Misssionaries With God Complexes

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by Owl

Been there, done that, bought the tee shirt.

"Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it." 1 Peter 3:9

Wow. LOL!!!!!! Great scripture.

[Owl]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

Wow. LOL!!!!!! Great scripture.

Yes, it is. Now go live it!

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by Owl

Yes, it is. Now go live it!

[Praxeas]

Originally Posted by Owl

If you can't see that the missionaries, and the work they do, are funded much better than American pastors and home missionaries you're blind.

If only that were true. Even people on welfare make more than someone in a lot of third world countries and most pastors don't have a congregation full of welfare recipients. They get tithed real money or they get a guaranteed salary. How much income do you think Sis A is getting from her congregation?

Here, even if a Pastor is not getting a boat load from tithes, at least he can get a decent job, maybe not in the current economy but it's not always bad. Brazil? The area the Alvears work in is dirt poor and most pastors would never EVER EVER even consider taking a church in area's like that because they don't pay good.

I find it incredible that you make it seem like Sis A is better off financially than American Pastors.

Most Home mission pastors are working a regular job too. Why don't you go spend 5 years in Brazil in Sis A's area, then come back and tell us how wealthy she is compared to American Pastors

[Praxeas]

Originally Posted by Owl

I suppose the comparisons are necessary when one considers the amount of whining about how lazy and selfish we Americans are. It's hard to listen to the guilt trips when there's nothing left to give.

Oh, and I promise you I feel no guilt.

Again, if a pastor had posted that Americans were lazy and selfish givers he would have been tarred and feathered. Every one would have called him an ungrateful money-grubber. All of AFF would have descended upon him like a pack of hungry wolves.

It's all about perspective. I'm sorry yours is so narrow.

So in order to prove how unwhiny and unselfish you are, you got up off your butt and started a whiny thread to slander this good woman? Wow. Im impressed.

[Praxeas]

Originally Posted by rgcraig

Maybe Owl can be called to the jungles of Brazil so that his assumptions can be verified or refuted.

Yeah and since owls are supposed to be wise and this poster is obviously stubborn, when he or she gets back I suggest a new avatar

[jfrog]

Owl I totally disagree with you about missionaries being well paid. They are not. I still stand by my previous post though.

Sis Alvear, I still respect you and think you are doing an amazing work. I hope my comments and opinions didn't upset you. You have enough to think about I'm sure.

MissB, I still don't understand how you can be content to give the way you are after telling me in your previous posts that you should and could be doing more and that you are spoiled. If you really believe those things to be true about yourself then surely you must want to change and be a better person. So why don't you?

[Sister Alvear]

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." (Matt. 9:37-38)
Ever since Jesus first spoke these compassionate words, the supply of workers in the fields of soul-harvest has always been horribly low. But today the need is the greatest it has ever been in the history of mankind. Remember, Hell is not just for the weekend! More people are alive today, and more souls are at stake, than the total number of people who have ever lived on the face of the earth in all of human history! This simply means that we can populate either Heaven or Hell by our obedience or our laziness. There are over 2,700,000,000 people who have never heard the Gospel at all, and there are only 5,000 to 7,000 missionaries worldwide, working directly with these totally unreached groups of people. That means there is approximately one missionary for every 450,000 of these people! There are over 16,000 different and distinct cultures and people-groups - even whole countries, where not one single church is in existence. There are 7,010 distinct living languages, and 5,199 of them still have no Bible or Scripture translations available in their own language! Do these figures move you at all? Does it matter to you that an estimated 80,000 unsaved people die every day (approximately 3,333 every hour...55 people every single minute!) to face the judgment seat of Christ? copied....

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by jfrog

...MissB, I still don't understand how you can be content to give the way you are after telling me in your previous posts that you should and could be doing more and that you are spoiled. If you really believe those things to be true about yourself then surely you must want to change and be a better person. So why don't you?

Why do I feel like you're just skimming my posts?????

First of all, jfrog, I'm part of a family with a husband. I don't make independent decisions about how much of our income we give or don't give. My husband is a very good steward of our income, and we give as he sees fit. I have input, but I defer to his judgment most of the time. I feel that we give generously, but I'm quite sure we could be doing more--as most Americans could. We have so many small luxuries that we consider "necessities" that most of us have way more wiggle room than we realize.

Secondly, I'm not saying that wiggle room is a BAD thing. I'm just pointing out that it's obtuse to pretend that Americans don't have plenty of wiggle room, financially speaking. Truth be told, most of us don't give sacrificially because we don't HAVE to sacrifice in order to give. We can give a generous amount and still have food on our own tables.

I'm not saying that we don't give. I'm saying that even when we DO give large amounts, it STILL doesn't put us in dire straits as it would some people in other places. Ergo, the missionary's frustration is understandable, because they see luxuries here that could translate into necessities there.

I'm not going to apologize for taking care of my family, for paying for my kids to have new clothes and bicycles and bubble gum and for eating out every now and then. But I DO recognize that sometimes we can be blind to the needs of others while we enjoy our own blessings. That knowledge is a tool that helps me be a good steward and helps me view my blessings with a measure of humility, understanding that not everyone is as privileged as we are, and it could all be taken away as quickly as it was given. We are then better served to share what we have as much as possible, seeing as it's all temporal anyway.

If my posts have somehow led you to believe that I'm a selfish person or that I think I'm a selfish person, then you've misread them or I've not been concise enough.

[Michael]

Sis. Alvear, you have lost nothing by being defriended by owl....This kid couldn't walk 10 steps in your shoes.

God bless you!