Mish Kids
First shown on Channel 4 in June 2005
In Channel 4's four short films, Mish Kids, young people describe their experiences of returning to Britain after living in distant countries with their missionary parents. Jenny Vaughan reports
The popular image of a missionary as someone trekking through wild territory preaching the Gospel is long out of date but much missionary work is still organised by Missionary Societies, some with histories stretching back hundreds of years.
Variety of jobs
The jobs that missionaries do and the lives they lead are very different from those of their predecessors. While they are inspired by their Christian faith and are usually (but not always) members of the church whose Missionary Society arranges their work, they are as likely to be teachers, medical staff, managers, agricultural advisors, engineers or IT experts as to have specifically religious jobs.
Many are based in towns and cities, or at least within easy reach of the modern world, working alongside local colleagues. But there are still some who, like the missionaries of the past, live and work in remote areas and may face considerable dangers, not least to their health.
Changing image
The changing image of mission work has led many church organisations to feel uneasy about using the term ‘missionary’ at all, believing that it has inappropriate overtones of colonialism. The Methodists, for example, prefer the term ‘mission partner’.
In most cases, missionary families are expected to live among, and at the same economic level as, the local population. This means that missionary children tend to be less privileged than their counterparts in the commercial expatriate sector in the developing word.
Many societies expect the children of missionaries to attend local schools if possible. Some denominations, in some circumstances, favour special international schools, if only to overcome language problems. For the same reason, especially in remote areas, children may be home-schooled like Rachel.
The organisers
The families featured in the programmes come from the evangelical churches, but missionaries can be found in just about every Christian denomination. The Find out more section gives details of a selection of missionary organisations operating from Britain or Ireland. Most of them offer a variety of involvements for mission workers, ranging from a few weeks’ or months’ volunteering to commitments of several years.
