Relief Missionaries

Meeting a Tremendous Need

By: David Snyder

One of the difficulties that our family faced as church planters in Alaska was the need to report to our supporting churches and the inability to find someone to watch over the new work while we were on furlough. I was reminded of this need during a recent Personnel Committee Meeting with Tom and Cathy Talley, missionaries serving in South Indian Lake, Manitoba, Canada. The Biblical approach to the missionary furlough remains the same as it always has. However, the world in which we live has made travel much less expensive and much faster than a hundred years ago. Most missionaries, including the Talleys, are now able to take shorter furloughs more often, thus reducing the failure rate of new church plants due to the missionary’s absence.

The opportunity for someone to temporarily take over a church planter’s work has been simplified by the convenience of the modern travel options available today. God is raising up what we call “Relief Missionaries” to fill this pressing need. The Relief Missionary is an individual who has served the Lord in the Gospel ministry for many years and now travels to different parts of the world filling in for furloughing church planters. During our Personnel Committee Meeting, the Talleys expressed their thankfulness for the Relief Missionaries who are presently in South Indian Lake, thus allowing them to report to their supporting churches.

Relief Missionaries play an integral role in today’s church planting efforts around the globe. Like many parts of the world, the Far North is a place where it normally takes much longer than four years for a church to become autonomous. Again, this emphasizes the need for those who relieve missionaries, allowing them to take a furlough. As the Far North Director, I am thankful for those whom God has called to the unique ministry of “Relief Missionary.” Consequently, I am also very grateful for those who financially and prayerfully support Relief Missionaries and the crucial ministry that God has given them. Thank you for seeing and responding to the need!