WMPL Business Office

I am very happy to introduce you this month to an additional member of the business office. I have felt for some time that it would be a great benefit to add an accountant to the team. However, it is one thing to have a need – and quite another to have a person available to fill that need. Well, in March of this year I was talking with a member of my home congregation who had recently graduated with an accounting degree. She mentioned that she was hoping to work with a mission sending organization. About six weeks after that conversation, Elycia Broden was accepted as a missionary candidate by our Mission Directorate. She began working in the Business Office the next week.

Before Elycia entered college she already knew that God was calling her to serve him in missions. With this in mind, she chose accounting as her major at Northwestern College. Elycia had heard that accounting was a needed skill for many missions and mission fields. Accounting also suited her own interests. So Elycia pursued a degree in accounting, feeling that God was calling her to full-time missionary service for many years to come. His call came to her in large part through multiple experiences in short-term missions in Mexico and India. Elycia believes that God has called her to serve him overseas after her time with the home staff.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with Elycia. I believe that God has sent her at just the right time. With Elycia handling many of the accounting responsibilities in the business office, I will now concentrate my efforts on financial policies and longer-term projects. The addition of Elycia will give us the ability to do the day-to-day work of the business office better – and to accomplish new things that were not previously possible.

Elycia can be contacted by email at ebroden@wmpl.org.

“For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages’” (1 Timothy 5:18).

The Bible teaches us that gospel servants “deserve their wages.” In the World Mission Prayer League our “wages” come from missionary support funds. These are not, of course, “salaries for services rendered.” They are free-will donations from praying friends that enable our missionary family to carry on in seventeen countries around the world. Last year over 45% of all donations were designated for missionary support funds. This month I thought it would be interesting to give a brief explanation on these funds are used.

The first thing to point out is that each of our missionary units has its own designated “support fund.” Gifts contributed to that fund are used entirely for the support of that missionary. They are not used to pay for things like office supplies or utilities here in the home office. If a support fund has more than is needed in a particular month, the balance is held over to be used in subsequent months for that same designated family.

The first and most obvious use of these funds is for paying missionary allowance. Some may think that support funds are used exclusively for allowances but in reality only about 60 percent of support gifts end up in a missionary’s monthly paycheck. This is because there are other expenses that are directly related to supporting a missionary – such as health insurance, housing, and retirement plan contributions. Roughly 35 percent of support gifts are used to pay for these. The remaining 5 percent covers a few other minor items, such as a modest term-life insurance policy, emergency evacuation insurance, social security taxes, and certain field expenses that are common to the entire field where a missionary is assigned.

A donation to the support fund of one of our missionaries is indeed used to support that missionary. Without these generous donations it would not be possible to “pay our workers the wages they deserve.” Of course, support funds are not always sufficient to meet all of our support needs. When support funds fall short, we attempt to make up the difference with undesignated general fund contributions. Thank you for your generous support!

"So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Early in the morning this past Valentine’s day I gave my youngest son a large chocolate bar along with a little card. David was visibly happy to receive the gift. Later that day when I returned home from work David presented me with a Valentine. It was a card and a portion of the same chocolate bar that I had given to him earlier that morning.

It gave me a deep sense of joy and satisfaction to receive the gift from him. In our world, giving a gift that you have yourself previously received is frowned on. We feel that it may indicate that the gift was not appreciated in the first place, or that it lacks a personal touch. But this is not the case in a father and child relationship. I knew for certain that David loved the gift that I had given to him. And he knew that the chocolate bar was something that I enjoy also. So David, out of his limited resources, gave back to me something that was dear to him as an expression of his love. It was a great gift. 

This is how it is with the relationship between God and his children. In reality everything that we possess is given to us by God. After receiving my gift from David I think I can better understand how it must please God when we take the treasured things that he has given to us and return a portion of them back to him. Incidentally, I weighed the part of the chocolate bar that David had given back to me and found that it was just about one tenth of the original bar I had given to him.

Just as I did not need a portion of David’s chocolate bar, neither does God need our tithes and offerings. Jesus told the Israelites that God could raise up children of Abraham out of stones. I suppose God could also raise up financial resources and volunteer workers for his church whenever he pleases. God is not dependent on our gifts, but they are pleasing to him. God’s kingdom and church will prevail with or without our gifts but it must fill him with joy when we give back to him – joyfully as an expression of love and thankfulness.