Taking Myself out of the Picture

“If only I could take me out of support raising and have someone else do it for me!”

  If only you knew how many times we have thought this and said this.  But then we are chastised by God - through his words in scripture, friends, and fellow missionaries - that WE aren't raising the support for the work God has called us to do. HE is raising up supporters for us, just as HE has raised up people to serve him.

   Although most fellow missionaries we have known and met throughout the years are very humble and self-effacing in this area, they have a tendency to fall headlong into the trap of the enemy: feeling and acting, as though support raising is both all about themselves and totally up to themselves. Satan wants us to feel like beggars who think everyone is running the other way when they see us. He wants us to forget that God has already promised to take care of those He has called into full-time kingdom work.

In reality, very little of the whole process of support raising is about us, the missionaries. 

Success is certainly more dependent on God than on ourselves. 

Thus we can take heart in the biblical promise found in 1 Thessalonians 5:24,

 “God, who calls you, is faithful; he will do this.” 

And also in Philippians 2:13, 

"For it is God who works in you, to will and to work for his good pleasure.

  God has called Sandy and I to work in Lethbridge, Alberta with the Blackfoot people in the city and on the reserve just outside of town. As we have shared with many of you, the need is great. Discouragement, loneliness, addictions, single-parent homes, families who don't know what a family of God looks like, people who don't like white folks. 

It is our privilege to invite you into the joy of making disciples among the nations, to see what God is doing to push back the lostness in this world, to be part of the God-sized endeavor, and advance his kingdom in the hearts and lives of those he has called us to serve.  

Even though God has called us to “climb down into the darkness” for the ministry, he is calling many of you to “hold the ropes” to fulfill the Great Commission. Thank you once again to those who have done so. We invite others of you to join us. 

 **** Many of these thoughts and words are from an article we recently read by Mike Riggins of  Support Raising Solutions which we recently read and which convicted us.