MST's go to the nations!
Our missionary support team (MST) coach, Deb (Horst) Muenstermann, spent the first half of 2005 on a leave of absence traveling overseas with her new husband, a German man named Ralph Muenstermann. They were part of a team teaching the inductive Bible study method. To her surprise, she also had many requests to teach about supporting missionaries. From South Africa to Germany – and even Madagascar – churches and missionaries alike were interested in missionary support teams. In both Africa and Europe the challenge seems to be the same. Growing numbers of people are ready to take the gospel cross-culturally, but the church is slow to understand its role in sending. Please pray that God will use the missionary support team model to release mission workers and churches to walk in partnership.
Creative ideas to fund your mission worker:
"What is in your hand?"
You don’t have to go far or have extensive resources to find creative ways to finance your mission worker. The following MSTs simply used what was at hand in order to raise funds and awareness for their missionaries. As you read about their projects, think about what resources or special talents you may have among your MST members. Maybe you’ll be surprised at what’s in your hand!
Sharing sweet corn
A farmer offered his sweet corn crop to support his church’s missionaries, Greg and Sharon Brubaker in Lithuania. Bulletin announcements and word of mouth spread the news that for four evenings in August, there would be a corn picking and packing event. During the day, volunteers picked corn, and in the evening, they husked it, cooked it, cut it off of the cob, and packaged. Everyone joined in the work and then could take some fresh sweet corn home, with a donation to the missionary’s support.
Planting mission support
Barb Nissley would have never imagined that her idea for how to raise finances for missions would some day be supporting her. Years ago, Barb helped to organize a garage sale as a fund-raiser for missions. One of the ladies helping was good with plants and decided to thin her iris bulbs and start other small plants for the sale. As the years progressed, the plant part of the sale grew, and the other items became more scarce. Eventually Barb was called into missions, too. When she was preparing to leave for Lithuania, they decided to use the proceeds of the plant sale to support Barb. This year (2005), the plant sale brought in the most money. Customers say they wait to buy their spring flowers until that sale on Memorial Day weekend. Barb reports that it has been a blessing to be on both the planning and the receiving end of this sale, and to see how God has blessed their efforts.
Building a house for missions
Goshen, Indiana – When some of us who now make up a missionary support team were asked to be part of a supportive group, it didn’t seem that anything would change. After all, a number of us had been part of the discernment process 20 years earlier when a family from our area had first made the decision to begin language study in the Middle East. Some of us had been regular financial supporters for most of the intervening years – encouraging them during a brief time back in the States, and in a later return to the Middle East.
What was different was the sense of responsibility that all of us on the team felt as we made the commitment to assume responsibility for their financial support. The family's transition to EMM meant an increased (and more realistic) budget and the need for additional monthly support. We believed it was time for them to return to their place of ministry, but the financial obstacles looked overwhelming. In conversations with EMM administrators, we agreed that a failure to provide adequate financial support would necessitate an early return to the States.
A fund-raising dinner in our community and an unexpected gift from an estate gave us the cushion we believed would give us time to work on broader support. Based on the monthly support needed, the additional resources would carry us through most of the first year. Another community was planning a fund-raiser for the following spring, so we hoped that would carry us for some additional months.
As the months went by, however, the additional support always seemed to be just at the horizon – visible and tantalizing, but not solid and material. What were we going to do?
Two of our support team members were builders, and they began to discuss the possibility of building a fund-raising home. We encouraged their planning, discussed various options with them, and then gave them our support to do it.
Contractor Dave Miller of Sunrise Home Builders headed the effort, along with support from Don Miller and wonderful cooperation from the rest of the community here. First we had to select a building site and agree on the kind of home to be built. The planners chose a building lot in a growing subdivision of smaller homes on the west side of Goshen. They chose a small size home to maximize the buyers’ market.
The first gift to our MST ‘house raising’ effort came in the form of a discounted building lot. I was disappointed when not many people showed up at the first framing day I helped with, but support continued to be steady. Twenty-five to thirty people helped on one or more of four framing days, and more than a dozen businesses and contractors gave discounted labor or materials. The areas of donated or discounted work included general contracting, framing, roofing, masonry, siding, plumbing, heating and cooling, electrical, drywall, carpeting, cabinetry, and trim.
The house sold quickly, and the profit was just over $31,000. Dave noted that the actual selling of the home was one of the few components that was not discounted in some way. We feel so blessed!
The work of broadening regular support for a missionary family continues to be a constant challenge for us as a MST. But thanks to the "house raising," we have breathing room again. We are grateful to God for all who participated in this "house raising" that is helping to keep skilled and committed workers in one more harvest field.
-Conrad Showalter, MST Co-Chairperson
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