HOME FIELD/FOREIGN FIELD COOPERATION! DO 2576 Comp. 10/89
1. (In light of the Letters "Latin America Is It!" & "Our Re-Invasion of Europe!", the following quotes have been compiled to offer more guidance from previously published Letters on the relationship between the richer Home Fields & the poorer mission fields. Considering the current crashing state of most Latin American economies, our precious Family there & in our other mission fields can certainly use all the help that our richer fields are able to provide!)
2. Most of our Family Members are either out on the mission fields, or they're supporting missionaries heavily.--And I'd say that that's being a missionary too! God bless all of our folks who are back in their Home Fields & are giving every penny that they can to support all the field missionaries & those of us who are out in the mission fields of the World!
3. I've always said, if you can't be a missionary, then you ought to be supporting missionaries! If God's called you to make money, you ought to make a lot of money & be giving a lot to the missionaries! Or, if you're serving the Lord in a rich & prosperous field & the Lord has blessed you with an abundant income, you need to "do good & be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate (share with others)."--1Tim.6:17,18.
4. Our missionaries in the field can't expect the poor peons of the World's undernourished millions to foot their bills! The richer fields of North America & Europe should certainly contribute what they can. I just don't think we should depend on those poor Third World countries to support us. That's what they hate about the U.S. already, the way they've exploited the poor, particularly in Latin America!
5. As much as possible, we need to take it from the rich North to share it with the poor South!--Amen? We just can't expect the poor people of the poorer mission fields to support us! Besides, if our missionaries are so burdened & worried about money & support, they'll never be able to devote their full time & energy to their main mission--witnessing & saving souls!
6. I don't see why our missionaries should have to bow & scrape & kowtow & scrounge for every single penny to manage to survive & to eat & to pay the rent on their foreign fields! The job is tough enough as it is without worrying so much about support! They need people back home who can afford to support them so they don't have to worry so much about support on the field! For God's sake, our field missionaries are never going to get the support they need from the peons & the peasants in the rice paddies & the banana plantations!--In fact, they're going to be supporting them if they join!
7. Sad to say, we've had many good, loyal faithful, diligent, hard-working, inspired missionaries in the field who have failed for this very reason.--Not because of any lack of desire to serve the Lord or lack of love for others, & certainly not because of a lack of the right Message or of soul-winning or discipling ability. They've had everything else going for them, everything else right, everything else strong & going great, but they've had weak or broken supply lines, & insufficient support, & therefore many were unable to accomplish their mission. Many have been sorely handicapped & pitifully debilitated because of lack of sufficient support!
8. I would say that this is probably our weakest point with our field missionaries today, this failure to get sufficient support! Without a good blood supply, the body will die! It may have everything else, but without a good circulation of blood supplying the absolutely essential needs of the entire body, the body will weaken & sicken & eventually die!
9. If anybody should have a heart for our field missionaries & should have a strong burden to really work & sacrifice for them & do all they can to support them, it should be you home folks who have previously spent time in the mission field!--You've been there, you know what it's like & you know how great the need is!--And thank God, a lot of you home folks support & give like no other church I have ever heard of!
10. Even those of you who have to work at System jobs fulltime are still faithfully giving & supporting the Lord's Work in the mission fields, God bless you! Perhaps you couldn't personally continue on in the field & you had to return to the Home Field because of this trouble or that trouble, but you've gone back to your Home Fields & continued to be faithful to the Lord, PTL!--Even if some of you have found that your main ministry has become earning enough money to support us missionaries who are on the field.
11. So even if some of you folks are in a secular job in the World & earning worldly money, we're not going to complain too much about it if you use a good portion of that money to support God's Work & His missionaries, amen?--Or better yet, you're serving the Lord fulltime & He's blessing your ministry & outreach so abundantly that you're able to contribute heavily to the needy mission fields! By so doing, you're investing that money in souls & in eternal dividends, & I'm sure God is going to bless you for it!
12. The Lord says in His Own Word, "Those that stand by the stuff shall receive equally with those that go forth to the battle!"--1Sam.30:24. So don't knock it, don't minimise'm, don't criticise'm! Even many of our people who've landed System jobs have turned out to be very good givers, heavy givers, thank God, faithful TRFers & good givers to the field missionaries, as well as to various special projects & pushes, GBT!
13. By giving to our mission fields, they are sharing in those field ministries, & God will certainly bless them & reward them for it. They will have eternal dividends from investment in God's Work that they will never lose, but reap forever! And God will see that they don't suffer for it, & see that they get good returns on it.--The best!--Souls!
14. The Bible says, "The labourer is worthy of his hire," & "Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn" for "They that preach the Gospel shall live of the Gospel!"--Lk.10:7; Deut.25:4; Mat.10:10b; 1Cor.9:9-14. It is the duty, the obligation, the responsibility of the richer Home Fields to pay the field missionaries to do their job, to help support them. To do their job, the field missionaries have to be sent by somebody. Somebody has got to do the sending & the paying & the supporting! (Rom.10:15)
15. You folks in the rich Home Field who enjoy comfortable homes with prosperous ministries or even well-paying jobs, the least you can do is to give faithfully, tithe fully & support largely & generously the missionaries who are in the poorer foreign fields "going into all the World preaching the Gospel to every creature!" When you home folks fail to support the missionaries, you are virtually "withholding the hire of the labourer who is reaping down the fields," something that God's Word condemns!--James 5:4.--So let's work together & faithfully distribute our resources "according as every man (or field) has need."--Acts 2:44,45; 4:34,35.
16. Of course, we don't only expect you home folks to be supporters, but missionaries as well! Many of the Prophets of old were exiles who had to live in strange, foreign countries, where they faithfully spread their religion & their Gospel, just like we have "gone into all the World" obeying the Lord's command, "preaching the Gospel to every creature!" However, many of the Prophets eventually returned to or stayed in their home countries, where they also faithfully preached the message that God had given them, just like our home missionaries are likewise sent with a message to their own people.
17. A lot of old Home Fields have now become real mission fields! We were there before, & we saturated them then, but we've been gone a long time while we've reached the rest of the World! We reaped one generation there, but it was 10, 12, 15-20 years ago!--And there's a whole new generation back home that we now need to reach!
18. We've either got to reach them now or never!--Well, we can reach them in the Millennium, but there's a difference. I'd sure rather see them get saved now than take a chance on them going through what's coming without the Lord! And they'll be thankful too! This new generation in the Home Fields may have heard about us, mostly bad, but they haven't seen us & met the samples or really been given the Word or had a real opportunity of decision.--So let's reach'm & reap'm for the Lord!
19. So whether you're a field missionary or a Home Field missionary & supporter, just do the best you can, go where you can, stay where you can & be faithful till the Lord returns! And keep busy in the meantime, feeding your sheep & witnessing & winning all whom you can! Do the best you can, whatever the Lord leads you to do. I'm sure there will always be something you can do until the Lord relieves you either through death or His Coming!--There will always be something, PTL! Amen?
20. (Prays:) Bless our Family everywhere, Lord. Help them never to lose their fire & their conviction to serve You, to always be a witness & a testimony, & to always be preaching the Gospel wherever they are, wherever they go, & exhorting others to preach it & support it.--In Jesus' name. Amen! TYJ!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family