Missionary finances

"With it they pay:
Education for their children (sometime they hire one teacher for the family or they could send the kids away to boarding school $$$) "
In Northern Ireland?

"The real "heroes" in missions work are the national pastors who take over struggling missionary works."

Absolutely and people usually forget that fact.

 

It is not unheard of for missionaries in these islands to use the services of a private school teacher for their children. The teacher is usually part supported as a missionary and part by the missionary family. In N. Ireland this is ridiculous as the state school system still mainntains a Christian ethos. One school I speak in regularly has a teaching staff which is 80% evangelical. I have brought pastors from the US with me to the assemblies I conduct in these schools and they cannot believe the liberty I have to preach the gospel. They also comment that the assembly is very similar to those run by Baptist schools in the States.

 

I am not talking about the luxuries and stuff like that. I am talking about the basic needs of the church. Over time, the church grows to the point where it can be self-supporting. But in the beginning, it is not so. I know a number of missionaries who have paid for buildings out of their own pockets until the church was able to sustain it. A lot of it also depends on where. In a country like Brazil or someplace like that, a computer and photocopier are not out of the ordinary in the least. In other places they might be.

I think our brother from Ireland makes a very important point. Living costs are different in different places. That has to be taken into account. The missionaries and the mission boards that help them to set these figures are usually very well versed in it and know that setting a number artificially high is damaging to deputation.

In the end, most missionaries I know of live extremely modestly. They are not in it to get rich or to have an easy life.

 

I agree. However, I think in some cases deputation ruins good men and women. They are heralded as heroes and showered with gifts. For some, (and I mean some ) this proves destructive because they come to the mission field having lost sight of their real place in God's purposes - i.e. servants, and believe they deserve a better lifestyle than others.

Some missionaries have the mentality that they should "get as much as they can." This is a poor philosophy. They ought to get what they need, and not what they can.

 

Like most issues there is a balance to be achieved here. Go with too little support and it is easy for discouragement to set in. That may not be spiritual, but it is reality.

I have a bigger problem with over support. It extends deputation and the missionary is exalted over those he is trying to reach.

There should be a CARFEUL examination of missionary budgets. That almost cannot be accomplished without a visit to that field with a list of needs.