I’ve had this blog post on my mind for quite awhile
now, and as we drove to church this past Sunday I heard a song that
jump-started my writing. The song was “Blessed Assurance,” some of which goes “This is my story, this is my song, praising
my Savior, all the day long.” This captures the heart of what we want to
communicate in our update e-mails. We want to share the unfolding story of our
walk with Jesus. We want to provide others with the chance to praise the Savior
for the work He is doing in and through us.
We've received several comments, e-mails and
letters regarding the monthly updates we send out. Some of them have gone
something like this: "We're really excited about what you're doing, but
we're not in a position to support you financially." These comments are
fine to some degree, but they usually sound like they're accompanied with a
twinge of guilt. This is compounded when we keep sending you e-mails month
after month, some of them detailing our financial needs. My desire in this post
is to do away with that guilt.
Our desire for all of the communication we send out
is to create strong relationships between us and the people we are connected
with. We believe that the Great Commission is a call to all Christians to make
disciples of all nations, teaching them all that Jesus commanded. There are two
ways of doing this, either going or sending. Both are extremely important. We
happen to find ourselves on the "going" end, and we want to be as
faithful as we can to those who are sending. For us, this means spending a lot
of time communicating to all the people we know via monthly e-mails updates,
personal e-mails, phone calls, notes, visits, etc. We believe that is how we be
faithful to those on the "sending" end.
I have two encouragements for all of you who receive any of these
updates. First off, do not be burdened with guilt! It is not our desire to
"guilt" anyone into giving. Our desire is that people would give out of
the abundance of their heart as the Holy Spirit works a desire for partnership
in this ministry. We believe that every Christian is called to be "on the
mission" given by Jesus Christ. This is accomplished
either by going to the nations, or sending others to the nations. Some are called to give financially,
some are called to pray, and some are called to care for practical needs. Also,
even though you receive our updates, our ministry may not be the one that God calls
you to serve by sending, and that’s ok! Be free to do whatever God calls you to
do!
-Kelly
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