Kindervater Kapsules are periodic e-mail updates from the Kindervaters, serving with the Christian & Missionary Alliance in Japan Home | Prayer | News | Kapsules | Photos | Video | Contact us
Declaring the glory of Christ among the least reached where all the odds are stacked against us.	I’ll take a Grande | Kapsule
PRAISE & THANKS For great missions tour and all the wonderful people we have been able to meet For Alliance churches which still care about those who have never heard REQUESTS When we return to Japan this summer, we will begin to start a new church – somewhere in the Tokyo area. Please pray for wisdom as we decide the location and for the right contacts. Please pray for two of our colleagues in Japan and the 28 other Alliance missionaries who were let go because of inadequate funds. PLANS We are preparing to return to Japan in June or July at latest, depending on when our visas come through. We will live at the mission office for about one year while we plan and initiate a new church plant. After that, we will move somewhere closer to the new church. More information and photos at www.theKindervaters.com	Be careful about preaching to your wife. That's what I learned this week. It almost cost me my coffee. This is how it happened. I was working on a sermon and thought I'd bounce some ideas off Evangeline. We took a walk and I talked through my not-yet-finished sermon. In the message, I was trying to show how very do-able the Great Commission Fund really is. I pointed out that currently, there are about 400,000 people in Alliance churches in the U.S. And – rounding it up to make the math easier - we give about $40 million dollars to the Great Commission Fund – to take the gospel of Christ around the world. That is $100 per person each year. Or, a little less than $2 a week. If each person gave just $3 a week. That would immediately put the GCF over $60 million dollars! Up from $40 million! At just $3/week from each Alliance person! Statistics show that the average American spends $203/year on soft drinks. If the C&MA is made up of average people, then we in Alliance churches spend $81 million on pop! And half of that on the most important work in the world. This isn't to make pop drinkers feel guilty. It's just to say that it really wouldn't take that much to adequately fund the missions work – just an average of $3 each week. Granted, there are children in our churches and others who can't even give $3 a week. But many of us can. Including myself. Anyway, that's how the message was going. Now, I'm not a pop drinker – so I was safe in making this analogy. Or so I thought. Until about 2 hours later when Evangeline came up to me. “Honey, how much do we spend on coffee each month?” she asked. I went to the computer and ran the numbers. Within a minute I had the answer. We spend... well, a considerable amount on coffee. Then she hit me. “I'm feeling convicted.” she says. “About what?” “About your sermon. What would you think about giving that money to the Great Commission Fund.” “Doing what!” I asked in disbelief. “And giving up our coffee.” (She's really gone too far this time, I was thinking. ) “No.” she replied. “Not giving it up. But how about a matching grant! We could give the same amount each month to the GCF as we spend on coffee. Now, we were already giving regularly to missions, but we decided to go ahead with this and, whatever we spend on coffee, we’ll give that much more to the Great Commission Fund. I figure it's a win-win situation. I love good coffee, but sometimes feel guilty about paying for a good cup. Now, when I buy a coffee, not only do I get to enjoy the coffee, but I'm increasing my giving to the Great Commission Fund! The more I drink, the more we give! “I'll take a Grande, please! On second thought, make that a Venti!” ■
The Great Commission Fund of the C&MA makes it possible for us to live and minister in Japan. To provide financial support please visit the C&MA web site www.cmalliance.org or send checks to: The Christian and Missionary Alliance, PO Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500 Memo options: “Kindervater- GCF” for general support of C&MA missions worldwide or “Kindervater Work Fund” for our personal ministry expense.