August 15, 2026

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Stress Management

Stress Management, Training

Stress: Too Much and Too Little – Part One

Is stress, even cross-cultural stress, always a bad thing? Too much stress is not good.   More than 4 years ago on this blog, I mentioned a book by Dr. Richard Swenson on the topic of “Margin” – Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives.   I had read the book and was recommending it because I recognized that many of our missionaries were subject to overload and consequent burn-out.   (See another recommendation on our SEND U wiki.)… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Stress Management

Questioning the Validity of “The 4 Stages of Cultural Adjustment”

Cultural adjustment is a topic of great interest among missionaries, especially those who are preparing for ministry in another culture, or are already in the throes of the stress that comes with living and working in a culture previously unfamiliar to them. It is a topic that most missions, including SEND, address in pre-field training to help prepare our new missionaries for transition into effective ministry in a different culture.… Read the whole post
Darlene Jovellanos1 min read
Hardship, Stress Management, Success in ministry

Joyful Acceptance of Hardships

This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series Success for missionariesPart 5 of a series on defining success for a missionary. Part 1 demonstrated that we, like Paul, can be confident in our ministry, despite all our detractors and critics. In Part 2, we saw in 2 Corinthians that Paul repeats the phrase “commend ourselves,” to identify key criteria that he uses to demonstrate that his ministry is credible and successful. In Part 3, we explored Paul’s first criterion of successful ministry, that of clearly proclaiming the Gospel. In Part 4, we looked at the second criterion, that of seeing lives changed by God’s power through our ministry. As I said in my last post, Paul thought he didn’t need to commend himself to the Corinthians. They knew full well what had been accomplished through his preaching in their lives and in their church. His ministry was credible… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
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