A Faith-Building Adventure
By Donna Messenger, Editor
This issue of the Message is heftier than usual. We have combined the summer and fall issues in order to give our readers the 2004 Annual Report and the testimonies of the 2005 Candidate Class in a timely way.
What does it take to get a person from the initial decision to be a missionary to actually arriving on his field of service? In these candidate stories, look for the factors, individuals, or events that were significant in helping these new appointees understand God’s leadership in their lives.
The decision to pursue missions as a career is often a series of decisions over many years. But even after appointment, the road to the field is often long and arduous. The process of “getting them there” is just that—a process. Certainly great strides have been made in making that road smoother. Sending churches are striving to take on a more significant chunk of the financial support needs of their missionary. In some areas, consortiums are being developed to speed up the prefield process and provide a missionary with fewer supporting churches.
When I finished Candidate Seminar in 1993 and began my prefield ministry, my sending church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was able to take on fifty percent of my support. That was an amazing step of faith for them as a church. Sixteen meetings, seven churches and nine individual supporters later, I had all my support to leave for Ukraine. Even though my experience was quite different from the ordinary it was still a faith-building adventure. I never doubted that God would supply, but my faith was stretched as I waited for each partner to fall into place.
To the Candidate Class of 2005 I would give this word of encouragement—promote the vision God has given you for your future ministry, but don’t miss the opportunity to build your faith. Your new partners in ministry can build their faith as well as they walk and pray with you through this “getting you there” process.
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