I mean: Nobody pays someone to walk around and pray for their shopping centre. The churches that need it most can't afford to pay someone to speak at their weekend. Bible colleges can sometimes pay for the hours of lecturing, but not for preparation and marking. People who need to hear about Jesus are not usually keen enough to pay for it. Being a friend alongside someone in their spiritual journey, or being family for someone who needs love, is not on the list of highly paid professions.
More than that, may of these ways of serving people and God are the kind of thing that should be offered free. Paul talked about how important it was to him that he was not a financial burden on people who were just discovering Jesus (2Cor 11:7-9). When people are struggling spiritually, or need affirmation as people-made-by-God, it is something that should be available to the as a gift from God and his people.
The result is, that if we are to do the things we do more than a couple of hours a week, we need to have an income from somewhere other than our work!
This happens in several ways. Mostly people and churches giving financial support to Serving Strangers (Martin and Lesley) via a bank account administered by Claremont Methodist Church. In particular CMC itself gives some of their mission money to us in this way. Some money is also given directly to us Sometimes we are given stuff that will help with the projects we do.
Someone gave us a few days in Addo National Park!
Sometimes we will be given a gift for a particular project. An individual might want to sponsor the hot chocolate-and-coffee cost of our outsiders ministry. There is someone who gives towards our medical aid costs. Sometimes people give us stationery or office equipment. People help us with our computers. People help us do stuff to make our house more usable. A church might give us money when we have led a workshop for them, or someone from another church might sponsor a particular workshop whenever we do it. People help us have holidays.All this is a bit risky, and every so often we ponder the question of whether God wants us to stop depending on other people for money and get paying work instead. So far the answer has always been a clear 'no'. So we live willingly in the zone of uncertainty ... and God always manages to keep us, sometimes with more and others with just enough.
We are extremely grateful for the amazing loyal people who make this all possible. Serving in this way is a huge privilege and we couldn't do it without them.
