Why are we donors?

A couple months ago we gave away some great coffee (Ethiopian and Papua New Guinean) in a beautiful hand-made gift basket. Global coffee for global missions.

While doing that, we asked people what the most important reason they help with global missions. The answers were all “fill in the blank”, so I tried my best to group the answers into similar responses.

Here are the seven basic motivations that I discovered, and the approximate percentage of people who wrote answers that fell in these categories.

Do you resonate with these reasons?

• 4% to share the blessing that I have received
• 4% to help and support missionaries
• 7% to help, care, show my love
• 7% for the salvation of others
• 9% because of Jesus’ command (eg the end of Matthew’s gospel)
• 19% because the need is so great
• 51% to share the good news of Jesus

The the older I get the more I value God’s Word. It’s not the “magic” of having a printed book in my house that says Holy Bible. Rather it is the change in me that flows from a relationship with God through Christ and a desire to be Christ’s disciple.

As a disciple, I want to know God and live as Jesus wants me to live. Doesn’t an apprentice aspire to be like the master craftsman? And I know his ways best through hearing and reading his Word.

As a person who has been exposed to the wider world, I’ve come to realized how privileged I am to grow up speaking English and living in this country.

Reflecting on my life and on the history of my nation and my ancestors, I’ve seen that his Word transforms cultures and nations just as it has me personally. And I see that when people turn from God and ignore his Word, bad things regularly result as they follow their own counsel.

I, through no effort of my own, have received such a wonderful gift. (I have more versions of the Bible than I know what to do with!) And if I’m a servant growing in the will and character of Jesus, how can I not want to be concerned about others, find ways to share the Good News, and want to see the salvation of all people? It just happens to me.

I am attracted to each and every one of those reasons.