June 01, 1986 by Ralph D. Winter

Dear friends,

This is a last minute addition. What was intended for this page will appear next issue.

You know. You already know. The problem is money. We haven't yet made our July 1st payment. (See the Post Script on my editorial, page 2)

Wait a minute. No! The problem is NOT money. Money is NOT the problem!

Isn't that like saying the problem of a man with pneumonia is his fever! No, that is only a symptom of something else that has gone wrong!

All right, let's stand back and look at this situation.

WHY don't we have enough money to pay these payments? Why, indeed, have we not been able to pay this place off in almost ten years (next Nov 5th is our birthday)?

ONE ANSWER: You, Dr. Winter, have helped to persuade everyone all over the place that the Hidden Peoples, the Unreached Peoples, the Frontier Peoples need attention, You have made that point again and again in your many different materials.

But you have NOT made your case for a 35 acre set of properties being set aside as a vast "cooperative mission center".

OUR REPLY: You are right. We have talked very little about the logic of a physical center of this size and location. We completely agree that many visitors, many staff members (who are now on the field), many who get MISSION FRONTIERS are more interested in our global vision than in our local plan of operations.

(But, since this issue of MISSION FRONTIERS is already delayed, we'll have to try seriously to remedy this fault in our next issue. Dear reader: we need for you to demand the necessary facts to allow you to make up your mind that the Unreached peoples need many things, among them "Centers for World Mission" here and there around the world which can keep the

whole picture in view, and assist students, congregations, and agencies as they endeavor to reach out.)

ANOTHER ANSWER (to why we don't have enough money): People are afraid that their money will be lost if enough other people do not help, and the whole place goes down even though they have given sacrificially.

OUR REPLY: Finally, for this we do have an answer   our "Last $1,000" campaign. When this really gets rollins I believe that we will find many who will advance funds, even large gifts because they will not need to worry about the money being lost. And, they will believe, some of them, that our continuing $15 campaign will eventually replace those gifts and send them on to the field of their choice   an extra bonus so to speak.

Let me anticipate one other "answer": In a church in North Carolina recently I sat across from a retired missionary lady who had counted "from October let to December 31st" how many appeals for money had come to her mall box. Would you believe 62?

OUR REPLY: We all go to the supermarket where every aisle, every shelf, every counter SCREAMS AT US FOR OUR MONEY, but we don't mind, do we? Why? Because we know that if we buy what is pushed on us there, we at least are choosing something we wanted. May the Lord help us   isn't whet bugs people the appeal that does NOT directly benefit them?

Dear reader, please allow us next issue to try to convince you that this place in Pasadena is very vital to the highest cause. And, ask God to help you want whatever He wants! But, I hope not everyone waits until next time, or our "Last $1,000" plan won't have time to work!