Caring for Faith Workers!
A disturbing trend we are seeing more and more here at increasing faith is the plight of retired missionaries. These are folks who have sacrificed their lives and their financial security for the cause of Christ, and when they make the difficult decision to retire, they more often than not have nothing to retire on.
I know and have known many missionaries on a personal level. They typically come home for 6-12 months every few years to visit supporters, get refreshed, and make certain their support is up to 100% before returning to their field of service, wherever God has taken them.
Oh, wait, I just described the ideal situation. In many cases, the missionary comes home after watching their support erode for multiple years due to lack of commitment from those who pledged to support them. They spend so much time and energy visiting supporters and finding new ones that they look forward to returning to the field to get some relaxation and relief from the constant schedule here in the states. In a future post, I will layout a more efficient system.
After spending all that time, they are often faced with the reality of only be 80%, 90%, or some other figure less than 100% support pledged. To give you a more clear picture of what that means, lets look at $100. Out of each $100, lets assume, $10 goes to the mission to support the support staff, conduct mailings, and other administrative duties. Lets now assume $10 goes toward the missionary’s health care, and that leaves $80 to fund their ministry on the ground and to live. Further assuming a 10% funding shortfall, that does not leave the numbers at $9, $9, and $72. It leaves them at $10, $10, $70. The first two numbers are fixed, the last is the only one that can fluctuate.
In this scenario, a 10% drop in support results in 12.5% drop in living and ministry funds for the missionary. Sorry to get all mathy on you, but this is the reality many missionaries face on a daily basis. Talk about increasing faith, do you go under funded and trust the Lord, or do you stay and continue to work towards being fully supported. The greatest area that suffers is usually their savings. Many missionaries come to the end of the time as missionaries facing the harsh reality of no retirement funds, and support virtually disappearing once they retire. This is a crime against Christ, and we need to stop it.
Allow me to make this a little more personal for you. Imagine after working for your boss for a few years, your boss comes to you and tells you he is cutting your salary by 10%. Do you return to work the next day, or do you quit and find another. Lets assume you stay at this job, and every so often your boss repeats this song and dance. To make matters even more troubling, he often promises to restore you to your previous funding levels, only when you get the check you see that he somehow forgot. After 30-40 years of this, you decide to retire. Do to your lack of a decent salary, you have not been able to save any money for this event, but surely your boss whom you have served so faithfully for the past 30-40 years will keep paying you. Surely he has set aside something to care for you. Umm no.
We would not tolerate this, but for some reason we expect our missionaries to. Why? Make a difference today. Make contact with a retired missionary, and send them some financial support. We must honor these workers of faith, not forget about them.
