8 Reasons Why I'm Grateful for Support Raising

I've recently become aware that not all mission agencies require their missionaries to raise their own support to get onto the field. Initially, that sounded like an amazing idea to me! I think of how much less time it would take to get to the field if there wasn't this huge hurdle to jump over. But this morning, in the midst of a discouraging few months of support raising, I became overwhelmed with gratitude. While support raising can be time-consuming, discouraging, humbling, and painful, I believe it's absolutely necessary to prepare for life on the mission field. I have 8 reasons to support this:

8. Patience: Oh the dreaded virtue of patience. When we ask God for it, He always delivers! This support-raising process is usually not quick, but it reminds us that not much in life IS quick. This helps prepare us for scenarios most every missionary will face on the field that require lots and lots of patience.

7. Dealing with (perceived) rejection: We spend hours in preparation and prayer for our meetings with potential ministry partners and oftentimes the people we meet with do not jump on board with us. It's easy to take it personally, even though 9 times out of 10 it isn't. Through this we learn that it is NOT our responsibility to convince people to support our ministry... it is just our responsibility to ask and let God take care of the rest.

6. Allows us to build new relationships and strengthen existing ones: Our ministry partner team is ideally a tight-knit group with a common purpose. It is so wonderful to have a group of people who genuinely care and are praying for us and the ministries we are a part of.

5. Cultivates our own prayer life and dependence on God: There have been countless times where I've found myself on my face, begging for God's provision to get onto the field. The truth is, we cannot do support raising or ministry or breathing apart from God.

4. Cultivates our love and passion for the country and ministry we will be a part of: While I'm on my face praying for provision, I am also praying for revival among the people I'll be working with. I personally have had limited experience working directly among the people I'll be doing ministry with, but through prayer and support raising, God has given me an intense love for them that is preparing me for the future. In every meeting we have with people to ask for partnership, we are creating awareness of the needs in this world and are becoming even more passionate and invested in being a part of it, ourselves!

3. Shows us our weaknesses so that we can address them before leaving for the field: I have described this season of support raising as being the most refining and humbling time of my life. Not only is it humbling to ask people for their prayer and financial support, but in doing so, our deepest weaknesses and sin struggles tend to be revealed throughout the process. This is something to rejoice about because it allows us to be aware of our weaknesses and allow God to shine through them with His strength (2 Corinthians 12:9,10).

2. Gives people the opportunity to invest in something bigger than themselves: Though not everyone will be able/willing to give and be a part of the ministry we are going to, it is amazing and incredibly important to give them the chance to do so. 

1. Helps confirm in our heart that God is Sovereign and His timing is perfect: If it were in our own hands, we would likely skip the support raising and head directly onto the field. But we can rest in knowing that He truly knows what is best (Isaiah 55:8,9).

From Outcast to Offspring

"And David said to [Mephibosheth], 'Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan... you shall eat at my table always...' So Mephibosheth ate at David's table, like one of the king's sons... Now he was lame in both his feet." (Compilation of 2 Samuel 9)

This probably isn't surprising for those of you who know me and my love for people with disabilities, but I have been enamored by this passage for some time. To see a king treat this disabled man so well is astounding to me. This man couldn't offer anything to David and yet he was brought into the king's home and treated as his son. Upon first reading this, I was so pumped that David would do such an unexpected service to this man. But after reading through it a few times now, I see that there is more to it than just an act of service. David was obligated to take care of this man because of a promise he made to his pal Jonathan back in 1 Samuel 20. They had made a covenant to take care of each others' families and David was a man of his word. Jonathan had died and Mephibosheth was Jonathan's son; therefore, David was obligated under the covenant to bring him into his family.

The fact that David stuck to his word and took in Mephibosheth, who likely would be considered an outcast for his disability, is very beautiful. But the obligation involved here makes what David did seem a bit less astounding, somehow. The cynical side comes out in me, thinking that if Mephibosheth was not Jonathan's son, he would have remained an outcast and David would not have done anything for him. And that very well could be true. 

After mulling that over, the Lord led me to this passage:

"In love [God] predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In HIM we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses..." (Ephesians 1:5-7)

Like Mephibosheth, we as Christians have been adopted into a family we did not deserve to be a part of. Like Mephibosheth, we were broken, crippled, outcasts with nothing to offer up to the King. 

Like David (but wayyyy better), our Lord saw us in our helpless estate and He invited us to be a part of His royal family. He has made a covenant to "unite all things in Him," (v.10) and He is keeping that covenant by turning us outcasts into His offspring. I don't believe for a second that He felt any sort of obligation when He chose to do this, but rather it was out of love for His creation and to remind us that apart from Him, we truly are nothing. 

Praising my Father today and every day for choosing me to be His daughter. I pray that He will allow me to show His perfect love to those who are outcasts - literally and/or figuratively - for the rest of my days. All for the praise of His glory, amen.