FAQS

Imagine the possibilities! Getting to know people in other lands, learning their cultures, lifestyles, and…recipes! If you have sometimes felt you had little to offer for mission service… think again!


THE NEED

ColorfulPinWheelSmall A missionary family may be praying for someone just like you right now. Someone who is mature and can lovingly help share their daily routines, their burdens, their joys, and their commitment to Christ.

Young missionary families on the mission field face many challenges, including a new culture, new living conditions, new language, new foods, new friends, new babies, and a new ministry.

The presence of a loving, capable, mature Christian woman can allow them to attend language school, organize the household, help the children adjust, help them spend more time in their ministry, and have more freedom to proclaim God’s Word effectively. The missionary family will, in turn, give you security and tender, loving care.

The many skills you have learned, perhaps while teaching and raising your own children and managing your own home, has great value to these young families. You can provide help with tutoring, home schooling, baby sitting, cooking, music, shopping, providing hospitality to guests, and so forth.

There are opportunities for service in many countries, from three months to a year or more. Review the current Volunteer Opportunities, then let us know your interests. We’ll work to match you up with a missionary family in a location where you would like to minister. Requests come to us from many areas, and we’ll work to accommodate your desires.

We try to keep the opportunities shown on our site current. Although Nannys usually stay from 3 to 12 months, the families often need help for longer periods, so we keep their openings on the website until they inform us they no longer need help.

It is best to send an application as soon as you can, as it takes time to process, work things out between you and family, get visas, etc.

If you are interested in short-term mission trips, please visit our other site, MissionFinder. We have over 800 organizations looking for volunteers to serve for a week-end or 2 – 3 weeks. Opportunities in the US and throughout the world.


REQUIREMENTS

You need to be 18 or older, have graduated from high school (or equivalent), and provide a photo, resume, and references from leaders in your church. In some circumstances mature married couples or even a single male may be accepted. You must be willing to stay at least 3 months  and be a citizen of USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, or certain countries in Western Europe and Scandinavia. Must be fluent in English. Click for complete information about applying.


FINANCES

GirlInRoundTubeSmallYour missionary family will supply your room and the meals that you eat with them (there may be a rare exception), and sometimes transportation around where they live. You will be responsible for your air fare and all other personal expenses.

These are volunteer positions (not paid). One reason for this is that you cannot enter most countries to take a paid job without special visas and permits, often difficult to get. As a volunteer, you can usually gain entry on a tourist visa.

Another reason is that on the whole, missionaries struggle to gain enough financial support for their own needs. Like you, most will be depending upon churches, families, and friends for their material needs. With few exceptions, Christian volunteers are surprised to find out how many relatives, friends, and churches will donate to your needs, if presented with good information about what you will be doing.

Reach out to friends, family, church members and whoever God leads you to. Your local mission-minded churches also will gladly receive these requests. We’re often surprised at the number of non-Christian friends who want to help with the financial need (co-workers, shop keepers, hair dressers, etc.). Many consider it a privilege to be able to support someone on a short-term mission trip, and are themselves doubly blessed by your willingness to go. You too will be blessed by their willingness to give through prayer and finances as you eagerly enter into your “Opportunity of Service”.

INSURANCE

GirlPigtailsYou are strongly encouraged to ask your current medical insurance company whether or not they will cover costs for care, and even emergency evacuation, in a foreign country should you need it: some do while some do not. If yours does not, or if you do not have medical insurance, please check with one or more of the agencies we have listed here. They specialize in the needs of people away from their home countries.

HOW THE APPLICATION PROCESS WORKS

  1. Once we receive your application, we will review it.  After an applicant is accepted as a nanny, we will send out reference requests to the three references the applicant listed on the application.  While we are waiting for the references to come back, we ask that the applicant review the families and choose the three top families that they wish to serve.  When we get at least two references back, we send the applicant’s information to the families of their choosing.  The families review the application and references and decide if they wish to proceed to get to know the applicant better.  If they decide to proceed, they will contact you via email and then usually arrange Skype calls to have great conversations with you and get a feel for your personality.  The family decides if they would like to have the applicant.  It becomes the applicant’s turn to make a choice of which family they would like to commit to.  Once the choice is made, the applicant starts the process of raising funds, obtaining a passport and visa, getting immunizations, etc.  We send a checklist for the applicants to follow so they are well prepared to travel.
  1. Sometimes this process takes as little as two weeks, sometimes it takes longer.  It all depends on the responsiveness of the reference requests and the families.
  1. The family and the applicant get to know each other through Skype calls and emails.  That is the extent of interviews.  The families also have to go through screening before they are accepted and have to agree to our terms–such as providing free room and board and regular time off.
  1. The nanny can prepare by following the checklist while the process is taking shape.  She can get immunizations and her passport before deciding on a family.  She can also do research on the countries where she will be serving to become familiar with cultural differences.
  1. A nanny should be exceptionally flexible.  Life on the missionary field is unpredictable.  Schedules fall apart easily, things come up, impromptu trips are taken…all of this needs to be taken in stride with a servant’s heart.  The nanny also needs to be prepared to “accept without judgment” differing beliefs than what she is accustomed to.  Our missionaries represent several Christian denominations.  The beliefs concerning baptisms and communion are quite different everywhere.  Be prepare to be challenged when learning about these differences among the people serving God.  It is challenging at times to cope with all the demands (children, teaching, cleaning, tutoring, chores) and we encourage the nanny to take time away from the family on her day off.  Walk through the local town and have a nice, long lunch at a cafe and take time to refresh.
  1. It is always important to know about acceptable clothing before arriving in a new culture.  Better to be prepared beforehand than to have to adjust afterward.  Being flexible is essential as is being non-judgmental.  It will be hard, but you will be blessed beyond your wildest dreams.  The majority of our applicants continue on to serve in mission fields citing their experiences as a Mission Nanny as the reason.