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Why Support a Missionary?

Friday, November 22nd, 2013

why-support-a-missionaryWhy should you support a missionary? Why should you suffer financially to make a monthly commit- ment to a specific missionary family, to support them over the years?

First of all, Jesus commands all of us to “go and make disciples of all the nations.” (Matthew 28:19) If you financially support a missionary, you are enabling that missionary to preach the gospel to the unsaved in foreign lands, and that evangelism is attributed to you and counted as what you are doing for the Lord. There are many people who want to preach the gospel to the nations but don’t have the financial backing to do so because we as Americans love to live in luxury and in self-indulgence. (James 5:5)

Secondly, what we do with our finances reflects what we value. Let’s get our finances in order so that we can give more to the work of the Lord, to work that matters for eternity. If God were to look at your checkbook (or credit card bill), He would instantly see where your heart is. But of course God knows where your heart is already.

Thirdly, do you realize that you have a direct impact for Christ through the lives of those missionaries, and that you are rewarded for eternity for giving to them? Paul says that you participate in the gospel when you do that. (II Corinthians 9:13) Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy. (Matthew 6:20)

But the most important reason to support a missionary is for prayer. Yes, prayer. You heard that right. When you personally suffer financially to support a missionary every month, you have a personal stake in what happens in that missionary’s life. When my life is directly connected to a missionary, I’m more likely to pray. I don’t want my family to suffer financially if that missionary is not accomplishing anything for the Lord. If I fail to pray for that missionary family, they will be much less effective. When I pray fervently, God promises to answer. (James 5:16)

When missionaries go overseas and do not have prayer cover, this is worse than not having enough food to eat. Pastors and missionaries are attacked more spiritually because when they fall, many people fall. Please pray for your missionaries daily. If you don’t, who will? And the lukewarm prayers of the people whose lives aren’t as invested in the outcome aren’t as effective as the prayers of those who financially hurt each month to put food on the table for a missionary to be able to serve the Lord full time. For this reason my husband and I feel strongly about supporting missionaries, and we will continue to support missionaries each month. My heart is interwoven with their ministries.

I found a list of missionaries who translate the Bible into foreign languages of people groups who don’t have the Bible in their language. Here is the list: Wycliffe Bible Translators. Having grown up as a missionary kid, I can personally attest to the trustworthiness of this mission. What is more important than saving lost souls while delivering the Bible in their language for the first time, so that they can grow spiritually?

To keep up with news about missions and missionary kids: Missionary Kid Facebook Page

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New Missionary Kid Facebook Page

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

Growing-Up-As-A-Missionary-KidGod has woken me up in the middle of the night for the past two nights. He’s often done that when He wants me to pray for somebody. But He wasn’t urgently laying anyone on my heart to pray for. I asked Him, “Why did You wake me up? I know it’s You.”

Now I need to back up to say that I wrote the book Growing Up as a Missionary Kid a couple of years ago. I felt so much spiritual joy as I was writing it, even though it wasn’t really a spiritual book. I just wrote about how it was to be a missionary kid. Then God opened doors for me to take the book to print, doors that I could have never opened for myself. God wanted this book in print. I dedicated the book to God and told Him I would give Him 100% of the profit for missions.

Now I was in a quandry, because I had no money to promote the book. I’ve got books just sitting in a closet in my house. Not only was this a waste of what God wanted me to produce for His purposes, but if I used money from sales of the book to promote the book, I would have no money to send to missions.

My husband and I already support several missionaries every month, but this month God prompted me to support another couple who is about to go to Africa. He just finished his training at Moody Bible Institute to join MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). I have the personal conviction that if I do not support this couple, I will be disobedient to God’s prompting to give to them. I asked God to raise the money.

Back to the conversation I had with God this morning of why He woke me up. Last night God put it in my mind to start a Missionary Kid Facebook page for the book that I wrote. I thought, “Oh cool! I can find lots of missionary kids, and we can have a discussion! Or people who are interested in missionary kids could like the page.”

At the same time as God was working to enable me to somehow support another missionary couple, God put missions on the heart of my husband. This was completely separate and a coincidence that God prompted both of us on the same day to be more involved in missions. Alan just told me last night that he wanted to go back to the Czech Republic on a short-term mission next summer, to a different part of the Czech Republic, but doing the same thing, which is English camp. And the summer after that, he would like to lead a team from our church to go on a short-term mission, once again, to the Czech Republic, the country that has the least Christians on the face of the earth. Alan went on a short-term team to teach English at a camp a couple of years ago, while sharing Christ. It made such an impact on his life that God has called him to go back. This is all in the brainstorming stage at this point, and we have no money to do it. But God will provide. He always does. This is how God is.

So back to the Facebook page thing. I have no marketing money to promote the book I wrote to raise money for missions. This morning, the second morning in a row, God woke me up, and I distinctly felt like I needed to do it now. If people “like” the Growing Up as a Missionary Kid page, more people will find out about it, and 100% of the profit will go towards what God is prompting my husband and I to do right now, to be more involved in missions.

As an incentive to the first 100 people to “like” the page, I will send you a free copy of the e-book version of Growing Up as a Missionary Kid. It costs you nothing to help me promote the book which hopefully will give me the funds to obey what God is prompting me to do. After you read the e-book version, go buy the physical book as gifts for people for Christmas!

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Growing Up as a Missionary Kid

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Here is the book trailer for my Growing Up as a Missionary Kid book:

I’m Susan Evans, the author of Growing Up as a Missionary Kid. I grew up in Guatemala because my parents were missionaries there. My life was totally different than a person who has grown up here in the United States. For example, a bullet flew through the window and nearly killed my sister.

Also, a bomb went off at the house of one of my close friends. That was after her family got a note telling them to get out of the country or they would be would be killed. So they actually left and went back to the States. Shortly thereafter, some guerrillas took over the house; they shot it up and there was a big bomb and everything. My family got to go out to eat for dinner because the police wouldn’t let us drive down our street.

Growing-Up-As-A-Missionary-Kid-4Another day I was standing in line at a bank with my mom. There was a soldier in the corner with a machine gun, with his hand on the trigger. As a young child, I just looked at his hand on the trigger, and I thought to myself, “Hmmm… I wonder what would happen if I walked behind him and yelled, ‘Boo!'” Then everybody would be killed, right? Because he had his hand on the trigger. I mean, that’s kind of stupid.

So that’s how I saw life.

This book is interesting because it is ground-breaking in the way that it presents life from the point of view of a child in a missionary kid situation. For that reason, church libraries ought to have this book, to remember to pray for the children of missionaries and not just the parents. Yes, the parents are doing the work that matters, but the children also are important. They could drag the ministry down if they go astray. So it’s important to remember the kids.

Another place that would enjoy this book is Christian schools because even though I wrote it for adults, this is really juvenile non-fiction. Kids really resonate with it because it is told from the point of view of a child. It’s exciting non-fiction. A lot of non-fiction is extremely dry and boring for reports. So kids will be glad if you buy the book for your local Christian school.

Other people that would enjoy this would be homeschooling parents because not only does it give an excitement for missions to your children, but it also has lots of fun ideas of what you can do with your kids. I did a lot of investigating in all my escapades from boarding school. It’s a fun book about fun experiences. For that reason, it’s a fun read.

100% of the profit of this book go to missions, and so I get zero. So it’s not self-serving for me to tell you to buy the book. It is for your own enjoyment as well as supporting missionaries.

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