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 missionarys 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!