Therefore, tentmakers must have the training and orientation required of all missionaries. Of course, their orientation and training often will take place outside the formal programs usually followed by missionaries. Many agencies require not only prefield training but also ongoing training and education. Such training includes helpful advice on cultural adaptation, culture shock, how one perceives oneself as one becomes bicultural, how to overcome ethnocentrism, and so on. Mission agencies are aware of various ways to study the language.
Agencies can also help on how to start friendship evangelism.
It's not easy to make enduring friendships, yet friendship evangelism is the very heart of an effective ministry for tentmakers. Missions people can take tentmakers from making friendships through the whole process of starting a church. Many very useful tentmaking opportunities are lost because tentmakers can't support themselves on the salaries offered. Even with an adequate salary, the Lone Ranger tentmaker could be left without income when the contract expires. Further training is rarely possible and the cost of educating children is very steep.