Numbers

I don't think numbers have ever been this significant to me. I can think of a few times when a number was important such as counting down to our wedding, counting down the weeks of a seminary semester, or counting down the weeks of pregnancy. Those were all different in that I was counting down to a specific date, time, or event.

This is different.

The pre-field journey, as told to us at Candidate School in 2006, was supposed to last 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 yrs. That didn't sound too bad, though I was hoping it wouldn't be longer than 3. Now, since 2008, the numbers have changed. On average it is taking 3-5 yrs. for a missionary to reach the field. A friend recently shared a statistic put out by Baptist World who stated it is taking their single missionaries up to 7 yrs.! to raise their support. To put that into perspective if someone lives to be 70 - IF! - they will spend a tenth of it raising support.

I guess we could start with 5 yrs. and count down from there, but since we all hope it won't take that long I don't think I could market a count-down ticker for that! That is where this counting is unique. No missionary has any idea when it will be over!

So since we can't count away the weeks, months, or years, we count up. We count two things - how long we've been on pre-field and what percentage we are at. This is different for every person. There isn't any promise of, "If you travel full-time for 1 yr. you will be at 45%." Or, "If you visit 50 churches you'll be fully supported." We once met a missionary who was fully supported after visiting 36 churches. We made 75 church visits in 2009/2010!

I recently discovered a former teacher friend who is raising support to be a missionary in South America. As we caught up a little he told me his percentage and how long he had been traveling. See? We all do it! We may not advertise it on our prayer letter, but we're counting. And sometimes we're hoping no one else is. That's how I felt when we put out several letters with no increase!

So we continue our count - 2 yrs., 4 months. We count our percentage - 67%. And we hope and pray we don't have to keep counting much longer!