Why Fellowship is Life-Giving for Missionaries

By Luke Dove, CMF Missionary to Guatemala

If we can be honest here, amongst friends, being a missionary is tough. It's rewarding and fulfilling and meaningful and all those things but it's also just hard sometimes. It's lonely, it's isolating, it's stressful, it's being confronted with constant challenges and struggles and having to navigate things that are often well outside of whatever I used to consider "normal life".

Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it's not always easy, especially as one of the few CMF members who doesn't have other American teammates on the field with me. And even as I get more Guatemalan every day, there is still some part of me that will never be Guatemalan, that will never be able to be fully a local, and yet when I go back to the States, I am also no longer fully American. So I exist in this weird middle space being both Guatemalan and American and yet neither.

I felt for a while that I was the only one who felt that way. I went a couple of years trying to navigate that and feeling and holding that tension by myself (although I'm not sure I totally realized at the time that's what I was experiencing). And then I went to Mexico to attend my first gathering of some CMF missionaries a few years back. And then I went to One Summit, a gathering of all CMF missionaries last year, and I saw what I saw in Mexico on an even bigger scale.

Sure, my situation and context are unique, but I am not alone. There are a couple hundred other missionaries who know what I am going through, who are living it out themselves in their parts of the world. Who know what I am experiencing and have been in that place themselves. We may speak different languages and be in different strategy areas, but we understand each other. And most importantly, we are all in this for the same reason, and we are all serving the same God.

And when at these meetings I heard the stories of what God was doing on the other side of the world, something became real to me that I knew in my mind but maybe hadn't really understood in my heart, that I was a part of something bigger. That somehow the Guatemalan ghetto where I spend my days was connected to rural Kenya, to a university in Germany, to a church that's just been planted in a place I've never heard of and will most likely never visit.

In 2026 I hope to get to go to South Asia for a gathering with workers from my strategy area. I had to look up the specific location. I don't know what language they speak, or what the situation there is, I just know it's quite a far way from Guatemala, or rural Kentucky (where I'm from) for that matter. I don't know exactly what to expect, or what I'll find there. But I do expect to find God there. The same God that's here with me in the slums where I sit as I write this. And I know I'll find fellow missionaries who understand the work we do, who understand the difficulties of missionary life, who understand what it means to be in-between worlds and mindsets, who understand me. Who encourage me. Who I can share with and laugh with and learn from and be in community and fellowship with. And that's life giving. It's powerful. It's part of what keeps us going. What keeps me going.  

I'm grateful for the Fellowship. I'm grateful for the chance to meet together and share stories of what our awesome God is up to. And I'm grateful for the people who help make that possible.

Will you help us Strengthen Our Teams?

For missionaries like Luke, gatherings like this are a lifeline. They provide time for prayer, mentoring, and fellowship—helping missionaries stay spiritually grounded and missionally fruitful. They also offer vital support for children, creating space for friendships and fun.

Your gift helps remove financial barriers so every CMF missionary can attend a gathering with those doing similar work. Most gatherings cost about $150 per day per missionary, covering lodging, meals, and programming. By strengthening our teams, you strengthen the ministries they lead and the lives they impact worldwide.

Please consider giving a year-end gift to send a missionary to a life-giving gathering in 2026.