Global workers need encouragement. Often.  

Some of our colleagues and a group of church people we barely knew were crowded around the tables. Having completed only a few months of part-time language lessons, deep conversation was not yet possible. Thankfully, our new friend who had organized the gathering spoke wonderful English. Laughter and smiles communicated what our ears and brains could not yet decipher and helped us overcome our discomfort at being the guests of honor. Their gift of a lovely wooden box engraved on top with a silver symbol commemorating our twenty-five years of marriage still adorns the top of my dresser. Our friend suspected my loneliness and knew that, in America, we would have celebrated with a special gathering of family and friends. Over the years, I would witness her gift of encouragement again and again.

I am a fixer by nature. For many years fixing things for others embodied my personal definition of encouragement. I am still learning that an encourager, though usually not able to erase the discouragement or fears of another, walks beside them, listening, crying, laughing, and praying. She is a safe place where the individual can be honest and real without fearing judgment or rejection. An encourager lets us know that we are not alone in our struggles.

A beautiful word picture capturing what it means to encourage another person jumped off the page of a biography I recently read about Elizabeth Elliot. 

“It was as if her fragile, eggshell canoe had somehow survived murderous rapids. She was soaked, bruised, and bloodied by jagged rocks. Others had shouted, from the shore, all kinds of advice meant to be encouraging. But no one had waded into the roiling water and gotten into the boat with her.”  Many chapters later, the author describes a friend who climbed into Elizabeth’s boat, making her feel deeply understood and no longer emotionally alone. 

Encouragement often comes when God taps someone on the shoulder and sends them wading into the stormy waters to climb into our boat.