here<\/a>)<\/p>\nAs I was reading this I felt really bad. \u00a0Many of you know we at the LIGHT! support quite a few missionaries through a variety of vehicles whether it be through prayer, through finances or through hospitality\/meeting physical needs. \u00a0To think that our missionaries could potentially face such struggles that they were afraid to voice made me quite sad.<\/p>\n
So, to our missionary friends, here are 3 things we at the LIGHT! would want you to know:<\/p>\n
1) \u00a0Always feel free to share with us about your financial needs.<\/strong><\/p>\nFrom my standpoint I recognize that, these days, I haven’t seen a lot of obvious signs of God sending manna down from heaven to care for His people. \u00a0(I’m NOT saying He doesn’t do so — just saying that it is NOT obvious to me at all that couldn’t be explained by simpler, non-supernatural means). \u00a0So, dollars still get things done and we are happy to share whatever God has blessed our church with to help.<\/p>\n
2) \u00a0You can feel free to share with us about your vacations.<\/strong><\/p>\nTo be crystal clear we understand that you are human just like the rest of us. \u00a0Your profession as a missionary, while special, is no more “spiritual” than those of us who are self-employed or those of us whose profession puts us in McDonald’s, Walmart, GE, IBM or Enron<\/del>. \u00a0(OK, scratch the latter =P). \u00a0As such you have total freedom to go on vacation as much as the rest of us do and can post pictures on Facebook about it – there will be no judgment from me at theLIGHT! at all. \u00a0In fact, we will share in your happiness!<\/p>\n3) \u00a0You can feel free to be who God made you to be. \u00a0You have NOTHING to prove to those of us at the LIGHT!<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen we made the decision to support you God had already indicated that your work was a worthy cause. \u00a0While we do enjoy hearing from you from time-to-time there is no felt need from our end that you must send an update each month to constantly prove that we are getting “value for our money” – that conclusion was already reached when we made the decision to be your partner in building God’s kingdom. \u00a0We, at the LIGHT!, are not much about numbers, but more about “process.” \u00a0In fact, our own mission statement refers to us providing the “environment and resources” that best foster the “development of the key RELATIONSHIPS in people’s lives.” \u00a0Nothing about x number of outreaches, baptisms, bible studies, answered prayers, etc.!<\/p>\n
Well, I hope you sensed the theme of “freedom” from us at the LIGHT! \u00a0There is no need for “masks” with us. \u00a0We love you guys just the way you are and appreciate all of your hard work and sacrifice for the LORD!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, I struggled with deciding about whether to opine about climate change or talk about a moving post someone had shared on Facebook. I went for the latter…tired of the circus that is our political arena these days! =P The moving post was about “how missionaries really feel” and what they won’t share with most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kHU7-3t","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/person-976759_640.jpg?fit=640%2C427","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions\/217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/person-976759_640.jpg?resize=300%2C200\")
Well, I struggled with deciding about whether to opine about climate change or talk about a moving post someone had shared on Facebook.<\/p>\n