SUPPORT A MISSIONARY
Missionaries currently in the field need your prayers and your support, both financial and spiritual. One way that you can do this is to “adopt” one or more long-term missioners by including them in your prayers, following their blogs, or pledging financial support.
What You Can Do:
The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church maintains current listings of missioners in the field:
Follow a Mission Blog:
By following a missioner’s blog, you can gain a sense of the mission field in which he or she is working, and the triumphs and challenges of day to day life. Visit our Missionary Blog Page containing the latest feeds from active Episcopal missionaries around the world.
Offer Prayer Support:
Knowing that someone is supporting you in prayer is a powerful encouragement to a missioner in the field. You can make contact with a missioner and let him or her know that they will be lifted up daily in prayer. A sample prayer is shown below:
O Lord, our heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be ministered to, but to minister; we pray for your blessing on _________________. As your servant ___________________ follows in His footsteps, loving and serving her/his neighbors, fill him/her with wisdom, patience, perseverance, humility and courage. Enable her/him to share his/her gifts generously with those whom he/she meets. Give _________________ an attentive mind and compassionate heart to see the face of Christ in all those whom he/she may encounter. Give your servant daily encouragement and a ready will. Inspire him/her with your love, that ________________ may worthily minister in your name, in a spirit of reconciliation with God and with each and every neighbor. Keep your servant, ________________, safe from injury, and bring him/her home renewed and rejoicing. All this we ask through Him who laid down his life for us, your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Offer Financial Support:
Long-term missionaries, contrary to popular belief, must fund-raise the bulk of the funds required to support their ministry. They depend on mission-minded friends, family, churches and organizations to sustain them as they serve in the field, either as a pledge to be paid on a monthly or annual basis or a one-time donation. The best way to support a missioner financially is to contact him or her directly or visit their blog for information on directing the funds appropriately. Generally, these funds are tax-deductible if they are donated through the sending organization such as the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society or the missioner’s sponsoring church or diocese. Missioners also greatly appreciate personal funds (directed to the individual and not tax-deductible) for the myriad, often unforeseen, costs of daily living.
Long-term missioners and Young Adult Service Corps personnel, who are participating through the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, may be financially sponsored as follows:
- Write a cover letter detailing the name of the missioner to receive support
- Make out a check to DFMS (or The Episcopal Church USA)
- Send the donation to the following address:
Yanick Fourcand
The Episcopal Church Center
815 Second Avenue
New York, NY 10017
*** Please note that funds to be directed to specific missioners should not be sent to the Global Episcopal Mission Network. ***
Other Donations:
Frequently, there are much-needed items specific to a missioner’s ministry or work in the mission field that may be welcome, such as bibles in the local language, prayer books, altar linens, vestments, books, or similar difficult-to-obtain items. Again, the best approach is to always contact the missioner directly to determine appropriateness of the items and the best method for shipping or transporting them to the mission field, bearing in mind that some countries have poorly functioning postal systems or may require the missioner to pay large tariffs on incoming items. The missioner should be able to advise you on these types of donations.