Why Give to LIFE?
During the last year as our committee has worked to raise funds for LIFE, I have been asked a few times, "Why should I give to LIFE? Do our missionaries really need money for appliances?"
My answer is always the same, an emphatic "YES! They need our help." I then begin a lengthy explanation of why our missionaries need our help with appliances and household needs.
This will be the first blog of this "WHY" series. In the coming weeks, I hope to share with you letters and comments from some of our missionary families.
Let me begin with sharing my heart.
On some of our recent missions trips with our church, I asked our host missionary wives about the process of setting up their home in an overseas country. The stories I heard motivated me more than ever to raise funds for LIFE.
One of the things I hear most often from missionary wives is the importance of providing a safe haven in their home for their family. Our missionaries, whether serving in a foreign country or serving at home in the US, face spiritual warfare that many times we cannot even begin to imagine or understand. To have a place where their family comes to reconnect and rejuvenate before starting another ministry day is of utmost importance. Each missionary I have spoken with have shared stories of real struggles just adjusting to a different culture.
Imagine having an exhausting day at work (regardless of your profession) and then coming home to an empty home without items with which to cook your family's meal. Take for example the entire way you prepare meals for your family. What if your family's favorite dishes were not available? What if you had to find new types of food and figure out how to prepare those items for your family? What if you couldn't bring your kitchen appliances with you or your cookware? What if you expected to purchase those items in your new place of residence, but then when you arrived, the items, such as pots and pans and mixer, were so expensive you could not afford them?
These are just a few of the scenarios our missionaries run into as they fulfill God's call on their lives.
We dream of being able to provide all of our Arkansas AG missionaries with whatever household item they need!
We would love for you to join us! We have missions requests right now that we are wanting to grant! We need your help!
You may give online at www.araog.org. There is also a link on the home page of this website. This is a secure website. Please be sure to indicate you are giving to "LIFE- where needed most" and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and put in the notes section the City and name of the church to receive missions giving credit.
May we respond to the needs of our missionaries so they can say like Paul to the Philippians, "I am amply supplied!" (Phil 4:18 NIV)
