June 01, 2009 | Missions (General)

Support Raising for Missionaries

Overcoming the Fear of Asking for Money for a Mission Trip

For a missionary, financial support raising can be one of the most daunting tasks of the job.

In fact, the idea of asking friends, family, and church members to fund a person’s living expenses or even temporary expenses while on a short-term mission trip is enough of an obstacle to keep countless young people from answering a call to the nations.

But it’s really a question of trust.

Do you trust God to provide the support for your trip? Is money holding you back from stepping out in faith? Is the idea of support raising hindering you from going on a mission trip or stepping into full-time missions work? You may be getting worried for no reason.

World Racer Ian Schumann shares this testimony of God’s provision:

I entered the World Race squad way late, I hardly have a home church, and my extended family is Jewish, so they didn’t want to help me out.

Fund-raising seemed impractical, nearly impossible.

Two weeks before the launch date, the deadline was suddenly upon me to get $6900 cash in my support account! I had been slow, but now it was crunch time.

So, with a lot of prayer and trust, I scribbled out a blog entitled “Call for help,” detailing where I was at and making it very clear that if somebody didn’t start giving soon, I would lose my chance to go on this trip.

I only had $1200 collected at this point. Well, that was late on a Thursday night. By Friday at 2:00pm, about 14 hours later, I had broken the $6900 threshold. By the following Monday, I was at $10,000! It was nothing short of miraculous.

I will never again doubt that God provides.

Support-Raising is an Act of Faith

At Adventures In Missions, we believe in giving God opportunities to amaze us with his faithfulness, even in the midst of our questions and doubts. Our staff raises full-time support, as do all of our short-term missionaries.

If you have qualms about support raising for a particular mission trip, we want to help you and pray through the fund-raising process with you.

This is an important part of your spiritual journey, and we want to walk through it with you. If the idea of support-raising is holding you back from your calling, don’t let it. There is too much at stake, too much on the line.

And the reality is: although you may be confused and scared, God wants to come through for you.

Will you let him?