WILL YOU HELP US GIVE OUR MISSIONARIES A RAISE?
We know you want to. We believe you are willing to help us all work together to make this happen.

We have been urgently appealing for the consistent increase of our monthly General Fund offerings for the past 4 years especially. Last month, in my FaithWorks report, I included this paragraph: “But, we haven’t increased our missionaries’ very modest salaries or ministry expense accounts in years because we continue to struggle just to maintain our status quos.” I made that statement to illustrate and emphasize just one of the on-going needs we have in our General Fund.

Every time we Directors conduct a business meeting, the question comes up: “Can we give our missionaries a raise?” By a “raise,” we mean increasing the amount of personal salary we commit to them BY FAITH on a monthly basis.

WE HAVE NOT RAISED THEIR SALARY IN 10 YEARS! In 1999, we increased their salary from $1337.00 to $1485.00. In 2000, we raised it again to $1633.00. Then, in 2001, we upped it again to its present amount, $1717.00. We have struggled to maintain our current General Fund disbursements for the past 10 years as we continue to appeal for increased offerings.

LET ME HASTEN TO SAY THIS: we understand very well that YOU ARE GIVING WHAT IS BEING GIVEN TO THE GENERAL FUND – and every month, we bless God for each one of you. From the perspective of human stewardship, YOU are the ones who are supplying the needs that are presently being met on behalf of our missionaries.

But, the reality remains, that before we can responsibly commit the additional funds to increase our missionaries’ personal salaries, WE MUST INCREASE OUR MONTHLY GENERAL FUND OFFERINGS.

We would love to increase our missionaries’ salaries to $2000.00 per month, or about 16%. That is still much less than every one of them needs to catch up with the ever-escalating cost of living and the ever-decreasing value of the dollar against their local currencies. And, we would also probably discover that this amount is still considerably less than most missionaries receive who raise their own support funds.

That monthly salary increase to $2000.00 would mean an additional $283.00 disbursement per missionary times 12 missionaries = $3396.00 additional commitment per month. Multiply that monthly commitment by 12 months, and we will need to give an additional $40,752.00 per year to make this “raise” work.

We know that times are tough right now for everybody. If you are giving all you can, God knows that – and we continue to bless God for your faithfulness. If you can commit to increase your offerings to our General Fund in any amount, ALL OF US COMMITTING TOGETHER CAN DO THIS FOR OUR MISSIONARIES!

1 Samuel 25.17 | Now therefore, know and consider what you will do….