This week, I’m inviting you to join my husband and me in a national missions initiative. John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, whom we’ve known since we were
young, are bold. For more than thirty years, they have headed empty tomb
(intentionally uncapitalized), a source for free clothes, home maintenance, and
food, among other services, for the poor of Champaign-Urbana.
In the last few years, they have begun a nationwide
initiative, called Mission Match, to
increase American Christian involvement with the poor. They offer matching
monies to any congregation who will raise finances for a specific, usually
international, project. They have proved the concept: if others will
match the funds, pastors can engage their people to participate in projects
that share Jesus while meeting basic needs.
These are a few of their accomplishments, taken from
their website:
A non-denominational church in Minnesota sent a missions team to build a church in the Dominican Republic and to minister to orphans and the elderly.
A Church of Christ congregation in Minnesota funded a pharmacy, an ophthalmology clinic, and medical care for the needy in Nicaragua
A Baptist church in New York helped to build a primary school building in Kenya and supported teacher training for teachers in the school.
A church in Kentucky sent a mission outreach team to Kenya
John and Sylvia possess the solid quirkiness of true disciples of Jesus. They
dream big. And they have the research and credentials to back up their dreams.
They’ve published books on American church finances, including a continuing
series of reports on giving. And they live what they preach: the poor are
their neighbors and their friends, as well as their clients.
Recently, we listened to their audacious plan to finance
Mission Match. They want to wake the sleeping giant that is the American
church, by getting us to give $48 a year. That’s the easy part. The hard part
is what I’m doing right now. They also want each giver of $48 to ask three of
their friends to give and ask three of their friends, who will ask three of
their friends, and so on, until hundreds, thousands, even millions are
involved. They call this a Discipleship Tree.
In their brochure, they point out that many Christians
around the world are regularly forced out of their comfort zones, into prison,
kidnappings, and beatings for their faith. I’m not being beaten, but I am out
of my comfort zone to ask you to consider this request. And I’m asking you to
push out of yours, too.
If you want to join Jerry and me, send me an email. On the right
side of this page, you’ll see a link to my email. Check out their website
first. http://www.wakethesleepinggiant.info/cgi-bin/tree.cgi
The giving is done online, or you can send a check. But
first, I need to know you want to participate, so I can enter your name and
email into the tree. Then, you can go online to register and pay. They have a
cool graphic that shows how the tree is growing, so we can see God at work!
