| June 12, 2006
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this mean that The Outreach Foundation is backing away from its commitment to support missionaries appointed by the PC(USA)? Absolutely not! Outreach is committed to raising the full support for four couples appointed by the PC(USA) and for an individual. We will continue to support them and the thirty other missionaries for whom we are raising either partial salary support or ministry and project funds, and we remain open to supporting additional missionaries through the PC(USA). What about Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship’s work in the PC(USA) Frontier Mission Program? PFF remains committed to the Frontier Mission Program of the PC(USA). We will continue that engagement with the Office of International Evangelism, including the part for support of new WMD frontier personnel. Then why are you taking this step? In this rapidly changing world and the rapidly changing Presbyterian context for participating in God’s mission, we believe that more is required than can be done by the national church structure – more leadership, more flexibility, and more creativity. For many different reasons, the capacity of the GAC to support a vital mission organization continues to decline. New efforts are needed to add to what the denomination can now do. When will the first new missionaries be sent by Outreach and PFF? The Outreach Foundation already has missionaries in the field. José Carlos Pezini (Portuguese-language ministry), Joseph Faragalla (Arabic-language ministry) and Charles & Diane Wonnenberg (serving with Native Americans) are U.S. mission staff. Outreach is also supporting Todd Luke in Campeche, Mexico, and two Zambians who are leading the holistic church planting effort in Tete Province, Mozambique. As Outreach and PFF organize for this new initiative, we will hire a staff person to coordinate all the different aspects of missionary sending and support. We hope that new missionaries will be in the field as a result of this effort before the end of the year How will you decide where missionaries will go? Decisions about who should serve and where will be made in consultation with global partners, Presbyterian mission leaders, supporters, and the missionaries themselves. How can I help? This is a significant step for Outreach and PFF. Please hold us in your prayers as we develop and begin this new ministry. Start-up funds will be needed to launch the mission-sending ministry, and gifts for that purpose may be sent to either of us and marked “Missionary Project Start-up.” As we identify new missionaries for whom funding will be needed, those opportunities will be clearly communicated on our websites and in our newsletters. You may send gifts to us now for “New Missionaries,” and these gifts will only be used to send Presbyterian missionaries. We encourage you not to redirect any funds that are currently supporting missionaries sent by the PC(USA).
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