Tag Archives: Giving

The Christian Church’s Worldwide Focus

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The Christian Church’s Worldwide Focus

The church Jo and I have been attending for the past few years celebrated their annual Mission Emphasis Weekend with events and services. Our minds immediately recalled personal experiences with mission-minded churches and individuals, as well as stories we heard from fellow missionaries. Since Jo retired for medical reasons after forty years of service with Wycliffe Bible Translators, and I retired recently after sixty years of service, we thought this would be a good time to share some of these recollections with you.

In the past four months since my retirement, we have been surprised and very pleased with how God moved people to give to us. One long-term financial supporter gave us a year’s worth of their usual monthly support as a personal gift, even though they received no tax-deductible receipt. And another couple, who had never financially supported us, gave us one of the largest gifts we had ever received—a full three months’ support. Both were completely unexpected. Wow!

Missionary friends have told us similar stories of receiving unexpected gifts, as well as some rather negative ones that left us feeling concerned for some churches.

One couple told us their pastor said, “Thank you for serving for twenty-five years in Africa. Now that you are back in Canada and working in the mission’s office, we have decided to send our financial support to a missionary couple on the field.” And what were these home office workers supposed to live on? Jo and I had the same thing happen to us when we finished the Canela Bible translation program and spent time travelling throughout North America speaking at Wycliffe fundraising banquets to support nationals involved in Bible translation.

One pastor who invited me to preach in his church told me after the service, “We focus on supporting medical missions and seminary training. Our missionaries are doctors, nurses and seminary professors, as well as hospital and school administrators.”

It made me wonder what would happen if God gifted and called someone who grew up in that congregation to serve on the mission field as a Bible translator? Does she go across town to another church to ask them to support her?

A church we know well has a totally different focus. They are heavily involved in a building program. No, not for their own meeting place; they rent from another church. They are building a church in an impoverished area of a foreign country to help the local congregation that the church’s missionaries have planted. Now, that’s the kind of building program I get excited about!

On the other hand, another pastor told me, “We are involved in foreign missions by facilitating groups from the church to go on short-term mission trips.” I asked him, “What if a young couple who grew up in your church goes on a short-term mission trip and is called by God to spend the rest of their lives in ministry in that country? Would they need to change churches to get financial support?”

We have often visited a large church in a heavily populated area and have been impressed by its emphasis on supporting foreign missions. Along the sides and back wall of the auditorium are dozens of large, framed colour photographs of the missionary individuals, couples, and families they support financially. Under each photo is a plaque with full information on where and how they serve. Notably absent were photos of the pastoral staff or the church board. Their focus was squarely on carrying out Christ’s worldwide Great Commission.

What an encouragement to missionaries to see churches like that! May the Holy Spirit move pastors and church boards across North America to focus their congregations’ actions on serving Christ by obeying His command to Go Into All The World.

More Valuable Than an Enamel Plate

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More Valuable Than an Enamel Plate

I will never forget that young mother’s prayer during evening Bible class!

My wife and I were in the last stages of the Bible translation program, where for twenty years, we had been called Tehtikwyj and Prejaka by the thousand-plus Canela villagers living in the wilds of Brazil. Two dozen Canela men and women surrounded me, sitting on logs. We had sung hymns set to Canela indigenous music patterns, and in a few minutes, would read and talk about a new translated draft of a chapter of the Bible.

Prayer Time
Now, it was time to pray. First, I heard prayers asking God to heal sick children, for a good crop, and for help to find a lost bush knife. Then a young mother prayed:

“Great Father in the Sky,” she began. “I want to thank You for sending our brother Prejaka, and our sister Tehtikwyj, to our village long ago when I was just a baby. They are our teachers. First, they taught us to read our own language. Then, they worked with us to turn Your Words into our language. Now we can read Your Letter to us. Now we are discovering that You love us very much. Now we are learning how we can live to please you. Please help them to finish Your Book soon.”

Prayer for Donors
Then came the unforgettable part that brought tears to my eyes.

“I also want to thank You for all Prejaka and Tehtikwyj’s friends far away in their own country. They know that our brother and sister don’t have a food garden here as we do. So, for all these years, every month, their friends have sent them money so they can buy food. They keep on sending them their money, not just because they are Prejaka and Tehtikwyj’s friends, but because they are their brothers and sisters. Yes, they are all part of Your family, Great Father, and they are our brothers and sisters too.

“Maybe one of them is a mother and she is in a market, and she has money in her basket. And then she sees a new enamel plate, and she wonders, Should I buy this for my family so we can each have our own plate?

But then, she decides not to buy anything, and instead, she sends the money to our brother and sister so they can live here and make the books of Your Word.

“And she sure chose right because Your Word is so much more valuable than an enamel plate, even if it comes with a shiny new spoon.

As a reward, give these faraway brothers and sisters lots of healthy children; make their gardens grow well, and keep them from getting sick. Amen.”

What’s Happening Today
This young mother’s children have for the past thirty years grown up with a Bible in their language and are teaching their own children. Meanwhile, Bible translation programs are going on in thousands of languages around the world right now. Translation teams have completed hundreds of programs in the last ten years. It is very likely that while you are reading this column:

Somewhere in the world, someone is reading or hearing the Word of God in their own language for the first time.
Somewhere, someone whom you will not meet until eternity could be asking God to bless you, the donors to Bible translation and cross-cultural missions, because, as that young Canela mother said, “You sure chose right!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christians’ Right Thinking About Money

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The last blog post, Christians’ Weird Thinking About Wealth, provoked many interesting comments. One of the most interesting was a friend who shared a testimony with me different from any other remark I had received.

Other friends have told me eye-popping stories of how they could fund major mission projects through the amazing wealth God helped them produce. This time, however, the amazing story came from an unexpected source. He is an ordinary guy, just like you and me, not gifted with the ability to produce great wealth, but with the ability to act increasingly as the manager of God’s money.

The Pseudonym
He was happy for me to share his story with you in this column but wanted to remain anonymous since staying unknown brings a special pleasure and joy to him. So I’ll call him Mac, a fitting name since it reminds Bible readers of the apostle Paul’s description of the Mac-edonians in 2 Cor. 8, MSG.

“Fierce troubles came down on the people of those Macedonian churches, pushing them to the very limit. The trial exposed their true colours: They were incredibly happy, though desperately poor. The pressure triggered something unexpected: an outpouring of pure and generous gifts. I was there and saw it for myself. They gave offerings of whatever they could—far more than they could afford!—pleading for the privilege of helping out in the relief of poor Christians.”

Mac’s Story
Here’s what Mac wrote, “For years I have been proving the Lord’s faithfulness in providing money for me to give away, even though my income isn’t excessive. One passage of Scripture that has encouraged me is Psalm 81:10 where I saw myself as a money manager, rather than as a consumer.”

In this passage God reminds Israel he brought them out of Egypt and was prepared to bless them abundantly. “Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it,” God promised. When your mouth has been filled, the next thing to do is to chew and swallow, consuming what you have been given. But Mac read it as a manager; when God gave him money, he did not consume it all. Instead, he shared it with other people.

Mac went on to write, “Twenty years ago the Lord gave me a thought I continue to pursue: ‘Why don’t you pray and ask Me for money so you can use it to help build My Kingdom?’

“It has been quite a journey, limited, I’m sure, only by my lack of faith. As I have fearfully stepped forward each year, increasing my commitment to financial stewardship, I now see how the Lord is ‘rebuking the devourer’ {a reference to Mal. 3:11 in which God promises His people that pests will not devour their crops, and in Mac’s case probably keeps his roof from leaking and his car from falling apart} so I can give half my income to Kingdom ministry (home church, summer camps, Bible colleges, missionaries, and the poor.)

“This has become a significant source of joy, particularly during this time of economic challenge. Twenty years ago, I didn’t believe it to be possible, but God’s economics continue to defy human explanation. All Praise to Him alone.”

What About Us?
Since people like Mac tend to obey Jesus’ command to do all their giving in secret, we don’t hear challenging and encouraging stories like this in church, unless they are second hand, like this one.

May God help us all to “open our mouths wide” to his provisions so that we can be outrageously generous to people and ministries in need.

The Two Notes

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“We hate you, we reject you, and we never want to see your faces in our village again!”

The note, signed by the young Canela chief of a new village, was addressed to Jo and me. Soon friends ran up to tell us the same kind of message had been sent to the chief and the leaders of the old, main Canela village where we lived as Bible translating missionaries in Brazil.

That note hurt!  Jo and I had been adopted many years before by Canela families, and the chief of the new village was a younger brother in my extended family. He and I had always gotten along well, and now this.

The Power Struggle
The previous year when some families talked of starting another village in a location near a different creek, everyone thought it was a good idea since the main village was getting a bit crowded. People from both villages helped to build homes, clear jungle, and plant manioc fields in the new location. But after a year, relationships deteriorated into a political power struggle between the two chiefs, each wanting the most people in his village.  And now, after weeks of vicious gossip, the new village chief and leaders had sent notes breaking off all relations with those of us in the old village. According to their oral history, this mutual hate between related villages was a long-standing tradition.

Our Response
Jo and I talked and prayed together and then sent back the following letter:
“Dear younger brother chief,
We received your note and read it, and it seems that you hate us and reject us and never want to see us again.  We don’t know why you feel that way.  Maybe someone lied to you about us.  We want to remind you that we are of Jesus’ group and, therefore, we don’t hate you back, nor do we reject you.  Instead, we love you now and always will.  To prove that we love you, we are sending twenty litres of lamp oil and thirty kilos of salt for you to distribute to all the people in the new village.
Your older brother.”

Angry Words
After we sent the letter and the gifts we faced a barrage of angry words from our relatives and friends in our village.

“Why did you send them gifts?  Don’t they hate us all?  That’s fine. We hate them back. We don’t need them.  Just let them sit out there in the dark without lamp oil. Let them eat tasteless food. They hate and reject us. Fine, we’ll hate and reject them!”

That evening the elders’ council called me to attend their meeting in the village plaza to listen to the chief and his counselors.  Each one spoke his piece.  All had the same theme.

“They hate and reject us, so, therefore, we’ll hate and reject them.  Also, we don’t understand why our friend sent them gifts in exchange for their insult.”

Then the chief turned to me and said,
“They even treated you that way, when all you have ever done is good. You taught them to read and write. You gave them medicine. You’ve never done anything against any of them.  I don’t know why you sent them that gift.  I hate them on your behalf!” He lapsed into silence, and I asked permission to speak.

My Explanation
“I want to talk to you,” I said.  “I’m not just going to give you my thoughts about this; I’m going to tell you what Our Great Father in the Sky thinks about this.”

I then went on to tell the chief, the elders council, and the village men gathered to listen what Jesus taught about how to treat our enemies.  I quoted Jesus and his orders to do good to those who hate us, to feed our enemies, and let them insult us. They listened, scowling and muttering to each other.  In the end, they said they still didn’t understand, but they wouldn’t be upset with me anymore for having sent the gift.

“Anyway,” they said, “it might make that group over there feel ashamed of themselves.”

Jo and I went to bed that night with happy hearts, possibly the only happy hearts in either village.

The Second Note
Three days later another note arrived from my younger brother chief—one with a startlingly different message.
“We’ve changed our mind. We don’t hate you, and we want to make peace.  You can come to our village any time you want.”

Whew! Thank you, Jesus!

It still took some months—a centuries-old culture based on mutual hatred doesn’t change overnight—but the bad feeling between the villages had begun to dissipate. Eventually, the Canelas turned the new village area into a joint manioc raising project, and the inhabitants began returning to the main village.

Jo and I were delighted that besides translating God’s Word in the Canelas’ language, we had a God-given, perfect public opportunity to translate His Word into action for everyone to see.

After this demonstration, no one in either village had any doubt that change was possible and that a new ethos of mutual love and acceptance could someday replace the old spirit of hatred and rejection.