spread too thin

the children of Los Pinos, Nicaragua

Someone asked recently about our church being spread too thin.  We did have a discussion about this topic a few years ago regarding international missions.  At the time we were operational in Haiti, Liberia, Jamaica, Mozambique, and Russia.  Maybe other places as well.  There was a sense at the time that we were active in too many places and that some of them held some real challenges as to distance and cost issues.  In response to this, we have not returned to either of our Africa locations.  We still have a sister church in Mozambique, but this has become more of a relationship of emails, letters and funding.  We have no trips planned at the present time.

To make up for these changes and to pull our resources together, we have continued to encourage the Russia Orphanage ministry, the dental work in Jamaica and earthquake relief in Haiti.  We have also introduced the village sponsorship in Nicaragua.  A trip to Nicaragua is in our time zone and the cost is much more reasonable than the Africa trips.  The Los Pinos partnership is also something that any group in the church can be involved with.  It feels to me that we are much more balanced now for our size with operations in Russia, Nicaragua Jamaica and occasionally Haiti.

As to local mission initiatives, we encourage people that have these ideas to build their own teams and  foster their own momentum. In a church this size, there are always going to be many ways that people can be involved. Some of them will be around a long time, others may come and go, and that is ok. Churches need to allow some ministries to live their life and fade into the past. People should always choose the things to be involved in that pull on their heart strings.  That way your work in missions is never forced, but always joyful and fulfilling.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.