The New Zealand Meal Plan is our effort to finish building our support team and to raise awareness and support for global missions in North America. This idea came to us through a couple of conversations we had with friends.
The first conversation was with our Area Director (our boss). We were wrestling with the realities our our monthly support gap, working to keep in in perspective, and trying to be creative in our response. Josh shared that this funding challenge was a common issue with missionaries right now. The economic challenges in North America make it challenging for churches and people to focus overseas. I know so many people are out of work or under-employed and this has a tangible effect on their ability to give. We weren't ripping on people or churches but recognizing realities of life - it's an enormous challenge to look outside when one is challenged to meet day-to-day obligations. If a missionary comes home, it's easier to re-appropriate funds locally (or not re-appropriate at all so one's budget balances) than look for another global ministry to invest in.
The tension we saw in the consequences of this reality, though, are significant. At home, one's scope of ministry gets smaller and less diverse. From personal experience, I know you stop thinking outside of the world you live in day-to-day. You lose awareness in what God is doing elsewhere and sometimes miss out on the blessing of being involved. Globally, international efforts constrict - missionaries either go home early or spend extra time on funding that could be spent with the people they are reaching. This can have a significant effect on local ministries - suddenly the church or organization's leader has to fill a position that was free to them or shoulder the work themselves.
The second conversation was with a mentor of ours who has helped us think through building our team. We were sharing about a season of fasting we did and how God used that time to make Himself more known to us. It was an awe-some experience for us - neither of us were very thrilled about not eating but felt prompted to approach God with this discipline. He responded by giving us peace in who He is and perspective in who we really are. We were sharing how we'd love it if there was a way to encourage others to test-drive some of these shelved disciplines used by the church in the past. The NZ Missions Meal Plan was birthed out of these two conversations.
The work missionaries do around the globe is more significant than most people realize. DaNae and I are in a region where we partner with the local church - we join their efforts instead of pioneering efforts of our own. The church we serve can support one staff member (and even that can be a challenge sometimes). We are able to more-than-double their full time staff at no cost to them. It's enabling them to launch community-focused outreach years before they could on their own. The investment people have made in us allows their pastor to breathe a bit and share the ministry load with us. Throughout the globe, investments like this help young ministries grow, help ministry leaders learn, and help people to see God's care in a tangible way. We ended this conversation with Josh wondering if there was something we could do that was bigger than just our support needs - could we raise an awareness of what a little investment state-side can do?
