Furlough Veterans

Now in their fifth term of missionary service, Romania missionaries Lucas and Kim Warner are veterans of four furloughs. They know well the value of their missions family. It’s always a joy when supporters ask specific questions about their ministry and take a vested interest in their people’s spiritual needs and welfare. “We need practical things like finances,” says Lucas, “But we also need people praying for us and getting to know our Roma people. Even when we get a one-sentence reply to our letters saying, ‘I’m praying for you,’ that gives us so much courage for our work.”

[The Warners are church planters among the Roma, a semi-itinerant people who live throughout Europe.]

A Complex Operation

Reconnecting with supporters during furlough takes extensive preparation. Furloughs are complex operations as missionaries secure a vehicle and housing, juggle their children’s schooling needs, arrange people to cover their on-field ministries, and schedule meetings. Lucas begins contacting pastors a year in advance when most churches’ calendars are wide-open. That way, he can schedule back-to back meetings that minimize the miles they put on their car and reduce the time spent away from Romania.

Before every furlough, the Warners ask supporters to pray for a furlough vehicle. The whole family joins in—Lucas, Kim, and their children Lucy, Eli, and Henry. Every single time, God has provided vehicles at no cost to them. During the Warners’ last furlough in 2024, a supporting family provided the funds to lease a car through the Righteous Rides furlough vehicle ministry. It was such a miraculous, eleventh-hour answer to prayer that Lucas and Kim woke up their kids to tell them. Lucy, Eli, and Henry got to see their big God provide in a big way.

Easing Furlough for Kids

One of the greatest challenges for missionary families is helping their kids navigate missions’ constant transitions, particularly at furlough time. As a third-generation missionary, Kim understands this well.  She works hard to help their kids navigate the inevitable goodbyes as they leave behind friends on both sides of the world. 

Their sending church’s school, First Baptist Christian School of Elyria, Ohio (FBCS), has been an important partner. Although Kim homeschools her children in Romania, the Warner kids are enrolled long-distance with FBCS, which satisfies Romania’s educational requirements. Kim buys the same books that on-site students use, and she matches her kids’ classwork with FBCS’s. When the Warner family returns for furlough, Lucy, Eli, and Henry can immediately plug into the school. The arrangement has provided the critical continuity of ongoing friendships.

Because of their parents’ carefully arranged furlough meetings, the Warner kids attend school  during the week and often travel with their parents for weekend meetings. To make the long miles go faster, Lucas and Kim developed a creative family tradition: The Furlough Foodie Quest. They choose a theme and search out the best locally run restaurant that serves the theme food. During one furlough they hunted down the best doughnuts. Another year it was the most delicious barbecue. In their last furlough, they went on a pie quest. At furlough’s end, they ranked their favorite pies and voted on the best of the best. 

With furlough being fun and personalized, the Warner kids have a love for the US as well as Romania. 

The fast pace of furlough doesn’t necessarily make for a restful time for missionaries, but furlough can still be rejuvenating. Time with extended family is always precious and restorative. Worshiping and hearing preaching in their own heart language does wonders for missionaries. In 2024, the Warners’ sending church (First Baptist Church of Elyria, Ohio) started midweek small groups, and it was a big encouragement for the Warner family to bond with church members on a deeper level.

Catching the Vision

On most furlough Sundays, the Warners are away from their home church, reconnecting with the rest of their mission family. “One of the reasons furlough is so important,” says Lucas, “is so people can get a vision for what we do and pray for us.” Furlough meetings help stoke that vision and give supporters fresh insight into missionaries’ ministries. For each furlough, the Warners map out three objectives for their Romania team (current coworkers are Nikki Carr and Sarah Weidner). Lucas and Kim recap the previous furlough’s goals and share the three new objectives for their next term. In 2024, a major objective was to grow their young adult ministry, a challenging goal in Roma culture. But in the two years since then, almost every prayer letter has described ways that God is working among the young adults. Their prayer warriors caught the vision. 

Tools like Zoom, email, and social media have bridged the gap between missionaries and their supporters, but nothing can replace face-to-face contact. The foundational reason behind furloughs dates to the earliest years of Christianity, when Paul and Barnabas reported to their sending church in Antioch, and in Jerusalem (Acts 14:26-15:4). What an encouragement it must have been to those church members, and what a challenge to keep serving and perhaps join them in missions. Furlough is a sacrifice, but it’s another way God keeps the cycle of missions rolling.