Dear partners, if you have been tracking our mission work over the years, you know I rarely bring up the issue of finances, primarily because it is oftentimes an incendiary topic that touches on sensitive issues and can quickly cause offense. At the same time, Jesus and New Testament writers spent much time talking about proper perspectives regarding finances, and I don’t want to avoid a subject just because it is difficult. In addition, money is a reality in our world, and while we recognize all we have comes from God, He has called us to be good stewards of His resources and invest them for kingdom purposes (2 Cor. 8-9, etc.). One important way people can help fulfill the Great Commission is by giving sacrificially and generously for the work of spreading God’s glory globally (Phil. 4:14-20). We have been blessed over the past ten years with many partners who have enabled us to do our work through their faithful giving. Praise God for all of you!

Having shared that foundation, I want to update you on a few financial developments related with our mission work through our mission agency ReachGlobal (Evangelical Free Church of America). ReachGlobal is a “faith-based mission” which means all missionaries are required to raise the support they need for their living and ministry expenses through donations from partners. Then I will humbly offer a few possible suggestions for you to prayerfully consider.

If this update seems too complicated, please just call me (360.915.3921) or email me (eric.belz@efca.org) and I can explain things and help you in any way you desire.

1. Due to increased expenses, the mission is increasing the amount they require us to raise in areas like medical insurance and service allocation by 20% and 5% respectively.
2. Due to the charges credit card companies require for donations through this method, ReachGlobal will require us missionaries to cover the cost of these credit card donations (generally 3%).
3. By God’s grace, our ministry of equipping pastors globally in how to study, understand and preach God’s Word well is rapidly expanding. More and more locations are asking for our Pathways training. But each location has need of financial assistance, since pastors with whom we work are incredibly poor and struggling just to provide essentials for their family. So we must help subsidize trainings more and more, as well as make more trips to provide trainings.

In view of these developments, may I offer the following suggestions:

1. If you believe the work we are doing is important and needed, but have not begun partnering with us financially, would you prayerfully consider doing so. Again, we are dependent upon the faithful contributions (monthly is best) of those who support our work. We truly thank you for your fervent prayer support, which is essential. We’d also love to have you join our financial support team. On the top left side of our website is a series of BelzGlobal pages, and you can click “Partnership (Giving Info)” to learn more, or write/call us and I’ll be happy to walk you through things.
2. If you have been financially supporting us for some time, we truly are so grateful for your investment. Praise God for you! At the same time, as expenses increase in our world, what $50/month can do today is not as much as it could do 10 years ago. Would you consider increasing your monthly gift in keeping with increasing costs, inflation, expanding ministry, etc.?
3. If you give regularly through credit card, would you consider either switching to EFT (automatically transferring funds from your bank to ReachGlobal on a monthly basis, since there is no fee for this service), or increasing your gift to help cover the charges we will start paying for credit card donations? (EFT information can be found through the “Partnership (Giving Info)” page to the left.)
4. Perhaps you could consider making a special, year-end gift to offer additional assistance with these expenses. We would truly appreciate any support you are able to offer.

Again, please do not be offended at these suggestions or this discussion. We just want to be wise stewards of God’s resources and continue in a way that spreads His glory globally. We truly are grateful for the many faithful partners (through prayer, finances and in other ways) that God has brought us. May we continue to labor for the glory of our King in building His kingdom and fulfilling His commission to make disciples of all nations.

In His service, Eric