Mission Trip Financial Support

Here is a portion of my Dad’s memoirs that pertains to the support they needed to go to Jamaica in 1952. Remember as you read this that both of my parents are farm kids from Canada.

Baptist Mid-Missions wanted us to raise $200 per month of pledged support. We had an invitation to speak at a church in Wisconsin for a weekend. We were scheduled to speak in Sunday School, as well the morning and evening services, plus their Monday morning radio broadcast – and of course, we thought that all American churches were wealthy.

We were only lacking $35 in monthly support to meet the budget, which the mission had established for us, so we eagerly drove the more than fifteen hundred miles round trip. On the trip to Wisconsin we slept in the back of our pickup truck, spent more than $45 in gas and meals and received a check from the church for $19.56!

It was a lesson in trusting the Lord, not man for His supply. We would need this lesson many times on the field.

Once we got to $191 of the suggested $200 monthly support, Baptist Mid-Missions agreed for us to proceed to the field. We lacked, as near as we could figure, $325 for our airline tickets and shipping. We made reservations on Trans Canada Airlines (now Air Canada), but had canceled those reservations since we did not have the money for the tickets.

We were living with Doris' parents on the farm. One afternoon we were in the mission office in London, Ontario, which was in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lester Lankin. Mr. Lankin was aware that we that we had canceled our plane reservations, and he asked us what our plans were. The only answer we could give was that we had none, we were simply waiting on the Lord to supply our need.

That evening we made the financial need a special matter of prayer. Had God not promised in Philippians 4:19 to supply all our need “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus"? We believed He would supply, but when? I don't want to say that we demanded that the Lord meet our need. That is not the right wording. But we reminded Him how he had met our need many times before! We knew nothing was too hard for Him.

As I drove back to the mission office the following morning I was thinking of the $325 shortfall of funds that would get us on our way. There were three letters waiting for us. The first letter that I opened had a single dollar bill in it. The second letter contained a $14 check. There was a $300 check enclosed with the third letter! I sat there at the dining room table trying to get my eyes adjusted to the $300. My faith was weak. My initial reaction was that I had misread the number – that I saw more zeros than were actually there? I called Doris, and while I was trying to tell her about the checks I had, she was trying to tell me that a $100 check had arrived in the mail from our supporting church in Woodstock, Ontario – Oxford Baptist. We only needed $325 and we had $415. We immediately made reservations to fly to Jamaica on July 14, 1952. The Lord was teaching us to trust Him fully. And how we would need this precious lesson in the twenty-four years ahead.

My parents have told me that the $191 was raised from churches that committed to $5 in monthly support and families or individuals who committed to $1 in monthly support. The cost for our 2007 trip is $2250, slightly more than ten times the amount of monthly support that my parents needed. In that regard, and to honor the families and individuals that supported them with $1 gifts, we are requesting that those of you who give via PayPal limit your gift to $10.

This photo of Cataboo Baptist Church shows their new building, which because of limited space surrounds the building that my dad built. The new roof will cost almost $4000. If you would like to give more than $10, the additional funds will be used for the roof.

The email address for PayPal donations is cataboo07 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Thank you for your prayerful consideration of this need.