HomeARC ML 0922
GET HOME SUPPORT--OR STAY HOME!--By Father David DO922 7 July, 1980
1. YOU NORTH AMERICANS & EUROPEANS SHOULD NOT GOT TO LATIN AMERICA EXPECTING ITS POOR COUNTRIES TO SUPPORT YOU when you have comparatively rich relatives, families & friends at home who could easily support you as a missionary abroad. Raise your support at home before you go. Get your home supporters to promise monthly pledges of definite sums per month for your support in the field.
2. YOU CANNOT EXPECT THE GOVERNMENTS OF POOR COUNTRIES TO APPROVE OF YOUR LIVING OFF THEIR LAND when you come from the richest countries in the World! Raise your support at home before you go, & keep up a faithful mail ministry with your faithful supporters with monthly prayer letters about your activities, & a personal thanks for every gift.
3. MOST CHRISTIAN GROUPS REQUIRE ALL OF THEIR MISSIONARIES TO RAISE ALL OF THEIR SUPPORT AT HOME, & it is a miracle that we have survived by faith on the field without much home support. But I think we have proven ourselves sufficiently now to be reliable & effective fruitful missionaries worthy of the home support of the richest countries of the World.
4. GO AFTER IT! GET IT! USE IT!--And don't you folks from rich North America & Europe go to those poor fields expecting them to support you! Raise your support at home before you go! Talk to your relatives, families & friends about it & ask for their help. Speak & sing in churches & Christian groups & ask for their help.
5. PASS OUT PLEDGE CARDS (see cover illustration) asking them to fill in their name & address & how much they will try to send you each month for your support on the field. Most Christian groups will not even allow their missionaries to go to the field until their full amount of their monthly support has been pledged by their home supporters. This should be particularly true to those of you going to the poorer countries of the World.
6. DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT IT! If you're leaving the rich North to go to the poor South, raise your support at home first before you go, & don't go without it & complain later on the field that you can't make it. Don't go until you can!--
7. EITHER THAT, OR GET A JOB & SUPPORT YOURSELF AS THE APOSTLE PAUL OFTEN DID, rather than expect those whom you are trying to evangelise to support you. (Acts 18:3; 1Cor.4:12; 1Cor.9; Eph.4:28; 1Thess.2:9; 2Thess.3 etc.) Or raise it at home before you go. Then you can concentrate on your main job of witnessing, litnessing & soul winning rather than being so constantly worried about finances & self-support.
8. RAISE YOUR SUPPORT AT HOME BEFORE YOU GO, OR GET A JOB & SUPPORT YOURSELF ON THE FIELD. Don't expect to live off the poor when the rich at home could easily support you & should, when they're working for money & you're working for the Lord! They ought to support you! They owe it to you & the Lord & the unevangelised poor of the World!
9. SO ASK FOR IT! They ought to be forsaking all & doing it themselves!--But if they won't, the least they can do is pay you to do it for them! So don't be shy about asking for it. "The labourer is worthy of his hire"! (Lk.10:7.) "Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn"! (1Co.9:9.) "They that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel"! (1Co.9:14.)
10. GET YOUR HOME FOLKS TO GIVE TO MISSIONS like they ought to, & don't expect the poor peons of the World's undernourished millions to foot your bills! Raise it at home before you go! Then maybe by the time North America & Europe are destroyed in the coming war, you will have won enough souls on the field who will love you enough to keep you from starving when your home support is gone! (1Co.9.)
11. BUT NOW WHILE NORTH AMERICA & EUROPE ARE STILL THERE, GET IT FROM THERE, not from the pitiful poor on your poor field! No wonder some governments don't like you when you rob their poor to feed the rich nationals of the richest nations on Earth! Don't go to Latin America expecting them to take care of you. Bring your own or earn it!
12. RAISE YOUR SUPPORT AT HOME BEFORE YOU GO! Don't complain about not having enough support on these poor fields.--Get it at home before you go. They've got it! Persuade them to give it! They owe it to you & the Lord & the poor! Raise your support at home before you go!--Get it?--Got it? Good! Take it with you! GBAKY with Home Support!--Amen?--Work on it TODAY! Before you go!
--We're so used to hearing miracles of miraculous support on the field by the field, that we seem to have forgotten that our rich home folks ought to be supporting us on these poor fields!--Rt?
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
