History of $10,000
Work and Witness officially began
in 1974. Since that time, teams have been sacrificially giving to help
the growth of the Church outside of the U.S.
The assistance was done primarily through capital improvements to existing and
new churches, schools, and medical clinics. Sacrifice is an important
word and we will come back to it.
Originally, Work & Witness was one of the best ways that the Nazarene
Church had found to get men
involved in missions. This is both in learning about what God was doing in
missions around the world AND in participating in that work.
In the years following, W&W worked out many of the organizational bugs and
took great strides to solidify the identity of the program. By the 80s, a
typical W&W team consisted of 20 persons. These 20 people would
volunteer to go to another country for two full weeks. They would commit to
paying for their own food, housing, and transportation, both to the country and
while they were in the country.
In addition to this
sacrifice, these first men committed to bring $500.00 each to contribute
towards buying construction materials.
$500 X 20 People = $10,000 U.S.
Thus, the
incidental $10,000 "project money" standard was set.
In fact, in a 1983 book entitled, Work and Witness, by James Hudson,
we can even see a chart that explains further. This is understandable as the
Church was trying to bring consistency and order to a burgeoning ministry.
Team Size Minimum Funding
10-12 $7,500.00
13-18 $10,000.00
19-25 $12,500.00
Even with a chart in a book entitled, Work and Witness, $10,000 was
never a number that was mandated by World Mission to be eligible to participate
in this ministry. It has always been a guideline. A guideline for a
period of time and a particular economic situation. It was never meant to
stifle the generous heart or to be a ceiling for meeting the growing needs of
an ever expanding church.
An interesting note is that $2,043.38 in the year 2006 has the same
"purchase power" as $500 in the year 1974.1 Said another way, today each
participant would have to bring over $2,000 just for "project money"
to equal the value of the $500 that each person brought to buy construction
materials in 1974.
Over 30 years later teams are continuing to bring $10,000 U.S.
for project money. This money is a blessing and goes a long way, with
God's blessing, to benefit the work and expansion of the church around the
world. However, this same amount has steadily decreased in the amount of
construction material it can buy. $10,000 in the year 2006 has the same
"purchase power" as $2,446.92 in the year 1974.1 Said another way, a team bringing
$10,000 today can buy about 1/4 the material it could buy with the same 30 years ago.
Additionally, the cost of building materials in many parts of the world,
especially in island nations like the Caribbean, has
ballooned as the price of raw materials is directly tied to the cost of
petroleum to get supplies from a continent to an island. This only exacerbates
the dilemma.
Work and Witness has certainly evolved over the last three decades. We
include youth teams, Jesus Film teams, and Prayer teams to accompany our
consistent efforts to erect new church buildings, schools, and medical clinics
and renovate damaged buildings. But let us never forget that Christ
is our motivation for moving out from our self into a broken world with love and
the one thing that Christians are willing to do, sacrifice. The sacrifice
of our Fathers is not our sacrifice. Let us continue the good work!
Sacrifice.
To give sacrificially. It is our prayer that we continue to stretch
ourselves to sacrifice for the benefit of others, in Jesus' name.
Thanks!
We appreciate the many teams that
come to the Caribbean Region for Work and Witness each year! We pray that
the experience each team has here is one that God uses to His Glory. Give us your feed back by clicking here.
To
Consider:
In several countries in the Caribbean,
church buildings can be completed, start to finish, for around $15,000. This
may vary slightly depending on the location. Belize
and Haiti
are some of the countries where this
is possible.
The benefit of this is that a building can be built by one
team which allows the local congregation to have a permanent building much
quicker. This also allows the team to experience a dedication service for
new building before they leave from their Work and Witness experience.
For many years, $10,000.00 US has
become the norm for what teams plan to contribute towards buying materials for
construction. We are encouraging teams to consider increasing this amount to
$20,000 U.S.
If you are interested to learn more about coming to one of the 23 countries in the Caribbean,
please contact Curt Luthye in the Caribbean Regional
Office. (305) 233-5444
1. http://www.measuringworth.com/ppowerus/