Humbled and Confused

We had a couple of things happen this week that just left us shaking our heads. But in a good way. As many of you know, our financial support has been low for a long time. Many missionaries around the world are experiencing this, and many have had to leave the field. So, we don't take it personally and know that lots of folks in the USA (and in other countries) are struggling. We have adjusted our lives somewhat, where we can, and are trying to ride out the storm.

Last week, one of our supporting churches held a meeting to decide what they were going to do about their missions budget. We felt pretty sure that we would hear back that our support was cut by half, which would have been a blow. However, after the meeting we heard that almost all of the staff of the church has agreed to work for free. Yup, free. No salary. Now, how these people are going to live, to pay their bills, I have no idea. But they said they would do this. The Board there also said that they feel they have a commitment to their foreign missionaries, to keep us on the field, and that we would continue to receive their full promised support, Lord willing.

When we heard this news, we felt humbled. Thank you, Bakerville Church, for standing behind us even when it hurts really bad.

This week, we received our regular monthly statement (list of donations) for December. For the first time since July, we received our full salary. And there was much rejoicing. There were some folks who gave sacrifically and we are going to celebrate by going out and buying a big bag of milk powder! Well, actually I did buy two blocks of cheese, which we rarely eat these days, and invited friends over for pizza! However, every month, whether we receive all that we hoped for or not, I look at the list of people who sent money in and I feel humbled. Well, I feel somewhat guilty too, but that is fodder for another blog entry. It can sometimes be hard to receive. I look at the names and think "You know, she could have gone out to eat with that money. He could have bought a new CD and gone to the movies". There are a million other things those folks could have done, including giving to some very worthy causes, but they sent it to us to keep us here doing this work. Why? That's where the confusion part comes in.

God works in people's hearts, I know. He does it in my heart. And I don't believe everyone should give to us. But for some reason he's chosen these folks to stand with us in this work. And I am humbled when I think about it. I just have to shake my head, and say "Thank you. We'll try our best." - Cami