Praise God that month by month the finance needed to support SGA’s family of missionaries is supplied through sacrificial giving by the Mission’s supporters. Money goes to the General Fund for use at the Mission’s discretion, or to the Project Fund where it can be directed towards particular aspects of ministry.
More recently SGA’s Sponsorship Programme has developed, whereby supporters, individuals, and churches, can ‘adopt’ a missionary and his/her work, and undertake regular support for them.
This sponsorship approach has brought ’blessings all round’ – to both recipients and to those who give in this way supporters. Sponsored missionaries know too that they are being prayed for as well as their practical needs being supplied.
Sponsors, whether individuals, groups, or churches, are ‘drawn into’ the work of the supported missionaries in a more personal way, encouraging focussed, informed prayer. Reports from both sponsors and those who are sponsored bear this out.
Illia Natalchenko
Illia Natalchenko is a church planter in Ukraine. Having to engage in construction work to provide for daily needs meant less time for ministry. He writes:
‘Imagine you are called by the Lord to plant a church. You have the desire and the vision, and you know it’s one of the most important things you can do, but you can’t fully make it, because you also need to provide for your family.’
The blessings and benefits of sponsorship mean that he can now give himself fully to his God-given vision, and be fully immersed in his calling.
Ivan Grozdanov
Ivan Grozdanov is a long-standing friend of SGA, the links having been forged over a quarter of a century ago. His literature ministry is a source of incalculable blessing to his fellow Macedonians. He writes:
‘My deepest gratitude goes to SGA for its continual prayerful and financial support of my Bible literature work … My current project is revision of the most popular NT translation among the Macedonian people for the past 25 years.’
He goes on to say that SGA support provides excellent working conditions for his writing and also covers equipment costs and help with personal needs for his family.
‘May God richly bless each one of you who partners with me in the Lord’s work here in N. Macedonia.’
Yuri Skurydin's view on sponsorship
SGA’s sponsored missionaries are active in parts of the world which are unsympathetic and sometimes hostile to the Gospel. Yuri Skurydin (Almaty Bible Institute, Kazakhstan) points out that Central Asia is of vital strategic importance.
Evangelical Christians are small in number, yet local ministers there reach beyond their own countries into neighbouring ones such as Russia, China and Mongolia. At the present time ABI students, sponsored by SGA, are preparing for ministry in these difficult regions. The need is great.
Peter Mihalchiuk's view on sponsorship
Peter Mihalchiuk, (SGA Mission School Director in Balti, Moldova), explains how sponsorship relieves the burden on missionaries and enables them to minister effectively. SGA’s support helps to cover transports costs. They all work in more than one village and must buy fuel and regularly service their cars.
About 70–80% per cent of support is spent on transport, and the rest on electricity, gas and other personal needs. Peter writes:
‘If SGA stops sponsorship – the work in ten villages may be stopped.’
Over and above the finance, the constant ministry of prayer for them is beyond value!
A sponsoring Church reports
By partnering with SGA in this way, we have the joy of being more personally connected and involved in the spread of the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ in another country. With newsletter updates and personal visits from Peter … we're encouraged to pray more earnestly for the LORD's blessing upon the ministry in Moldova and further afield. We're very thankful for the relationship we have developed with Peter and the link SGA have enabled through their sponsorship programme
A faithful SGA supporter & sponsor shares
It's good to receive reports of the Lord’s work in Kazakhstan from our dear brother (Andrey Kazhanov). What a privilege to draw alongside our gospel partners with our prayers! 3,000 miles is not a problem for our prayers … What a great encouragement it is to hear news of those whose lives have been changed through the witness of faithful servants in Kazakhstan