In an earlier Manna I wrote, requesting prayer for 800 missionaries who have been asked by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board to take early retirement and return home by December of this year. Every missionary over the age of fifty received this Voluntary Retirement Incentive (VRI). I\u2019ve received several interesting E-mails, Facebook private messages, Skype calls, etc. from former students of mine, and friends I\u2019ve met on various mission fields. If you know of missionary housing that will be available in December, please let me know and I will pass the information on to returning missionaries who still have nowhere to live. Also, if you have or know of someone who has a vehicle to donate, let me know. Few of these returnees will have vehicles. I will arrange to get the vehicle to the missionary. I\u2019d like to share some of the missionary responses with you (with adaptations to protect confidentiality) in hopes you will feel led to pray more intensely for these faithful servants who are struggling with a tough decision. It is time to go, \u201cboldly to the throne of grace\u201d (Hebrews 4:16):<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cWe are asking heart-wrenching questions. If we return stateside, we will look for ministry opportunities. We are not ready to retire\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cThe biggest challenge for us is not to have several months to better prepare our national partners for the future. It is hard to think that we will be leaving after having the fantastic privilege to serve our Lord here for over 30 years.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cI find myself today wondering if we will stay, where our ministry is only beginning to take off, or return to the States.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cAt this point I don\u2019t feel led to retire but I want to wait before making a final decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cJust keep praying. The future seems very uncertain. Missionaries are dealing with a range of emotions, unfortunately at this point it does not include excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cWe REALLY appreciate your message and your prayers. Yours is the only
\nmessage we have received from friends back in the US regarding the VRI.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cTo be honest, I will be surprised if God leads us to return. We are very sad that this is happening and have very mixed feelings. All of our emotions are on a roller coaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cIt is a very discouraging time for all of us and morale is at an all-time low.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cMore changes are coming next year, so please continue praying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cPray for wisdom, discernment and clarity of mind as I read through the pages of the legal and financial package that was sent to me. I almost feel like I need a degree in both law and accounting. It is a little overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cI am thinking of staying at least one more year as self-funded.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cPray specifically for those whose children could lose their missionary scholarship to college if their parents are no longer missionaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cGod has not told me to leave my place of service. I am staying. I will lose my apartment, car, salary, and benefits, but I am staying until God tells me to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cI want to inform you that I have decided decline the retirement package and stay on the field at this time. I feel it is not my time to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cWe still feel very called to our work, and have decided to say \u2018no\u2019 to the retirement package.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cPray that I would be able to tune out the noise and chaos and listen to the Lords voice as He directs me. I think we are in for some very difficult days.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cIt\u2019s touching that so many people are praying for those of us on the field. It\u2019s not an easy decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, my good friend Rodney Hammer, a former missionary, and presently Executive Director of the Blue River-Kansas City Baptist Association has set up a \u201cGo Fund Me\u201d account so we can assist returning missionaries financially. I\u2019m looking for persons to match my $100 donation or give whatever they can. Go the web site and read, then click \u201cDonate Now\u201d to make your contribution. https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/returnedmissionary.<\/p>\n
Now join me in praying for these global concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an earlier Manna I wrote, requesting prayer for 800 missionaries who have been asked by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board to take early retirement and return home by December of this year. Every missionary over the age of fifty received this Voluntary Retirement Incentive (VRI). I\u2019ve received several interesting E-mails, Facebook private messages,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}