“It is the Prayer League way to depend upon God to meet our needs day-by-day, month-by-month, and year-by-year.” (Mission Handbook, ¶ 140)
I have recently written about the Prayer League practice of non-indebtedness, really a result of our commitment to prayer. Our Handbook describes other implications of our commitment to prayer – one of which is the principle of “immediacy”.
“[Immediacy] means… that we tend to disburse what resources we receive as we receive them. We receive them as the provision of God; we are eager to put them to work.
“Traditionally, we have not thought it appropriate to create endowment funds and the like, if by these we intend to ensure God’s ongoing provision. We much prefer to experience, day-by-day and month-by-month, his immediate provision for our immediate need.” (Handbook, ¶141, 142)
Our current practice of using Estate Funds to help pay missionary benefit expenses is an example of this principle in action. About four years ago we experienced an unusual increase in gifts to our Estate Fund. For about one year we held a large balance in the fund while missionary allowance payments remained less than 100 percent. During those months the Finance Committee and Council devised a way to put our Estate Fund to work. Seeing that health insurance expenses were a major factor in low allowance payments, we began to supplement the payments of missionary benefits by balances in the Estate Fund.
It has been almost three years since this policy was implemented. One of the results has been full allowance payments for all of our missionaries during this entire period of time. Another predictable result is a slowly decreasing balance in the Estate Fund. Some may question this use of one-time gifts for recurring expenses like these. I understand the objection. Yet we believe this use of Estate Funds to be appropriate, because many of the donors have expressed a desire to see their last gift used to help support missionaries just as their monthly and yearly gifts did during their lifetimes. It is also consistent with our practice of “immediacy”. It did not seem right to hold a large balance in one fund while there were immediate needs elsewhere. We want to use the funds that God has provided today and trust that God will provide as he sees fit tomorrow. We cannot know how God will provide in the future but we look forward to experiencing day-by-day and month-by-month “his immediate provision for our immediate need.”
In April donations to missionary support funds paid for 47.2 percent of all support expenses; $44,396 was used from the General Fund to supplement missionary allowances and $47,143 was used from the Estate Fund to supplement benefit expenses for the month. Thank you for your on-going support!