Last year, my husband and I became “pastoral associates” to a team of missionaries in Central America. Our role is to provide ongoing prayer support, friendship, encouragement, and counsel to the couples on that field. We pray for them regularly, check in via Zoom and WhatsApp, and even get to visit them in person. It’s a huge privilege to come alongside these kingdom laborers, but it’s also a task for which I feel inadequate. I’m not always sure what missionaries need.

I was grateful then, to read Catherine Allison’s recent reminder to look out for the mental health of cross-cultural workers. If our concern for our missionaries extends only to their financial or ministry needs, we haven’t loved them well enough: “As supporters, we should remember the humanity of the missionary behind the prayer card.”

For missionaries, the stress of ministry in an unfamiliar culture, the pressure to raise funds and report success, and the lack of available health care can contribute to silence and shame when depression or anxiety descends. The isolation only makes the struggle worse.

Thankfully, Allison has suggestions. To help missionaries, individuals and churches need to ask questions and provide options for treatment and therapy. If we know that one in five American adults experiences mental illness, we shouldn’t assume missionaries are any different. And if we are willing to advocate for mental health awareness among our family and friends, we should do the same for the people God calls his “fellow workers” (1 Cor. 3:9).