The Great Commission Fund
Changing Lives by Equipping Missionaries and Building Churches
(alife November 2004 issue)
By David Presher I was 12 years old when I started giving monthly to the Great Commission Fund (GCF). Though income from my paper route didn’t provide much, I desperately wanted to partner with missionaries who were giving their lives to proclaim hope and eternal life through Jesus Christ to people in unreached parts of the world. That first gift began a love affair with C&MA missions that continues today.
    The GCF is a central collection point for C&MA missions giving. Through it, missionaries and church planters and their ministries are supported in accomplishing God’s work around the world.
    Today, vibrant C&MA national churches in nearly 60 countries are sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, nurturing believers in faith communities and developing leaders for the Church and its mission. More than 20 of these national churches are sending out missionaries of their own. So, what happens when we give to the Great Commission Fund?
    Missionaries can devote all their time and attention to ministry. The C&MA does not require missionaries to raise their own support. Alliance missionaries depend upon God to supply their needs through the faithful giving of God’s people in local churches.

Our workers have time to focus on various ministries:
* A team of workers in Central Asia serves in an area where less than 0.1 percent of the people proclaim Christ as Savior.
* C&MA missionaries in Cambodia rescue young Vietnamese girls from being sold into prostitution and share the Savior’s love with them.
* Seventy-seven workers risk their lives for the sake of Christ in 21 creative-access countries where traditional missionaries cannot gain entrance.

Diverse ministries and programs take place around the world. These include church planting, AIDS-awareness programs, leadership development, radio ministries, medical clinics, Marriage Encounter seminars, evangelistic events, literacy programs, youth and children’s camps, Encounter with God campaigns and agricultural training.

Because of the GCF . . .
*Lives are impacted for eternity through these ministries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America, Europe and the Middle East.
* Grants are provided to establish worldwide communities of Christ. Church-planting leaders have the opportunity to effect positive change in their regions, as illustrated below:
* A two-year-old church in California averages more than 1,000 attendees and has launched four daughter churches in 2004. Each of these churches received assistance from the GCF.
* A check for $50,000 was presented to Ghassan Thomas, pastor of the Evangelical Alliance Church in Baghdad. This gift will be used to plant a second church in Iraq.
* A church in Indiana planted one daughter church in 2004 and plans to start two more churches in the near future. These congregations have a unique coffeehouse outreach to the unchurched in their communities.

The GCF is the best place to invest our missions dollar. When we give to the GCF, workers are sent, people are saved, churches are built and leaders are trained.

Ministry Statistics:
* Every two minutes, someone prays to receive Christ through the worldwide outreach of Alliance ministries.
* Every hour, three patients, many of them ravaged by AIDS, receive physical and spiritual care through C&MA medical work.
* Every day via 43 radio broadcasts, people who have had no gospel witness hear the good news.
* Every week, nearly 3,000 new believers are baptized.
* Every month, 253 churches and church groups join the worldwide Alliance family.
* Every year, 9,635 students are trained and equipped for ministry through 125 overseas Alliance theological schools.

Dr. David Presher is vice president for Advancement at the C&MA National Office in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Support the GCF . . .
Give a gift to the GCF online using your credit card. View the latest Great Commission Fund update.