I remember hearing a comedian many years ago who told a story about playing high school football. The team had a bad first half and was losing. In the locker room at half-time, the coach pumped them up with a great speech and got them highly excited and chanting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” The players then jumped up to run out – but someone had locked the door!
Some mission-minded young people are encountering a similar situation. Our Personnel Team spends many months helping potential missionaries prepare to go overseas. The process involves discerning the Lord’s specific call, building a prayer team, identifying a placement, meeting educational requirements, navigating visa applications, etc. – only to find “the door locked.” In this case, the “lock” is student debt.
Mission to unreached people groups, who are often in restricted access countries, requires a strategic plan to gain entry. Often this will include professional credentials and/or at least a bachelor’s (or higher) degree. Higher education also enables a missionary to address larger issues in the areas of justice, education and leadership development and is therefore very beneficial. The great news is, a college/university education is readily accessible in the U.S. That accessibility, however, comes with a heavy debt burden, and we are finding that student debt is now the greatest obstacle to getting younger workers to the field.
One of our recent missionaries found herself in this predicament. She had the necessary professional credentials. She had a distinct call from the Lord and the faith to trust God and go. But she also had debt, and the Prayer League has a policy of non-indebtedness. Fortunately, a partner church stepped forward and agreed to pay her minimum loan payments for the four years that she was on the field.
The success of this approach, and the availability of funds to act as seed money, has led the Prayer League to establish what we call the “Go Now Fund” to help young qualified workers meet their minimum debt payments while serving on the field. Please pray with us for the Lord’s ongoing provision and guidance as we seek to be good stewards of these funds.