Helping the Church in Chad rescue orphans and widows,
train leaders, and share
the Gospel

June 2009

God-Dependency and Self-Support

By Scott Hafemann

Just as we began working on this month's articles, the funds arrived to complete the ice-machine project at Shalom Evangelical School of Theology! God is powerfully at work in the gifts that come from your hard work! The ice business, which began with solid success back in February, can now be expanded to its full potential with the addition of the second generator. And on top of this, the ice business' vehicle is also doing double-duty as the transportation for the school's first-ever fund raiser. It is now on the road raising donor-support from Chadian believers! These are major steps forward toward helping the school become self-supporting.

Our slogan at Mission: Chad is "Helping Africans Help Themselves."

But how does the goal of "self-sufficiency" fit in with our call to be dependent on "God's sufficiency" in every circumstance? Why, as an expression of their trust in God, did the apostle Paul insist that the Thessalonians "work with their hands" (1 Thess 4:9), "so that they might command the respect of outsiders, and be dependent on nobody" (1 Thess 4:11-12)? Why did he call for them to shun all Christians who were "living in idleness" and "not doing any work" (2 Thess 3:6, 11), so that "if any one will not work, let him not eat" (2 Thess 3:10)? Indeed, during his ministry in Thessaloniki, Paul himself refused to eat without paying for it, working "night and day" in addition to his preaching, in order to give them "an example to imitate" (2 Thess 3:9). So the apostle commanded them likewise "to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living," calling them not to be "weary in well-doing" (2 Thess 3:12-13).
 
From Paul's perspective, trusting God and working hard to support one's self were not in conflict. Paul recognized that self-support is a gift from God, which expresses itself in giving toward others who, by God's providence, are less fortunate than we are. In this way, self-support for the sake of giving is God-dependency in action. This is why Paul begins his call to self-support by reminding the Thessalonians that they have been "taught by God to love one another" and encourages them to do so "more and more" (1 Thess 4:9-10). To trust the Lord for our future involves using the abilities God has given us for the good of others in the present. In this way, God builds his global church on a foundation of inter-dependency.
 
To promote self-support in Chad is to provide them with the God-honoring opportunity of giving to others in a poverty-driven land. We support them so that, in coming to support themselves, they may give in love to others – and so the kingdom of God grows! 

Thank you for the ice-machine. Thank you for the wall (it is almost done!). Thank you for feeding orphans, who will one day feed others. Thank you for working so hard, in dependence on God, for the sake of the church in Chad. Your well-doing, made possible by your hard work, is honoring your Lord, by whose hand all things are accomplished.