Why We Left the Mainstream Workforce: Our Side of the Story

(From Matt)

I spent two months interning at Missionary TECH Team before marrying Molly in 2007. I hoped that one day we would return to TECH; in fact, I brought Molly there on a scorching Texas camping trip in late July 2008 because I wanted her to meet the Team and see the office that we might one day serve in, but neither of us knew that God would have us return the following summer until that coming winter when God began changing our hearts radically.

At the beginning of 2009, God made it clear to us that, although we were living very Christian-ized lives, we were lukewarm. We were like the church of Laodicea in Revelation that became very comfortable and self-serving. The Lord shook us up by bringing us to an on-line sermon by Francis Chan of Cornerstone Church called “Lukewarm and Lovin’ It.” God wanted to wake us up and tell us that we needed to be 100% His representative. He was not just an addition to our talents, gifts and personalities... we were supposed to be functioning as an addition to His purposes.

Molly and I began shifting our views of money: no longer was it because of our own accord that we saw our earnings, but because God provided greatly for us. We also began realizing that it is only because of God’s mercy that we have any talents at all. We are nothing on our own.
We did not know that Molly would serve at Missionary TECH Team until a month and a half before we moved. We thought God would provide for us through her teaching in Longview, TX.

We both found confirmation from the Lord and others that He wanted Molly at TECH, so we began trying to raise support, which is usually a year-long process or more for most missionaries. We lived off of our savings for 6 months as we built up financial support. When we reached 50% of our goal in January 2010, we stopped trying to raise support, and we’ve seen God provide for bills that our support would not cover through people sending us special gifts or through the private music lessons Molly has been able to pick up. He is always proving himself generous and faithful.

We are thrilled that God has changed our hearts in regards to wanting to be completely His servants. We do not know how long He wants us to remain faith-supported missionaries. We DO know, however, that we will continue to follow the command to “go into all the world and preach the gospel,” and if the Lord asks us to return to the mainstream workforce, we will do so, knowing it is to serve and bring honor to Him.

What Does it Mean to be Faith-Supported

Recently several people have asked us about our income. I thought I'd explain a little bit for you about how we are paid at Missionary TECH Team and why. I wrote this in our up-coming brochure! If you have anything to add or take out, let me know, because we haven't printed the brochure, yet, but HURRY! :)

We are faith-supported missionaries, which is a confusing concept to many. There are basically two reasons why it is called faith-support.

1) The missionary receiving the support must have faith. The missionary does not receive a set salary by a company as a mainstream worker would, but instead he relies on the Lord, through faith, to provide for his needs. Throughout history, God has often verified His calling to missionaries by prompting others to share what He’s given them with the missionary.

2) The person supporting the missionary financially must have faith. The supporter gives to the missionary for several reasons, but the underlying theme found in supporters is that they have realized their money is fully God’s, and they feel prompted by Him to give to that missionary, above and beyond their typical tithing. This act of giving takes a lot of faith for the giver because he responds due to a prompting in spirit, and because he trusts that the Lord will continue to take care of his needs after the gift has been given.

A Couple Examples of Faith-Support in Scripture
The apostle Paul, though he worked as a tent-maker for part of his ministry, reported in 2 Corinthians 11:8-10 that there were several churches supporting his ministry, one being Macedonia. Mary Magdalene, Susanna and Joanna were three women who were among those that financially supported our Savior’s ministry during His final 3 years on earth. (Luke 8:1-3)

*There is a bit more to being faith-supported, but I wanted to make the concept understandable. Please let me know if I diminished any of the aspect of the subject.

(Thought I'd include the photo from
our literature while I was at it!!!)

Congratulations Matt!!!!

Early this week Matt finished his first "Journey through the Bible," as Lynella calls them. I was so excited for him---- he was excited, but I was ECSTATIC. I decided that this meant he would get a surprise date. (We haven't been on a date in awhile.) I asked around at TECH what kinds of things might be fun to do, and people had neat ideas, but they were the kinds of things Matt already does with me, like taking me to the beach on a hot evening, or a camping overnight... I thought that we should do something COMPLETELY different.

Then I got an e-mail from my friend Mark, the pianist at Fellowship Bible Church. He asked if Matt and I were still interested in seeing him in the East Texas Opera, and that he had FREE TICKETS if we were interested. The tickets were for Friday, the night I was planning to take Matt out! I remembered how excited he was when he found out Mark was in this opera, but he (I had hoped, like me) had forgotten which weekend it would be in Longview.

Mark and I e-mailed back and forth about when/where to pick up tickets and how we should dress, etc, and so I got the tickets Thursday during our lunch break while Matt was showering (read the previous blog entry).

I told him to wear a tie, and I took him out to the Tyler St. Bistro beforehand. I told him there that I would be taking him to the opera. He was really excited, but I think he over did it because I always get nervous when he doesn't seem excited about my ideas.

The opera was a comedy, and it cracked us up numerous times! I asked Matt afterward if we could go again sometime, and he responded, "Not anytime soon."

I'm pretty sure he had a good time, but I think he's hoping the next time I see an opera that he'll be the starring tenor. Within the family/friends circle, he's pretty famous for his opera singing. Hopefully he'll audition soon!

The Latest about Matt

Matt has been working most mornings these past couple weeks on the TECH landscaping. The crew of workers is headed by our in-house landscape architect (and friend) Bill Daniel. Bill's cubicle is right next to Matt's, and they get along very well. All that to say, Matt gets very sweaty in the morning, showers at lunch, then returns to work in a dress shirt and dress pants to be an architect in the afternoons. He loves it! ACTUALLY, one secret about Matt (shhhh) is that he has always wanted to be an outdoor maintenance man at a Christian camp or ministry. He loves gardening and mowing the lawn, pruning and laying mulch. Truly he loves hard work.

All that to say, I thought I'd include a couple pictures of HIS latest work... or him working lately, I suppose. It's hard to describe all that has gone on for the landscaping since the remodeling... but I'll show you a "then and now," to help give you the idea.

THEN:










NOW:






(Dan, from Computer Services, with Matt)


Everything seems to be moving right along!

A Neat Experience

For about a week I had been working on a 7-foot retractable display for a missionary family going to Spain. Because of some communication issues (lack of internet accessibility), the father came in to TECH to help me finish the final changes. The following day he came in to pick up his display.

While he was working with me, he told me all about how God called his family to Spain and how they were feeling less equipped than he thought a missionary should, and his anxiety showed. He's a young man who is preparing to plant a Baptist church in a very Catholic city. A teammate of mine in graphics and I were able to take that opportunity to encourage him as we worked, and we now have a more specific direction to go while praying for his family (as we pray for the other missionaries on our docket).

Praise the Lord for that great opportunity! It is not every day that a client is able to come into the office and work next to us on the project we are doing for him/her!






(A Photo of the Deluxe Retractable in Joel's corner)

Shiashie

In Shiashie (in Accra, Ghana), the Calvary Baptist Church is currently meeting in a large tent.  Matt has been working under Bob Schill on the designs (some designing, but mostly drafting and CAD drawings) for the church building that you have seen before, possibly, and he has even developed an animation.  We'll publish the animation for you eventually, but for now, here is the beautiful rendering he created (THIS BUILDING IS NOT YET BUILT):

 This rendering, his other drawings and the animation will be used to help the believers in Shiashie see what their building will look like.  This will help them get a better feel for what they are paying for instead of just showing them the floor plans.

Matt-imation

You may remember the drawings shown of Calvary Baptist Church in Shiashie/Accra, Ghana.  Matt put together an animation (you know about it if you've been reading our prayer requests), and we wanted to show it to you.  This is the animation that Bob Schill will be able to show the church who is planning to build this church.  This is the first time TECH has ever done anything like this.  Matt wanted y'all to know that this is the smallest file he could make of this video, so the quality is much poorer than the original.  But anyway, take a look: