It truly is amazing to see the zeal and passion for missions and evangelism in New Life these days! People are steadily coming to know Christ through our house church ministry and other special events, and once again, more than fifty of us have either gone on or will be going on short-term mission trips this year. All of you are doing a great job of praying for and reaching out to your unbelieving friends so they could come to know Christ and begin their personal relationship with him. And you have also given very generously to fund and support all our short-term mission trips this year. I am so very glad that New Life is able to support about 50% of each short-term missionary’s total trip cost this year!
From now on, our Missions Team will have the Missions Month during October/November during which they will present to us all the mission trips that will take place the following year. Those of us who would like to go on one of these trips will need to sign up by the end of November. This will help our Missions Team to set up the upcoming year’s budget more reasonably and accurately. Then in March, they will present to us the total amount that we need to raise to fund and support all those who are going on short-term mission trips. New Life will continue to support up to 50% for each short-term missionary, expecting him/her to contribute 50% or more out of his/her own pocket.
I am also thrilled to know that there are three New Life members who will be serving God at various mission fields for more than six months beginning this year. They are Mia Kang, Rebecca Kim and Sean Kim. Mia will resign from her current position at Foley’s and begin serving as a staff/intern at Inspire Women’s Ministry starting in June for seven months. Rebecca will resign as a schoolteacher at the end of this month and will serve for a year in Tibet teaching English. And Sean will serve along with his house church’s missionary in Djibouti, Africa, teaching English to Muslims for ten months.
As of now, we have Sung Ha Kim and Justy Shin serving the Lord in Kosova and China, respectively, and I thought this type of mid-term mission commitments (six months to about two years) would be rare in New Life. What small faith I had!
Now that we have several people who are responding to God’s call by going to mission fields for longer terms, we as a family of God must do our best to help and support them, not just through prayer but through our financial resources as well. This is our privilege as well as our responsibility. If we don’t take care of them, who will help them, and to whom will they turn for help? God is counting on New Life to take care of our own. (For those who will be going on long-term mission trips, i.e. two years or more, New Life will direct them to IMB.)
For the next several Sundays during worship service, Mia, Rebecca and Sean will share with us what made them decide to go on missions for more than six months, what they will be doing once they get there, and what their prayer and financial needs are. I can’t wait to hear their moving stories on what God is doing in their lives!
To fund all of their trips, it would take about $30,000, and we will ask them to contribute 20% or more of their total expenses. This means we will need to raise about $24,000 between the 240 of us who are members of New Life. As you can see, if everyone pitches in about $100, we could easily raise the amount. I know that $100 is a lot for some people, but I also know that there are those of you who could give much more than $100 simply because God has blessed and entrusted you with large amount of resources. And if we raise more than our target amount, I would like to suggest that we use the surplus to support Sung Ha and Justy as well.
Sometimes it sounds like I am asking you to contribute a lot to God’s work, but if you look at your checkbook, you will realize that it hasn’t been that frequent. Let’s seize this opportunity and make the best out of it!
Your pastor,
Eric
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