WHY OUR AFRICAN & INDIAN MISSIONARIES RAISE THEIR OWN FINANCIAL SUPPORT
There are hundreds of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) working Kenya & Sudan. They pay salaries to their African employees & provide useful relief & development services in Africa. But SIM is not an NGO. We are a mission & therefore committed to partnering with the African church. All of our SIM-SUDAN team members are required to raise their own monthly financial support from their home churches, whether they be from India or Nigeria or Ethiopia. By this their churches show their commitment & responsibility to fulfilling The Great Commission.
HOW AFRICAN MISSIONARIES CAN IMPACT THE CHURCHES HERE IN A WAY THAT MISSIONARIES FROM THE WEST CANNOT - -
Here is just one of many examples of how important our African & Indian missionaries are:
We received a ministry newsletter from an Ethiopian friend who is a missionary in Pakistan. Speaking to a group of Pakistani church leaders, he challenged them, saying, "If my church (in Ethiopia) is able to send me here (to Pakistan) as a missionary, what is the reason for you not sending a single missionary at least within Pakistan?" He continues in his newsletter to say, "In front of westerners their excuse has been poverty... money. They could not say that in front of me. Indeed they were ashamed for not doing anything significant for decades but only relying on western missionaries."
The missionaries from our team who are serving in South Sudan have a credibility in some ways that western missionaries do not. Jimmy, by virtue of the fact that he is seen as a "rich westerner", cannot stand before Sudanese or Kenyan church leaders & challenge them in such a way as our Ethiopian friend could do. And yet western missionaries have credibility before Africans in other ways. HOW WONDERFUL THAT TOGETHER, AS A MULTI-CULTURAL TEAM, WE CAN REPRESENT THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IN A BROADER SENSE THAN WE WOULD AS A MONO-CULTURAL TEAM.
SIM-Sudan team members from different countries praying together
- Pray for Sam, the first Kenyan to join the Rebuilding Southern Sudan team. Pray for Sam as he tries to raise his monthly financial support from Kenyan churches.
- Praise God for the Nigerian, Indian & Ethiopian churches that are financially supporting missionaries from their own countries who are serving at our bases in Sudan.
