Why I Think you Should Help Me

A lot of younger missionaries just starting out (like me) struggle a lot with getting supporters behind them for two reasons;

1. For lack of information

and

2. For lack of asking

It's some times hard to get the word out to people about what you're doing. Just saying that you are going to the other side the planet on mission isn't enough most of the time. Everything I've learned about raising support says that letting people know what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how it is going to be accomplished is important. People aren't going to give you money if they don't know what you are going to do with it, or why.

If you aren't careful, they just might get that exact impression; that it's you who is receiving it.

The asking part is something I still struggle with some times. At the first knee-jerk, I think asking for other people's money is almost sleazy. I get flashes of TV preachers in your head. I feel like it's asking people to pity me because I either didn't have the foresight or ability to put away money for what ever it is I'm doing. 

But if you ask that question you have to bring into view the validity of what you are doing. Is your going to tell people about Jesus worth giving to? 

Yes, I think it is.

So, Here is my yearly budget for New Zealand, so you can see what I need and what I need it for.

Here is my blog post that tells you what I'm doing.

And for directions on electronic giving, look at the upper right corner of my front page.

So pray about it.
Think about it.
Let me know if you want to go on this thing with me.

Encouragers

When last I spoke to Jeff Kreiser, the missions pastor at my home church and a personal mentor, I was taken aback. I forget that every time he speaks to me it's almost like he's not speaking to me now. It's like he's speaking to me at my best, like that is what he sees instead of this transitional state I'm in right now.


It's hard to have a sit-down conversation with him, so I walked with him around the church after the last Saturday service of the last weekend of the Mission's emphasis month. He's super busy all the time, if you know of him, I would highly suggest trying to pencil in a cup of coffee with this guy. He's a 6'5" and 200 pounds (?) of Jesus-loves-you furry.

It wasn't anything in particular that he said, but in the way he just spoke with me, then and every other time I can remember. He has confidence that I am called to ministry. He has confidence that I'm worth investing thousands of dollars in for that goal.

You know what it feels like to have some one you view as a mentor tell you that you are worth thousands of dollars? It has a funny effect.

It actually makes you feel valuable. 


I was listening to Wayne Grudem's podcast lecturing through his Systematic Theology. This week is part of going through the incommunicable attribtes of God, that is, the character of God that is unlike us. In particular he defined God's aseity (from the Latin words a se, which means "from himself"): "God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify him and bring him joy." [Systematic theology pg. 160] 

This doctrine has a powerful effect on me. It means God does not need me, but chooses to give me substance and value as a creation. That and many more times over in the fact that the Son died for me.

Jeff is just one person that demonstrates this doctrine to me on a regular basis lately. People like my sister and dear friend Caleb demonstrate it too much to really account for. It makes me feel like I can do anything. It gives me so much more millage than guilt will ever do. For me, holy spurs only work to one end; to identify sin and how crappy I'm doing. People demonstrating this God-like activity of voluntary value attribution has helped me on the road to recovery more than anything else as of late.

Feel free to comment or tell me what you think in the comments below.

If you feel led to help me on my mission to New Zealand info on how to give is in the upper right corner of the page.

Thanks for reading.

If you're interested in being a partner with me in mission, you can give through my church's website with directions in the upper right corner.

What this thing is about.

So about the name of this blog; "Transitions in Missions", might need some explaining.


I would consider myself a missionary. If I had to honestly describe myself in a professional manner, in terms of over-all focus of my short adult life, and in my foreseeable future; I'm a missionary.

But over the past few years of my life I've been in a sort of intermediate stage. Right from the start out of high school, I was traveling and being trained all over the world and at my home church. I was one of those kids that was (at least partly) groomed for missions from a relatively young age, and for two years I was going here and there learning and practicing for what a missionary does for the rest of their life. I got pretty used to the idea of actually doing that kind of thing... as like, a lifestyle.

My last station lasted the better part of a year in Taiwan, and coming home I was thinking "I'm probably going to make the rounds, raise support, and be back in Taiwan or wherever God wants me to be in about six months, or year at the most. Like a BOSS."

...That was back in December of '08.
Since then I've had to actually live like the rest of you normal people, and I found out the harsh, harsh reality.

Actually having to find (and keep)a job is harder than I thought.

Paying bills is harder than I thought.

Being like Jesus when you're not in a holiness pressure cooker is harder than I thought.

Finding Jesus in a Joe-job is harder than I thought.

The real world, for all intensive purposes, is hard. I'm not saying it's harder or less-hard than washing and feeding street kids or praying for lepers in India, it's just different. I'm also not saying that "living by faith" is less hard than actually having to feed yourself, it's just different. Neither is studying the entirety of the bible in nine months producing over a thousand pages of charts, countless pages of notes, that make up around sixty hour work weeks.


I should know. I have actually done all of those things. Now, I'm not trying to make myself out to be some spiritual giant (which I am not, and I cannot emphasize these italicized letters enough. Maybe if I bold and italicize. I am not a spiritual guru.)
 
I wasn't as enlightened back in '08, coming off of a huge spiritual high and two years of overseas training in a spiritual pressure-cooker. I thought being a missionary for Jesus (in a purely professional sense) was the hardest thing you could do for Jesus, especially if there was a possibility of martyrdom or torture. With that last part aside, I was wrong.

I fell flat on my face, like a pro. The first real job I got was buss-boy for a restaurant about two blocks from my dad's apartment (which is where I was living at the time, rent free) that had a giant lumber-jack in the front. That lasted about 2 months. I was terminated because I was constantly late for work.

I'm weird. Normal people usually do this backwards. You learn how to support yourself, hold down a job, pay bills, or whatever. Then transitioning into trusting God for the money to feed yourself (let alone your family), being able to fit all your worldly possessions into two suitcases, and learning a foreign culture and language. All that takes some doing for a normal person. All of that, I feel I could probably do at the drop
of a hat if I really wanted. I just goes to show that one isn't necessarily a perquisite for learning an other.

Underneath all this was some pretty bad heart issues. I was arrogant, and I was holding my ministry position as an idol in my heart. A big fat golden calf with MISSIONARY scrawled on the side of it was planted firmly in my heart, and it took God three painful years to burn it, grind it into dust, cast it into the water, and make me drink it.
(Nerdy bible reference from Exodus 32:20)
Ministry doors were slammed in my face, left and right until I started to yield. One staff position in particular was denied me three days before I was supposed to leave, ticket in hand. I was so devastated I didn't even bother to redeem the ticket.

I was depressed and hopeless for a couple years on and off. I struggled with issues of self worth and my own usefulness in ministry. I asked myself on a daily basis if I was actually worth anything in the real world, or if I was worth anything at all.

Now here I am, on the other side of at least one of the mountains I know I'll have to face. Through some amazing people, good books, the Word of God, and a little fasting and prayer, God is well on his way to filling up the spot in my heart that he tore that idol out of. And he has blessed me with the opportunity to go back into the field to complete my training and get involved in some awesome strategic missions work in New Zealand of all places. Awesome, right?

And all the while, God was using the gifts and passions in me to minister and bless people without me even knowing. Actually getting that point is a key in my rehabilitation as a recovering idolater. God's blessed me with gifts that I don't even know half the time that I'm using.

Once I was removed from the great and revered office of missionary for a while, God showed me practically that the office doesn't matter as much as the gifts flowing through a right heart. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, and I was proud.


Thanks to both of you for reading. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think. Similar experiences?


Continue to pray for me as I gear up for January. I got my first donation from a good friend named Josh for 200 bucks towards New Zealand. That's only 2,300 to go until I can buy my ticket. If you feel led to be partners with me in missions, look at the upper right corner of the blog.


Peace

I am officially asking for money

Many of you have heard that I recently got an internship with ISMNZ In New Zealand. This is going to be at least a two year commitment starting this year in January to be trained and to serve in a full time ministry position. I am super excited to tell you all about my new upcoming adventure with Jesus, but before I get ahead of myself let me tell you about the organization I'll be working with.

ISMNZ (International Student Missions, New Zealand) Is an organization that ministers to and trains international students for the progress of the gospel. New Zealand has a proportionately large foreign student population because it's both close to Asia/S.E. Asia, and easier to get into for studying English (since 9/11 and other attacks) than the US and UK. They use this as a strategic place to spread the gospel. It works like this: Students from Japan or China hear the gospel while they are going to school, then they get saved and take it with them home to their friends, family, and influential places of business and culture in their home countries!

This will be a full time cross-cultural and multi-cultural missions assignment and training. I'll also be taking block courses at Pathways Bible College as a part of the internship program (which is fully accredited). The beauty of that is that I will qualify for a student visa, and this will allow me to cover most of my living expenses while there with work, but I will still need help accomplishing this goal.

Total cost per year according to my budget is around US $17,076 per year all together. The cost breakdown goes like this; $1,000-$2,000 for a plane ticket, training cost is $5,292, and cost of living is estimated at $11,786 per year. I was recently accepted as an official lakeside Term Partner, so my home church will be helping me out with the plane ticket and part of the tuition. $1000 a month total monthly living costs will be the only immediate need for support, and that can definitely be padded with a job once I get all settled in country. 

The ministry and school schedule will allow for 20 hours a week for work, but I will need people to come along side me, and invest in the work God is doing in and through me as partners to accomplish this goal. So I'm asking you to prayerfully consider becoming a partner with me as a new chapter opens in ministry, both in prayer and in monetary giving. If you believe in what I'm doing, I would love and appreciate either one. With this should be a full budget breakdown.

If you are interested in giving look at the upper right corner of this page. You will see instructions and a link to click on. Thank you for prayerfully considering supporting me and the work I'll be doing while I'm over on the other side of the world. and want to be on my official mailing list please reply or send me an email at the address below.

Sincerely,

Joshua Kling.

Email: klingbot@gmail.com

problems

I have problems. Problems that cause me to doubt my own character a little more (on occasion) than my problems may cause others to doubt it. It's funny how that can work sometimes. This causes me to think that this is a problem in itself.

I'm working on it though.

Of course remembering to also work on the problems that cause other problems would be a good idea, wouldn't it? Then the problem of thinking you're useless wouldn't be such a problem in the first place, or would it?

But, I think, there is at least some progress being made. That is, I know that I have problems, so the next step would be; exactly how to approach solving the problem of having a problem.

I kill myself probably more than I deserve for the things I do.

I have to remember that Jesus was killed for my sake. Who am I to try to add onto what Jesus fully accomplished?

This is a crapy place to be right now for me though. Since coming out of a bit of depression, I am having a bit of trouble cleaning up the mess i made while I didnt care about anything.

Its like waking up to a horrible mess. The worst part is that when im done cleaning up, im basically going to have to start from square one. But thats not a bad as you might think. Im coming out of it just a tiny bit more wise than i was going into this mess i made for myself. I just need to stop feeling bad about it and start cleanig.