “ahead of time” what is needed in order to prepare specifically for the people’s needs. It could be that on a team just one person has the requisite skills.

Donna recommended having some professional experience before coming to the field, “even if it’s a year and so that they know what they’re doing and feel self-confidence.” Experience can be particularly helpful because it teaches people “to rely on yourself . . . because . . . you’re going to be in fields where you don’t have any other than yourself, right? . . . you will have much less equipment and you have to be really creative” (Donna).

Whether as individual workers or within a missionary team, specific professional skills are very often required when working with nomads. It is recommended that workers have some experience in their professional field before arriving.

Church planting strategies

Overall, there was very little mention of the need to learn about church planting strategies. Five interviewees mentioned the value of learning Bible storying. Rhonda mentioned learning about disciple making movements, church, church planting, or church development.

Alan would have liked more equipping in “making disciple-makers.” Jack and Martha would have liked to be better prepared in how to make disciples among Muslims. Steve wanted more pre-field training on church and church history. However, there was considerable discussion, especially from national workers, about the importance of listening to locals and developing indigenous churches.

Abraham compared missionary approaches to being like Saul putting his armor on David to fight Goliath. He said that local ways, like David’s way, are better. Abraham recommended that expatriate workers take several years to learn before they try to implement the methods and strategies that they bring with them (or read in books). He also asked for reticence in teaching methods to local workers that have been created to address foreign missionary issues. Amari urged missionaries not to “be boastful of the knowledge that you have.” Mehmet talked about the unhelpfulness of using written methods of Bible study with oral learners. He was concerned that missionaries too often make new Christians like themselves.

Mike commented:

we coming from the West . . . have a very set model for what church is and what discipleship looks like, what evangelism looks like. Whereas our nomadic friends have a much better grasp of what is not just doable, but what’s appropriate.

Before developing church planting strategies, new workers should take the time to listen to and learn from local nomad believers (where they exist). As so many nomadic groups remain unreached, this reinforces the need to develop a specific missiology appropriate for work among nomads (Hibbert et al., 2023).

KNOW: Bible, religions, anthropology

Interviewees stressed the importance of biblical, world religions and anthropological knowledge. There was some ambivalence about the need for traditional, college-based training in these areas, although the knowledge itself was valued.

Jack and Martha emphasized the importance of a “good working knowledge of the Scriptures” so as to be able to explain them clearly to others. Hans appreciated his time at a missionary training college as “It helped me to get a much better grasp of the biblical message . . . and . . . the whole context of the Bible and theological issues.” However, he believed that if someone already knows the Bible well, is giving Bible studies, has been active in the church, sharing the gospel, and knows basic doctrines, college may not be necessary. Similarly, for Amari, it was not about going to seminary but rather having “the knowledge of scripture that they can share,” understanding and being obedient to it.

Jim went as a vet without a “strong biblical background.” He would like to have had an “understanding [of] the deep truths of Scripture before coming.” He added, however, that one “won’t necessarily get that from Bible school.” Maria did not go to Bible school and thought that people need “a good knowledge of the Bible and a good relationship to God” regardless of whether they have formal training. She considered formal training “good to have but not mandatory.” Abdhi and Karen thought it good to have someone on the team with formal training in Bible and theology but did not consider it necessary for all members of the team.

Don and Linda agreed that biblical knowledge is not sufficient on its own. Workers need to be able to communicate it in a way that connects with people in that culture, and that does not unnecessarily offend listeners. For those working with Muslims, Colin said they need to be clear on the nature of God, especially the Trinity, incarnation and atonement, “for their own defense as they get into the rough stuff.” He stressed that they need to be convinced of it personally, not just academically.

Rhonda observed that “people can come out of theological college with a lot of pride” due to their knowledge. She stressed the importance of humility. Abraham was also concerned about the pride that going to theological college seems to create. Karen was looking for “people who listen to Jesus . . . who are in the Word . . . and have a reasonable comprehension of it. People who are learners, not know-it-all.”

Don and Linda, who work in East Asia, found it very helpful to have Tibetan Buddhist training before they set out. For those going to Africa, Maria recommended learning about African religions, African worldview, Africans and money matters, patron client, honor shame, and Islam and animism.

Most of the nomads that the interviewees worked with are Muslims. When Hans first came to the field, he “didn’t have a clue about Islam.” Now, he said, there are many effective approaches, so it would be good to present people with these tools. He thought that, with appropriate tools, new workers might learn in two years what took him 30 years.

Colin recommended new workers learn to understand the Islam of the context, not just “academic Islam.” They also need “to be able to answer some of the common objections that people will throw up very soon” (e.g., “Jesus didn’t die. The Bible was changed.”) Evan thought they should learn “helpful and unhelpful responses to it [the Qu’ran] in ministry.”

With respect to intercultural understanding, most interviewees agree with Karen that “you can’t really get it until you’re there” but that “some awareness” of anthropology is helpful. Linda thought learning about different types of cultures helps people to “pick out the big pieces that give . . . an idea of what they’re walking into.” Robert said he would “just add my voice to the thousands” to stress the importance of getting “the basics of an understanding of the cultural paradigms and what . . . it takes to do cross-cultural interactions and who and what the tools are for learning a different culture.” One of these tools is having “mental categories to try to pursue” (Craig). Craig has found that those without this training are less able “to connect as deeply with people.” In contrast, Abraham commented that pre-field cultural training can sometimes be problematic as people arrive with biases.

Interviewees stressed that knowledge needs to be coupled with the ability to practically apply it in ministry. A solid biblical foundation has to be extended by being able to listen to nomads and sensitively answer the questions and issues they raise. Similarly, they advocated a practical knowledge of world religions that develops skills in responding to nomads’ questions and objections. Anthropology was considered a helpful tool to aid connection with nomads.

Recommended ways of preparing new workers

Mentoring and sharing lives

Interviewees clearly valued learning that occurred through more experienced missionaries investing time with them. Rhonda and Susan advocated new missionaries “walking alongside” more experienced workers. These mentors spend time with workers and show them what to do, with an emphasis on learning through relationship. They “guide” (Abraham) and give advice to mentees. A mentor is someone about whom mentees can say, “I’m learning from this person, and he’s teaching me, and I respect his authority over my life” (Marv). Craig wished that “there was that older person ahead of me, you know, that I could be drawing from.”

Marv and Shona shared how they had pre-field mentors from the country they were going to from an ethnic church in their home country. Not only were they mentored in the culture, the church also supported them in prayer and finance once they went to the field.

Craig also explained the value of local friendships for learning: “the more that you’re involved in substantive friendships or relationships, those people become your guides . . . they kind of explain things or they’re brave enough to tell you things that nobody else would do.” Rhonda said it can be helpful to participate in something like the Nomadic Peoples’ Network (NPN) because “you hear stories, and you see different ways of doing things and you get to interact with people.” She thought, “it really impacted my ability to work well among nomads.” Evan also affirmed the value of NPN for talking with “other people who are going through, or have been through, these kinds of struggles.”

Five interviewees mentioned the value of vicarious learning through teachers’ shared experience. Linda explained that “It’s a lot more real to them because they’ve experienced it. Where we’ve talked about it and read about it—they’ve lived it.” For example, Karen emphasized that it is not enough to academically study the Bible, “there’s got to be ‘how do you teach a love, falling in love with the scriptures?’ Yeah, that’s something that’s caught more than taught, right?”

The highlighting of mentoring emphasizes the need for experienced missionaries to nomads to invest their time in new workers. This relational approach to teaching and learning is most effective life to life in the context of ministry. At the same time, local friendships and peer missionary interaction is also beneficial.

Practicums and short-term trips

Interviewees highly recommended short-term exposure trips to help prospective workers gain holistic understanding about work among nomads. They recommended practicums that integrate practical experience and character development with academic study. Craig found his own experience “invaluable” and thought it helped people through giving them “categories in their mind” that helps them in the future: “it’s like, . . . I remember that feeling. I remember that situation . . . and this is going to help me better handle the next time.”

Susan has found that “the people that are the most successful are those who have been doing this at home for a long time” by interacting “with internationals where they’re living.” She asserted that those who live among and show hospitality to Muslims and Buddhists “in their midst” are “that much more ahead” when they get to the field.

Another kind of practicum is where workers need experience with animals. For example, Robert, who had had no previous interaction with large animals or farms, sought out someone who would train him in handling camels and riding horseback. He knew he would need to be “comfortable around these animals” and says, “you’re going in to try to learn some practical things . . . that will be part of your everyday life.”

Learning on the job

There was general agreement that the major learning occurs on the field. Amari said, “The mission field will be your school.” Robert emphasized the importance of having an attitude of learning and reflecting “along the way.” While he thought that it might have been great to have learnt many things before he started, he stated, “God designs the journey for learning” rather than “just learn and then go on a journey.”

Karen observed, “If you pile it up too much at the front end, you’ve no place to . . . get it where you need it.” Craig added, “I think many things obviously can’t be fully prepared for it from an institution . . . have to kind of get in life and do it.” Robert reckoned, “I think it’s a little impractical to try to learn too much beforehand. You can’t become an expert in everything before you try something because it’s all theoretical.” Steve advised “Get the basic training you need and then just go for a few years to learn what you don’t know.” Having field experience between her foundational studies and her more specific intercultural training was beneficial for Sarah as she “had the questions and experiences then to be able to make things make sense.”

Jane considered that “I wasn’t enough prepared and there is no way to be enough prepared.” This is because “plans change all the time” and the flexibility you need cannot be taught, only learnt through experience. Matt commented that because his home country is so radically different, “it’s hard to think what preparation you could do.” He recommended they should, “Just go.”

Colin elaborated that even if things were learnt, “a lot of these things need to be repeated.” His agency had a year-long internship that integrated ministry and regular weeks of training. He found this “real valuable because we were in ministry context and then able to look at some of the elements of missions in the context of your ministry.”

Pre-field, specific, preparatory courses

Interviewees highly recommended several specific, pre-field preparatory courses that they had done. They ranged from one week to three months in length. A course at a farm on animal husbandry, agriculture, and healthcare was mentioned, as was SIL International’s training in linguistics, literacy, and anthropology. Alex and Rhonda strongly recommended the Perspectives course. Colin recommended “everybody should have some sort of a community development course under them before they come.”

These types of courses were generally not run by theological colleges. Often mission agencies ran their own programs covering culture and language learning, and teamwork training. These courses tended to be interactive and often offered the opportunity to meet with people with first-hand experience.

Discussion

There was a very strong theme in interviewees’ responses of learning through immersion in the nomadic context, preferably with experienced workers as mentors who walk alongside new workers. The consensus was that while some pre-field introductory courses were helpful, the main learning occurs on-the-job. Workers to nomads have to learn “to think like a nomad” and “stop thinking like a sedentary pastor or social worker” (Charles). This kind of transformative learning is achieved through immersion in authentic nomadic experience and reflection on that experience. Without embodied experience it is not possible to grasp the full extent of the meaning of the issues that new workers encounter.

For the sake of connecting meaningfully with nomads, and for visa requirements, most missionaries to nomads need a professional skill. Interviewees advised that those with professional training have some professional experience before they come so that they are more confident when faced with under-resourced contexts. At the same time, they need to come with a willingness to hold their skills lightly and be willing to learn and do other tasks that the team may need.

There was surprisingly little discussion about specific evangelism, discipleship, or church planting training for work with nomads. This does not mean that issues and challenges relating to church planting were not raised, simply that this did not appear to be a focus for new worker preparation. This could be due to the demands of language and professional learning, and initial adjustment to the context. Perhaps, like for interviewee Abraham, there was a reticence to specify particular approaches before the context has been well understood, preferring to wait for local converts to define the best approaches. Like the need for a specific missiology for ministry among nomads (Hibbert et al., 2023), there appears to be a need to develop specific preparation for new workers regarding appropriate church for nomads and how to facilitate its emergence and development. However, this seems to be more relevant for after initial language and culture learning.

This research reinforces the need for a missionary preparation approach that ensures prospective missionaries are well discipled, spiritually resilient, self-aware, and have good interpersonal skills. It stresses the value of enabling new workers to get out to the field as early as possible so that they have time to learn multiple languages. It highlights the need to support them to learn while immersed in their ministry context. This could be achieved through an orientation to lifelong learning with modular knowledge study and skill development courses that are available, when needed, for ministry.

Learning involves more than knowledge transfer. Our task as mission educators, and specifically those training people for nomadic ministry, is to mentor into and model a way of life that embodies openness, flexibility, listening, observing, and continually reflecting on what we learn through experience. By ongoing learning together with mentors and peers, we create a continuing community of learners who put into practice Paul’s instruction to pass on to others what we learn (2 Tim 2:2; Hibbert and Hibbert, 2014b). We should all keep on learning, and passing on our learning, throughout our lives. As Colin said, “the journey is for learning.”