How Can I Support Christian Missionary Activities?
There are a wide varietyof Christian missionary activities going on around the world—offering hope in Christ, but also practical assistance such as education support, medical care, house construction, clean water and more. Each of these activities, however, cannot be done without a lot of support from other believers. You can offer this support in many, sometimes surprising, ways.
For instance, one method of missionary support is simply raising awareness of missions work. This could include sharing missionary stories by promoting books or hosting guest speakers, having a world map at the church that shows where missionaries are working, or “adopting” a people group that does not yet know of Jesus. Another easy way to support missionaries is through prayer, individually and as a group. To pray accurately and effectively, keeping up to date on the ministry is essential; that means reading the prayer letters and updates that missionaries send out. And one of the biggest ways to help missionaries is through financial support. This can be personal support of individual missionaries, donating to a missions organization, giving toward specific gifts or any number of other things.[1]
GFA World offers many opportunities to support our national missionaries. You can sponsor a national missionary for just $30 a month, helping provide for their ministry needs as well as their living and family expenses. Each sponsor receives the picture and story of a specific missionary to pray for, and updates keep them informed about the region where the missionary is serving. The updates show the ministries that are taking place and how lives are touched and transformed through this work.[2]
Financial and prayer support allow national missionaries to serve as God’s hands and feet in countless ways, like facilitating child sponsorship, developing communities with income-generating gifts and clean water, and providing disaster relief and compassionate care.[3] GFA Pastor Gaige is just one example of this care and love. He lived in a region where the available water was red, highly contaminated with iron. Unfiltered, the red water was unsafe to drink, but most of the villagers had no filters to use. As farmers and day laborers, they could not afford to buy them. Pastor Gaige, recognizing the dire need, stepped in and distributed thirty BioSand water filters, which purified the water, making it safe to drink.[4]
It is gifts from donors that allow missionaries like Pastor Gaige to help those around them.[5] Consider joining GFA World to support Christian missionaries as we work in Africa and Asia, showing God’s love to those in need.
Learn more about how to support Christian missionaries through GFA World[1] “101 Creative Ideas to Support World Missions.” German Missionary Fellowship DMG. Eternal Perspectives Ministries. December 17, 2009. https://www.epm.org/resources/2009/Dec/17/101-ideas-world-missions.
[2] “National Missionaries: How Sponsorship Works.” GFA World Accessed December 3, 2024. https://www.gfa.org/sponsor/sponsor-info.
[3] “About Us.” GFA World. Accessed December 3, 2024. https://www.gfa.org/about.
[4] “Fighting Waterborne Diseases with Water Filters.” GFA World. March 7, 2022. https://gospelforasia-reports.org/2022/03/fighting-waterborne-diseases-with-water-filters.
[5] Ibid.