Our role in ministry is not a traditional missionary role. In fact, many people don’t give a second thought as to how the administrative and logistical side of ministry gets done. Throughout the US, churches have teams of people dealing with the day to day duties of running the church- from secretaries and elders, to teams of volunteers dealing with missions, finance, maintenance, outreach, compassion and all manners of ministry. In the mission field, however, most people expect national pastors andchurch leaders to undertake all of these same tasks but without the staff, resources and accountability that we expect from our own churches. Our gifting in the area of administration, and our ability to work alongside national church leaders to both learn from and share our resources and experiences serve to strengthen the local church and the body of Christ. We strive to always be the hands and feet of Jesus while realizing that we are simply servants of the One who called us. What this looks like in action changes from day to day. In the past, we have handled taxes, banking, bureaucratic red tape, billing disputes, accounting and all the stuff that most people don’t want to deal with but that needs to be done. We meet with business people, church leaders, government officials, fill out requests for funding and handle communication and reporting to stateside authorities and partners. We have tracked down supplies like solar panels, medicine and well pumps and handled the logistics of getting them from where they are to where they need to be. Along the way, we strive to develop networking contacts and procedures by which we can share what we know with others seeking assistance. And through all this we hope to strengthen relationships and build partnership for kingdom work.
