$50 a month equips a fulltime pastor/worker in spreading the gospel and encouraging the churches.
The Last Harvest ministry in the Middle East ultimately depends upon the courage and perseverance of Christian pastors who give up the things of this world for the sake of the gospel.
Some of these pastors provide the only pastoral support for small villages in Egypt that are too poor to fully support a church and pastor. "For 10 to 20 villages, there may be only one church," said David Joseph, president of The Last Harvest. "And, these villages are usually 80 percent Muslim, so Christians need loving pastoral encouragement."
One native pastor may minister to two, three or even four churches in different villages.
And, these godly men need more than financial support: Prayer is vital. Many times, these pastors shed tears with The Last Harvest contacts who help them in their ministry, as they tell of the different problems and needs both they, and those to whom they minister, face.
Native pastors work in difficult conditions amid widespread persecution and danger.
It is hard for North Americans to appreciate the atmosphere of oppression that exists for Egyptian Christians. Beloved daughters disappear. They are believed to be held captive by Muslims who forcibly convert them, then marry them, but local police refuse to help Christian parents, who may never see their daughters again. Sons are conscripted in the military, then beaten, tortured, and even killed by fellow soldiers because they are Christians. Christian shops are frequently targeted for attacks and shop owners are beaten.
Some native pastors work secretly in over a dozen countries doing the very dangerous work of witnessing to Muslims in a land where Muslim converts to Christ are jailed and even tortured. Pastors who share the gospel and make disciples of former Muslims face severe danger in these countries. They are willing to risk their lives to see the gospel spread and the churches grow in the Middle East.
Even Muslims who defend Christians are persecuted. Recently the worldÕs attention was focused on a Muslim blogger, Muhammad Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, who initially raised the ire of government officials when he posted his commentary condemning Muslim attacks on Christians in Alexandria. He received a four-year prison sentence in February.
These native pastors are doing a superhuman job with the grace of God in a difficult place beset with poverty. They leave fulltime jobs in order to follow God's call.
How the pastor support program works
(Click here to find out more about our Pastor Support Program)
The Last Harvest is praying for partners who would be willing to support 250 native workers in Egypt. The cost for a pastor to modestly support a four-person family in these areas is $150 a month. Native churches are struggling, yet they sacrificially give approximately one third of this amount. The pastor can be realistically expected to provide another third, while our program will provide an additional third. This one-third support will make a huge difference in a native pastor's ability to invest time in ministry and still provide for his family.
For $50 a month, you can have the assurance that you are equipping a native pastor to do incredibly effective ministry in areas where Westerners have no access. These well trained, brave men know the local dialect, how to avoid arrest and, most importantly, how to share the gospel in a context their people will understand.
Those who partner with a pastor and help support his ministry make a huge investment in growing and equipping churches in the Middle East.
Some pastor support programs focus on individual pastors, with one donor sending an amount that is directly transferred to one pastor. However, we understand that Christian workers are a community of Christ knit into one body by love. They are a team laboring in difficult underground church work, or ministering in hostile areas where Christians are both persecuted and suffering severe poverty. That's why support cannot always be neatly transmitted between one pastor and one donor. How can a godly pastor take support month in and month out, while another pastor and co-worker is still on the waiting list for a sponsor and may be going hungry?
Our biblical model for the pastor support program is found in Acts 4: 32-33: "And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own; but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all." When Christians commit to this model, their witness carries great power and brings abundant grace.
That's why in our program mission leaders who oversee our pastor support program locally will prayerfully and with integrity, consider urgent needs, as they distribute the total donations received each month. We trust their judgment as far as how best to distribute the funds, particularly when financial resources are limited and individual pastors may suffer unforeseen emergencies. This also ensures accountablity for donors, as each pastor works as a team member under godly local leadership.
Twice a year, we will send sponsors excerpts from letters and emails we receive from pastors our sponsors support, and we'll send pastors encouraging letters from sponsors.
We will also provide testimonies of how the Lord is using these pastors through our ministry newsletter. However, because of security reasons, it will not be possible for us to send specific details to sponsors that may endanger these workers.
If you are interested in the pastor support program, you can now sign up as a sponsor on our website.
You will receive a photo of a pastor that you can support in prayer, one-to-one. That way, you will have the joy of knowing you are linked as a partner to a godly man who faithfully endures hardship, doing the work of an evangelist, and discharging all the duties of his ministry to God. (2 Tim. 4:5)
We prayerfully ask sponsors to commit to support a pastor for one year. You will be richly blessed through this program and your help will bless our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters, too.
For more information about The Last Harvest, Inc., visit our main website.
Back to Spring Issue 2007 Newsletter menu. |
These Middle Eastern Church workers gather for a group photo after a long dayÕs work at a bookfair ministry training project in Sudan in 2006.
|
