CHANGES.........CHANGES

The old saying goes, that "The old person sees more sitting down than the young person does standing up".  And this is certainly true in the area of missions.  Having been in missionary work for more than fifty years now, we have lived through an abundance of changes! And those changes seem to be taking place at an increasingly rapid rate....

(We now attend an Alliance church which many international workers call home, so some of my observations come from present contact with present day international workers.)

It used to be that newly appointed West African missionaries were sent to France for a year of language study and than went directly to their fields of service where they remained to work for four (or more) years. Than came a one year furlough, which was partially filled with speaking tours in the U.S.  Some workers did come back to the U.S. for family marriages and deaths, but even this was not always possible.  Those were not ideal times either!

Now the pendulum has swung the other way.  In an Alliance church like ours, we see a constant parade of international workers back here in the States for not only weddings or funerals, but also for vacations, mid-term tours, etc.  Money certainly flows more freely now, but we do wonder sometimes, wonder how folks can leave their place of service so frequently??  What does the sending church think when they observe their international workers making trips to their home country so often?  And how is the ministry overseas affected by the frequent comings and goings to their home countries? I guess everyone just makes adjustments.  One does wonder what the national churches of the world think about this innovation??

The Alliance is also giving birth to new programs on mission fields, and of course all of this involves huge bites of money from the Great Commission giving as these new programs have to be directed and funded...  It also causes confusion on some fields, as there are unresolved questions about money and personnel.  As international workers adjust to new means of funding (such as "the ask") and also question how some of these new entities (such as Envision) relate to the rest of the staff already working in an area for many years.  Finances are involved as well as administrative adjustments. All very interesting changes, which we personally saw on our recent trip to Africa, and which makes us glad for the times in which we lived.  The lines were clearer then! 

We still are trying to wade through the terms of  "team leader", "team developper", and "regional team leader"  and just hope that they do not stumble over each other trying to lead!!  It looks to us like some team developers do not have many people to develop.....and what is meant by developing someone who has been at the work on the ground for many years??  From our vantage point, in our armchairs, it should be an interesting future for the current crop of workers!!