July, 2003 Prayer Letters

 

July 30, 2003

 This is a very practical article written by Connie Robbins (one of our colleagues in the city of Khabarovsk) and by our regional leader Rodney Hammer (Prague, Czech Republic).  I think it has tremendous insights for those considering potential mission work/trips inside of Russia.

 I encourage each of you to seriously read it and reflect upon it. I also look forward to hearing from each of you concerning your church's interest and involvement in the work God has called us to here in Ufa.  We must have your personal, active involvement in the work here in order to implement various parts of the vision that God has laid before us and Bashkort Baptists.  

 We will have new media tools by late fall that your church/group can use to help us mobilize prayer, personnel, and financial support.  We will send them to you as they become available.

 Blessings! Chris Carr Ufa, Russia

 

Giving Guidelines for Russian Short-Term Missions
Connie Robbins and Rodney Hammer

1. Before arriving in Russia think about what commitments your church may wish to make.

2. You will be presented with great needs, both on a personal and church level. Your Christian compassion will make you aware of situations that could be helped by your generosity. Many are legitimate, but not all, and rarely is money a real solution.

3. Some Russians view foreigners as sponsors. You will likely be asked to assist in some needy project. Both culture and language have played a part in foreigners making promises they were not able to keep. Know how to say no if you are not absolutely certain you can fulfill a promise.

4. Some individuals have been known to present heartbreaking situations to every foreigner who would lend them an ear. Others, including church leaders, have presented the same need to many potential donors without informing those donors of duplicate gifts. Because cases of this sort are not isolated, it is best to first talk to a missionary. Assist those you feel led by God to assist, while at the same time being a wise steward of God's money.

5. If you choose to give money, please check with the missionary you are working with or a head pastor to be sure the gift fits into long-term strategy. A loving, well-intended monetary gift may be counterproductive to a church-planting missionary strategy and may have unintended negative results. Giving directly to a local missionary who can help distribute the funds is one alternative. Using a missionary as a middleman can provide some on-site accountability.

6. Give money only when it is possible to track its use for the purpose specified. Many national churches have become dependent on Western funding and do not do ministry on their own. Any gift may tend to perpetuate this cycle of dependency.

7. Giving subsidies quickly breeds the negative result of dependency, non-reproducible methods, and non-indigenous strategies in the field.

8. Funding large projects without consultation can lead to difficult situations. Large projects have their place (i.e., assistance in building training facilities), but sometimes prove counter-productive.

9. Do not plan projects that endanger the future of the work. Missionaries face dangers gladly because of the call of God upon their lives, but wise missiology demands prudent planning. In many countries, public evangelistic events are legal and often helpful. However, in some situations a public campaign may prove ineffective, lead to the expulsion of missionaries, and endanger national believers. Again, consultation and coordination with national church leaders and missionaries is vital.

10. Russians are very gracious people. In the Russian context, hosts will often answer in the affirmative to save face even though they may not understand the request, it is not appropriate, they do not know how, or are unable to do what you ask. If possible, seek advice from a longterm missionary. We encourage you to be sensitive to the cultural mores and to focus on being people-oriented rather than task-oriented. 11. Many groups see the opportunity to help a national by providing an educational opportunity in the West. This practice is sometimes warranted but should be coordinated very carefully through indigenous church leaders and missionaries. Training in a distant context is often a mistake.

12. When you have had a life-changing experience in a warm and hospitable Russian home, it is natural for you to sayto your Russian host family, "Come and stay with me some time." This politeness is often misunderstood to mean you will help a Russian family get to the West to visit you. A Russian international travel passport has numerous restrictions and is very costly. You will often be expected to pay all of the costs, including travel expenses. We suggest you avoid a good bit of pain and financial burden by carefully weighing what you say to your hosts.

Connie Robbins, Khabarovsk, Russia, and Rodney Hammer,
Prague, Czech Republic, are missionaries with the International Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention.

 

 
Alleviating budget crunch, sending out
missionaries is aim of pastor's campaign
By Joni B. Hannigan


GULF BREEZE, Fla. (BP)--In a move to provide a grassroots "radical response" to the International Mission Board's shortfall in funds this year, a Florida pastor has begun an e-mail letter-writing campaign to urge Baptists to chip in a little extra to get missionaries on the field.

Shane Tucker, bivocational pastor of Santa Rosa Shores Baptist Church in Gulf Breeze, Fla., told the Florida Baptist Witness he believes Southern Baptists should respond in a "radical way" to the record number of missionaries who are on standby waiting to spread the Gospel overseas.

"How will they preach unless they are sent?" from Romans 10:15 is the scriptural mandate that Tucker said has been on his heart. "The question is not whether we have the missionaries," he said, "but, 'Do we have the senders?'"

Tucker's initiative was prompted by a June 5 announcement by the Southern Baptist Convention's IMB, which reported that the 2002 Lottie Moon Christmas offering, while setting a new record, nevertheless fell almost $10 million short of its $125 million goal, complicating a financial situation stressed by declining income and a rapidly increasing missionary force.

Tucker, a former International Service Corps volunteer who served in Tanzania in 1998, said he and his wife, Heather, regularly review missions news by accessing the IMB website and by subscribing to Florida Baptist Witness. He is leading his church through a Bible study produced by the SBC's North American Mission Board titled, "My Purpose: His Plan."

"God is awakening me and my wife and my church to be on mission for Him," Tucker said. "As far as our views about world missions, being on mission with God is a characteristic of our lifestyle and we want to be responsible to fulfill the Great Commission here and abroad. [We want to] hold the ropes for the ones God is calling overseas."

The thought of more than 100 missionary candidates being put on hold or deferred until next year is alarming to Tucker, who said he believes a lack of funding shouldn't prevent them from acting on their call.

"I believe if God has called out all those people to go overseas and preach the Gospel, they should be sent," Tucker said.

Tucker emphasized his allegiance to the SBC's Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists' longstanding channel through which financial support from the tiniest churches ends up flowing to the IMB, NAMB, the six Southern Baptists seminaries and other missions and ministry efforts of the SBC and state Baptist conventions. Tucker said this time, however, "there is a problem [because] our giving has not increased proportionately" with numbers of those who've answered a call to missions."

In his letter, Tucker said the result has been a "logjam" at the IMB of missionaries waiting to be sent out. His challenge is "that every Southern Baptist church would give $2 per member to the IMB before September 30, 2003."

In addition, in two follow-up challenges, Tucker urges Southern Baptist churches to increase their 2003 Lottie Moon offering by 33 percent over last year's and also to increase their Cooperative Program giving by 1 percent of their annual budget for the 2004 budget year.

"The IMB cannot make this happen," Tucker wrote. "But neither can a collection of Christians working on a grassroots effort. Only God can make this happen.

"[God] desires to empower us to fulfill every aspect of the Great Commission, from going to giving," Tucker continued. "God is moving in radical ways in the lives of so many people. He has called so many to make such major changes in their lives and invest themselves in people groups around the world. God is moving in radical ways. We must respond."

In a postscript, Tucker wrote that he represents the small church family issuing the challenge.
"We have no clout in the SBC. We have no clout in the state convention," he wrote. "We are one of the farthest churches ... from our associational office. We embody 'grassroots.'"

Tucker's plan targets four distinct groups: 1) laypeople and their churches; 2) pastors and other ministers, including denominational leaders; 3) collegiate ministers and their students; and 4) seminary professors and students.

The letter outlines a six-step plan for "rally[ing] the troops" around the effort while being "creative." Five prayer starters include New Testament verses on revival, giving and obedience.

By sending out letters to these four groups of people, Tucker said he hopes to saturate about 80 percent of the 16 million Southern Baptists with his challenge, and perhaps out of that number 40 percent of the churches might give $2 per person, which could make up for the $10 million shortfall reflected in the 2002 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

Within the first 36 hours, Tucker said he connected with people across the United States and in Canada.

Norman Sullivan, pastor of Living Truth Church in Milton, Fla. said he appreciated Tucker's reminder.

"Sometimes we get all caught up in what we are trying to do for the Kingdom that we miss some things that are so very crucial, like sending these missionaries out that are ready and willing to go," Sullivan wrote in an e-mail to Tucker. "[W]e accept the challenge. Let's get those missionaries out of harbor!"

Tucker has been at the Gulf Breeze church since late May. He is a 2000 graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

"I'm excited about what God's doing," said Tucker, who until recently worked for an engineering firm.
IMB spokesman Mark Kelly told the Florida Baptist Witness that the IMB is grateful for the efforts of people who care.

"We are grateful that God is using the financial challenge facing the IMB as a wakeup call to Southern Baptists that He is calling out more new missionaries than the churches are providing support for," Kelly said. "Over-and-above efforts like this show that many churches have God's own heart for a lost world and want to send every new missionary possible.

"We also are glad to see top priority given to the proper channels of support for Southern Baptist missions causes -- the Cooperative Program and our missions offerings," Kelly said. "Those channels express the cooperative spirit that unites Southern Baptists to fulfill God's redemptive purpose in the world."
--30--
For more information, e-mail Shane Tucker at Shaneheatherzoe@aol.com or call (850) 994-7995. Joni B Hannigan is managing editor of Florida Baptist Witness, on the Web at www.FloridaBaptistWitness.com.

Pastor frames 'prayer starters'for missions funding initiativeBy Staff


GULF BREEZE, Fla. (BP)--Five "prayer starters" have been framed by pastor Shane Tucker of Florida for his effort to encourage Southern Baptists to overcome a budget shortfall that has prompted the International Mission Board to scale back its missionary appointments.

For responding in a "radical way" to the funding need, Tucker's prayer starters are:

-- Pray that God would raise up believers to give in the same proportion in which He has raised up believers to go. (Romans 10:15).

-- Pray that believers would give both boldly and sacrificially in order to do the work of His Kingdom (Acts 4:32-35).

-- Pray that God would bring revival to us and among us as we seek to obey His call on our lives (Acts 2:42-47).

-- Pray that God would use our offerings to quickly move out called Christians into their places of service so they can communicate the Gospel to the lost (2 Thessalonians 3:1).

-- Pray that God would redeem people to Himself through the ministries of these newly sent missionaries (Titus 2:11-14).

 

July 13 2003

Greetings from Ufa! 

 We were also blessed to have Chris’ parents (Gary and Nancy Carr) come and visit with us during the week of July 6-11.  It was a very special time to be together as family again and to see grandpa and grandma playing with all five of their grandkids.

 

Keep praying that… 

  1. In relation to the development of advocacy tools, pray that we can complete necessary translation and sound studio work in a timely manner in the coming weeks;
  2. God would bless Larry and Josie Moon and other adult sponsors who will help direct an evangelistic children’s camp here in Bashkortostan during the next 2 weeks (July 14-25)
  3. That God would safely direct the paths of two American believers who will be here later this month (July 19-26) to conduct a seminar and show our team and other national believers, how to use English and the English translation of the Bible to start evangelistic bible studies which will grow into churches;
  4. That the Lord would provide a place for national believers to conduct a summer youth camp; we have been encountering difficulties securing land and facilities so far this summer for such activities
  5. That God would continue to guide us and our team as we approach times of visa renewal later in August and into October…pray for God’s blessing on some potential creative approaches to our work
  6. Pray that God would burden the hearts of believers in the USA to join us in the work in the form of volunteer teams…we have been disappointed that we have not been able to mobilize teams to come help us this summer to implement crucial segments of our evangelism strategies…we need your help and the help of our churches to accomplish this task.

              For more information, please contact us at:  carr@ufanet.ru OR  chrisandeileen@iname.com  and visit our website at:

www.hope4ufa.com

 Blessings to you and thank you for your crucial support of our work through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions.  God is blessing through your financial gifts, but we believe that He is wanting to grow His work through calling some of YOU to come join us on a short-term trips and perhaps even for more intermediate- and long-term periods of time!

 Chris, Eileen, Nathan, Timmy, Heather, Stephen, and Seth Carr

Your IMB workers in Ufa, Bashkortostan (Russia)