Missionaries
have been support raising in some form or another since Paul
and Barnabas were sent off from Antioch. But God leads
different missionaries to go about this in different
ways. Below are some of the unique ways that
our team believes God has led us to go about
this process.
1) We have raised 24/7 prayer
support. To our knowledge,
this is very rare. We are very grateful to the Lord for
how He has provided this so miraculously, and to all those who
have been a part of this miracle. We have divided a week
into 336 half-hour slots, and have 336 individuals who have
committed to praying for us for half an hour a week at
given times for the next five years.
2) We have raised our support
interdenominationally. We want to have
supporting churches from every major Christian denomination,
so that our support network will (in a small way) represent
the universal body of Christ that we all affirm in the
Apostles' Creed. So far we have supporters that are
Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Independent,
Evangelical Free, Redeemed Church of God, Methodist, and
Non-denominational - to name a few.
3) We are raising some of our
support in Cameroon, as well as in the US and
Canada. We are doing this
because we believe that Cameroonian churches should
participate in supporting the ministries that are reaching
people in their own country. While most Cameroonian
churches are poor, we believe that it is important for them to
participate as much as they are able. They participate
by praying for our work, but also by giving financially.
Their gifts are a fragrant offering to God, and show that they
too are taking part in what He is doing in their country.
4) We believe that support
raising is a two way street. We believe
that it is not only about us gaining partners who
will pray for us and/or give financially to the work God
has entrusted to us, it is also about our ministering to the
churches where we share, and us learning from them and
the ministries God had given them. We hope to encourage
the believers in each church to inspire them to think globally
and to dream big dreams of what God can do. If we do not
get any prayer or financial support from some of the
churches where we share, we are fine with
that so long as we are able to minister to them.
5) We believe that prayer
support is actually more important than financial
support. Really. We need financial
supporters, but we need prayer partners even
more. We believe that prayer is absolutely crucial
to effective ministry because it is through prayer that we
learn dependence upon God. And without Him, we can do
absolutely nothing!