Peninsular Florida District

WORLD MISSIONS PAGE FOR PEN. FLORIDA DISTRICT WEB SITE
By Dan Betzer

 

The other day, I was going through some old keepsakes and found a 1941 edition of the Pentecostal Evangel.    (Yes, Virginia, we had printing presses then!)    I had forgotten that once a month, on the back several pages, there was a listing of all the missions giving for the four-week period and who gave it.     The total for missions giving that particular month, from all sources across America, was just under $42,000.    Evened out over a year, that would equate to about a half-million dollars.     But remember we had many fewer churches and, besides, we were in the middle of a World War.     We certainly have made advances over the years.    In 2006 nearly a quarter of a billion dollars were given for world missions by U.S. Assemblies of God churches.

 

It is most gratifying to know that Peninsular Florida leads the nation in missions giving (a major philanthropist in one district notwithstanding).     Last year alone, our district gave nearly $20 million in world ministries giving and nearly $13 million in world missions giving.    

 

Over the past decade-and-a-half, the Peninsular Florida churches have:

 

● Financially underwritten the start of nearly 300 churches in Siberia under Missionary Michael Chowning
● Built an orphanage in Romania
● Trained 1,000 pastors in India who have since opened 4,000 churches
● Build teen-challenge centers in the South Pacific
● Provided the money for construction of nearly 170 church buildings in China
● Provided health care ministries in Mexico
● Ventured into Bosnia after their horrible war to feed people and build three churches
● Plus have undergirded on a monthly basis hundreds of missionaries around the world

 

This past District Council the churches gave $1.3 million to establish Christian congregations in the Muslim world.    And this year our project will be to assist Pastor David Mohan in Madras (Chennai), India, to train another 1,000 pastors, each of which will be expected to open a church in that nation.    Plus we are going to help Pastor Mohan build his 55,000 seat church in Madras.     For each $100, we can buy one-half a seat with someone from their congregation purchasing the other half.   Already that Madras congregation has given over $3 million to purchase the site for the building, an incredibly sacrificial series of offerings which included their bringing their jewelry to the altar.     More on this project in weeks to come, with the finale occurring on Tuesday night (World Missions Night) at District Council in May of 2008.

 

In the meantime, I encourage you and your church to pick up the monthly support of as many missions (as you have the faith for!).     Our projects are wonderful, but we must keep our missionaries on the front lines.   Please, pastors, don’t say “no” to missionaries when they call.    Give your people the opportunity to give.     You will be blessed and your church will be the beneficiary of those “signs and wonders” Jesus promised in Mark 16.

 

God bless you!    I leave you with these pungent words from Proverbs 10:5:     He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.

 

Dan Betzer,

World Ministries Director and Assistant District Superintendent