Hello all:
My congregation is having some serious financial difficulties. The phone at the building has been shut off, the preacher went out and got a part time job so that he could reduce the amount of money he accepts from the church, and our natural gas almost got shut off a couple of weeks ago.
If you could take a moment and pray for us. Pray for wisdom for us, for us to make the right decisions when we have our business meeting in a couple of weeks, for our giving to increase, and for me when I call our minister later today to talk about some options…
My wife and I stopped by the home of a family who are members at our congregation to pick something up, and we ended up staying there two and a half hours talking, mostly about the budget and financial issues. We came away with this laying heavy on our hearts.
We came up with an idea on how to cut some expenditures, but I’m not very excited about how. We support two indigenous “missionary” preachers in Zimbabwe. These two both have their own congregations, and as far as I know, work full time evangelizing their areas. Between these two men I think we send a measley $350 a month. Some want to cut them out of the budget entirely, but I want to make an effort to “replace” our funds for them because these two men and their families are about as desperate as we are for funding.
So, this is my appeal for help. If your congregation would be interested in sponsoring some indigenous missionaries who are doing good work in Zimbabwe, leave a comment or email me. I don’t care if the sign above your door says Church of Christ, Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, or International Church of Christ. If your congregation wants to support some missionaries, let me know.
And finally, please forgive me for posting this. I feel like a televagelist now. I won’t be using my blog for fund raising purposes.
-Clarke
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May 30th, 2006 at 9:59
If you could email me with their details I can see what I can find out. There is a long time evangelist from the US who is in neighboring Zambia. At the very least I’ll keep them and your congregation in my prayers.
May 30th, 2006 at 17:51
Clarke,
I will be forwarding this to my church, at the very least, like Owen stated above, your church, the members and the leaders will be in our prayers.
JP
May 30th, 2006 at 18:33
Hey Clarke,
I’m sorry to hear of the difficulties your congregation is facing. The congregation where I serve has the mixed blessing of not owning a building. That factor alone probably saved us enormous financial difficulties over the past few years.
My region of the US took responsibility for funding our mission plantings in Africa and the Carribean over the past 15 or so years. So we have a lot of young congregations there, still relying on our funds, and that makes things very tight financially. But here is a thought. There are two ICOC congregations in Zimbabwe: Harare, 235 members, and Bulawayo, 35 members — based on the latest info I have seen anyway. (click links above for contact info) I really don’t know much about these specific congregations (My congregation has been sending support to congregations in several African countries, but not Zimbabwe). Perhaps it would be worthwhile for the missionaries you are supporting to make contact with these. I’m sure they are not flush with cash either but there might be a way for them to collaborate if both parties are open to cooperation. Just a thought…
Your church is definitely in my prayers.
Alan
May 30th, 2006 at 21:47
Owen:
When I can get more info I’ll forward it on. I don’t have much about them actually right now, this isn’t an “approved” action, but then, we don’t have elders now, so not much is.
JP & Alan:
I appreciate the prayers and your willingness to pass the info on.
Alan:
I don’t have direct communication with the missionaries, and I have a feeling there would be opposition to me introducing them to an ICOC congregation close by to them. I recently found out that our congregation actually had some strong ICOC leanings at one time, and unfortuantly, combined with the fact that Kip is only a couple miles away, that is a blinding force here for the changes that are occuring/have occured in your fellowship.
Ironically, it will be easier for me to get them to accept that another RM congregation would provide direct support for the missionaries then to foster communication. Thats sadening.
-Clarke