By Rev. Mark Baldwin, PMU Missionary to Cambodia

Missions in the past meant such things as a three month journey around the horn of Africa, squalid living conditions, contaminated food, disease, adversity, deadly opposition, poor health care, being out of contact with everyone you know, and being totally dependent upon God alone — knowing that help from home was not even a possibility. It wasn’t for everyone. Thankfully much has changed in missions in the last 100 years. While we are, as we have always been, truly dependent on God alone, God does indeed work through means.

In missions there is sometimes the perception that only time actually working in and on a “productive” foreign field is valuable, so the question is asked, “Do we really need a ‘home office’?” Today, as 100 years ago, the means God uses to accomplish the Great Commission and to build up His Church include the home office and its staff. They have always served as the support, the champion, the organizer, the planner, the fund raiser, and the ultimate enabler of missions. Now, with high speed communications, they also serve another critical function. They are part of the mission team in every field even though they’re half a world away. Hardly a plan is made, or crisis, issue, or concern resolved in which the office isn’t involved in some valuable way. On a daily basis, I regard them as my valued fellow workers here in my field. Won’t you support us missionaries by supporting them?

[Photo, L to R: Karen, Chelsea, Len, and Eli]