Before you read this please know that in no way is the intent of this blog post to shame anyone. It is not a theological essay on anything. The intent is not to be harmful, accusatory, or anything of the sort. This blog post is intended for one purpose and one purpose alone. To share my experience and honestly a bit of hurt. This is an expression of my heart hopefully speaking directly to yours.
My entire income is achieved through support raising. I can get as many "raises" as I want, I just have to go get it. And don't get me wrong, I love support raising. There are two reasons I love raising my own financial support:
1) I love living in total reliance and faith on the Lord. It really makes Matthew 6:25-31 more real and more wonderful than ever before.
2) I love seeing the bride of Christ function as she is intended to, taking care of missionaries and support their needs. Philippians 4:18-19 tells us very clearly the Lord uses the local church to support missionaries.
These reasons being given, the disappointment I have experienced in not concerning #1. The Lord is always faithful and even through this has He show Himself to be all the more good. My disappointment has come from #2. The Church..
I have spent quite a bit of time in Latin America
doing pastoral type ministry and evangelism. Most of this time was spent in Nicaragua. This is a war torn country with political unrest and a communistic
underwriting. I believed deeply that the Lord wanted me to move there
permanently and live alongside this dear people. I was ready to go! I actually
almost left college early to move there and try to finish my degree online.
As I was considering moving there I spoke with many
people about this decision and got a similar response from them. “Why do you
want to move there? Why not be a missionary in America we have a great need
here too, you know.”
After much prayer and contemplation and counsel I made the
decision to stay here in the US. They were right there is a need for domestic
missionaries. Now comes time for
disappointment….
I listened to the advice they gave, and did what they said they wanted from my life of ministry. Now that I am a domestic missionary trying to raise financial support where are they?
I keep getting the same response from people when I
am support raising, “you live in Wisconsin, why don’t you just go get a
job?” Ahem, I have a full time job. I work for the global church whom Paul
instructs the church to support in prayer and livelihood. It is a very interesting conversation.
When I was traveling to Latin America I would have
my support raised 100% almost instantly; within weeks. Now that I am doing mission work full time
in the US I have been at 30% of my support for nearly a full 12 months! A year!
I know people are supporting me and they are more
than appreciated for that! I also know people are praying for me which is the
best way to support this ministry! This fact is not unseen by both myself and the Father who gives lavish rewards.
However, there are more people not supporting, than those who are. For those of you on the fence about
whether to support a missionary generously please prayerfully consider it. I am
on the war line of domestic and international mission. The work that I am doing help translate the Bible into the heart language of more people on a daily basis goes out and
directly affects the souls of indigenous people around the world!
People are the goal, and people are the means.
Be the church today!
In Christ,
Andrew J. Belcher
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