BUILD THE CHURCH: GLOBAL MISSIONS

By: Bishop Felipe Lugo

During the month of February 2016, I was commissioned by the general board to accompany the secretary of international missions to the electoral convention in Montevideo, Uruguay, South America. It was during the convention that God revealed to me the commitment of men who are sent to preach the gospel outside our country.

After concluding with the elections of the national board of directors, we received an invitation from President, Humberto Samuel Meneses, to accompany them to have lunch. As we went to lunch, I thought that the elected and outgoing directors that the purpose of the lunch would be to discuss some need for the work in that country. However, to my surprise, when we arrived at the place designated to eat, some missionaries from the southern cone began to arrive with them their wives and children. At that moment, my spirit was moved. I understood at that moment that it is not only ministers and their wives who accept the call to be sent, but it also involves all their children.

Once the convention was over, we headed to the airport for our return trip to the USA. During the flight, Bishop Provencio and I were seated next to each other and left Montevideo at 9 pm, as we began our flight, I started thinking and visualizing figures and the faces of the children of the missionaries. The joy manifested within their smile and their joy at being in the atmosphere of a missionary fellowship.

As we began our flight, my mind kept taking me back to the luncheon we had with the missionaries and their families. The memory of the ambiance of the luncheon and the manifested joy of the missionaries and their families kept me thinking as to how these families were being helped with their needs. As time started to approach midnight and being late at night, I couldn’t sleep. The memory of looking at the picture I was looking at. The brothers, parents, and children exhibited such exceptional joy even though they were away from their home countries and families. This attitude did not let me sleep.

I immediately began to ask Bishop Andy Provencio questions about the benefits missionaries received. The bishop’s response saddened me, as he told me that missionaries and church presidents based abroad lacked a retirement plan and health insurance due to a lack of resources.

This news saddened me even more because, as I mentioned earlier, the commitment of the missionary families. My reaction was that we had to do something to be able to provide the benefits lacking for our missionaries. After several hours of praying and thinking about what we could do to help our brothers, the Lord showed me to do something like he had done years before with the need of some of our local congregations.

Approximately in the year 2000, being a participant in the review committee of our constitution and assisting, at that time, the vice president Daniel Sánchez, former president of our Assembly after his period as vice president. The Lord Jesus Christ granted me the opportunity to present the program of the Trust Fund, and with the approval of President Sanchez, I presented it as an initiative proposal, which the pastors approved and is now in our constitution, Article 42, this program was the foundation of Apostolic Mutual.

It was about two o’clock in the morning when I received the revelation to establish missionary benefits, following the same model approved before. The Trust Fund received its monetary foundation from the districts by sending 5% of the pastoral tithes sent to the districts and another portion of the remittances to the General Treasury.

God showed me that the interest that local congregations pay on their loans was not tithed to any entity of our assembly and that for these interests to be a blessing, they would have to be tithed, and after it went through the constitutional process, the missionary benefit program was established.

That morning before landing in Miami, I shared with Bishop Provencio the plan, and he was very happy since it had the potential to provide one more benefit to the missionary body.

The process was not easy, but the result is that now the interest generated by Apostolic Mutual loans is a blessing to our missionaries. Now, the program that God granted us the process has been put in place, and I thank God granted us the opportunity to establish the Apostolic Mutual program, which is already of great benefit to our Beloved Apostolic Assembly of Faith in Christ Jesus.