The Week in World Missions September 16 2015

I was recently asked to speak at the Christian Church of Loudon County Tennessee, one of the supporting congregations of Mission Services.  The request came with one stipulation, I could speak on any Scripture of my choosing, it did not have to be about world missions.  I chose to preach from Mark 12:41-44.  I have long been fascinated with the widow who gave two coins.  I will not explain too much, because this message is available for everyone to hear.  I invite you to listen by clicking here.  Do you agree that this widow is “Someone Who Gets It?”

Last week, I wrote about the disturbing number of instances we hear about mission support being cut by congregations.  Shortly after this weekly email was sent, a mission director sent the following message. “Thank you for all you do. It is amazing how difficult it is to obtain funding … and then retaining funds. Many churches are throttling back to bring programs that connect thier people with ” in house” work ( that many times focuses on internal rather than external impact. In fact our largest donor just shared that they are cutting their mission budget to bring it in house.” 

 

Certainly, we do not have complete information, and we may hear more from worthy ministries whose support is being reduced. Still, I hope we will join together to pray for God to energize the commitment of His church to world missions and reaching beyond ourselves.

The work & ministry of Mission Services is not exempt from receiving discouraging notes. For more than 69 years, we have been committed to helping missionaries and mission works tell the story of the work God has called them to do.  We are sharing those stories with more people in more countries around the world than ever before.  The one misconception about the use of the Internet, APPS for smartphones and tablets, email, and social media is that Mission Services no longer needs funds.  As you can imagine, this is simply not true.  We continue to needs to buy new equipment and have well trained people to produce all the passes of the missions network. 

We are in a particularly challenging financial time right now.  The Summer of 2015 was the busiest time of any over the past 20 years.  There were more miles traveled, more videos recorded and produced, and more stories told than ever.  All of that resulted in greater expenses than any summer in 20 years, and our own support suffered at the same time.  Some have contributed to our recent appeal to help meet these expenses.  If you could help us in any way, would you consider making an online donation?  You can do so by clicking on donate.  We would be so grateful!  If you cannot give financially, please pray that God would move those who can.