Missions News

Tonight was a night of fun, food, and fellowship.

Chuck and Robbi, the OnMission Directors, had all of us CMAers over to their house tonight for dinner. The CMA regional directors were visiting Costa Rica, so this was an opportunity for all of us to get together and chat. All of us, minus Chuck and Robbi, squished into a taxi van and had an adventure of trying to find their house. (We have all been to their house, but always with Chuck driving, so none of us knew exactly where we were going.) Robbi cooked an AMAZING dinner! Between meals Bill, the regional director, shared a devotional and told us about what was happening with the CMA and with South/Central America. This was followed by an AMAZING chocolate cake!

The talk about missions in South/Central America was good, but in many ways discouraging for me. Since I have a heart for the Latino countries, its hard to hear that there is not a strong need for missionaries; with the missionaries who are already there have been/are in the process/have plans to relocate. Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited that in most cases, the national church is growing and is just doing a GREAT job so missionaries are no longer needed there. However, this makes it more difficult to do missions work there.

What this really means, though, is that I need to be in more prayer about the direction God wants to take my future. I have plenty of time to figure out what God wants me to do and where He wants me to go. God has a plan and a place for me, I just have to trust that He will open space for me in South/Central America, or change my heart for a people group somewhere else around the world where I am needed.

Another discouragement that Bill shared with us is the money situation of the Alliance. There has not been the support of past years coming in and this creates a concern for how missionaries are going to be able to be supported. I guess there has been a lot more interest from college students and high school students in missions work. As great as this is, when there are more possible missionaries with less money coming, this does create a small problem. We do understand that if God has called all these people to serve Him in a missions capacity, He will also provide the finances that allow them go. So I would just challenge you 1. pray about the financial situation of the Alliance and 2. think about what you can do to help. In Ecuador they have started to encourage everybody to give $1 every month (at least I believe its every month) to missions. This doesn't sound like a lot, but there was one church that raised around $60,000 if I remember the correct number. That is astounding. Imagine what could be raised throughout the US if every church did that (and since $1 is worth more in Ecuador than in the States, the challenge could be even more).

Thank you to those of you who give regularly to help support missionaries, from any denomination. I know that it is a huge blessing for them. Please continue to give! Thank you to those who have supported my short trip to Costa Rica. I promise it has been a blessing more than you could ever know!

Now that most of this has been on the more serious side, I'll end on the biggest highlight of my night...I GOT MAIL!! I have been waiting for what seems like FOREVER to get a package from home, and I finally got it tonight, along with some surprise mail as well. It's always a joy!!