Book Review | Before You Go: Wisdom from 10 Women Who Served Internationally by Emily Bennett

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“We’re committed to going, but if I’m honest, I battle so many fears. We’ve finished seminary. We’ve walked through the process with our elders and mission board. But I feel like maybe I’m not fit to do this job.”

I reached across the table and squeezed the hand of my young friend who was weeks away from leaving for the mission field.  “I think you would be so helped by a book I just read.”

How grateful I was to recommend Emily Bennett’s Before You Go, a compilation of essays from 10 women who have ministered cross-culturally. These women are approachable, real, and faithful. I know some of them personally. Their wisdom in this book will equip those who are headed to the field. I’ll summarize more specifically below. 

Before you’re ready, answer key questions.

The first four chapters cover foundational concerns that arise as the road ahead comes into view. Questions include:

• Is God really asking me to go?
• How can I leave everything I know behind?
• Will I be able to work in harmony with teammates?
• How can I even begin to accomplish what seems like an insurmountable task?

Each woman speaks from her own experience on the path to cross-cultural ministry, and they all declare that the answers they found came from the Lord through his word. Based on these biblical principles, they also recommend practical steps to take and tips to consider. 

Before you’re sent, apply God’s truth to life’s circumstances. 

Chapters 5–8 address topics like suffering, marriage, singleness, and motherhood. Women on the field need to consider these topics. Although each writer invites you into her own story, you can hear a clear, consistent melody throughout their accounts: God’s truth anchored them in every circumstance. 

Listen to the words of Lydia Pettus, who suffered the loss of loved ones, including her 16-year-old son. She endured chronic disease and suffered from depression. She writes, “In his letter to the Philippians, Paul insists that we rethink our relationship to suffering. It isn’t about getting through suffering; Jesus allows the suffering to bring us closer to the goal of a mature life with Christ.” She goes on to recommend, “Choose to cultivate dependence. The habit of clinging to Jesus in dependence will serve you well in times of relative ease and will be your ballast in the midst of desperation. Cultivate dependence today so that you have reflexes trained to respond in faith when trials arise.” This is excellent advice not only for women missionaries but for all believers!

Before you go, face the giants.

From my perspective, Chapters 9 and 10 were the best way to end a book like this. In Chapter 9, Nina Buser, a veteran missionary and trainer of missionaries, turns the reader’s focus inward to face the dual tyrants of fear and anxiety.  She recounts a series of what-ifs that cover loneliness, missing family, health concerns, children, marriage, and inadequacy. These struggles brought her to the end of herself and caused her to cling to God’s word for shelter and rest. She affirms the woman who sees the difficulties and fears ahead, but Buser urges her to press on into truth. Such stories testify to the goodness and faithfulness of God in the midst of difficulty. Even women who are already on the field can benefit from such encouragement.   

The final chapter was a crescendo. In it, Bennett turns the focus where it should be all along for both the woman who desires to go and for those who stay and send. She concentrates on the spiritual life of the woman who commits to live and work cross-culturally, but she points everyone who claims the name of Christ to Matthew 22:37 and John 15:1–8. Loving the Lord and abiding in Him must be the foundation of our strength. This is a message we all must hear again and again.  

I’m grateful to Emily Bennett for this book. I will joyfully and confidently give it to women as they prepare to go, as they land on the field, and as they persevere in gospel ministry for the glory of God and the strengthening of his church.