They just had a blog post here last week on the frontpage about this. www.freemissonwebsites.com

I believe this site stated that a missionary could also have paypal module integrated with this free site. This is what you are talking about to one end anyways. Missionaries recieving money over the internet??

I don't have enough knowledge about funding missionaries through mission boards to answer beyond this.

I thought the free web site thing was great but there are a couple of things that have come to light when talking about it with a pastor.

The big thing being personal security. Many missionaries are overseas in places where they don't necessarily want to broad cast their exact location and family/background info. Might make them an easy target by those who would like to do them harm.

Your project sounds great but maybe start with local missions and see where it takes you.

Chris

I think it's a good idea in principle, but for people to feel secure giving money to a missionary, the whole site would really need to operate under the 'umbrella' of a well known organisation (as Kiva does, as far as I know). A friend of mine has given money towards a couple of Kiva loans (at first a small amount as an experiment), and been very impressed at how the loans were really paid back on schedule; however this kind of 'perfection' requires a lot of hard work and authority/responsibility behind the scenes.

I can imagine a whole host of would-be 'missionaries' trying to get loans online; people who in reality I would never want to sponsor! However, if a group of missionary organisations like 'YWAM', Wycliffe Bible Translators etc. got together and supported the site's operation (checking credentials and goals of missionaries in the flesh, as Kiva does), I think it could become a great resource for missionaries and supporters who want to operate that way.

I've just found the 'http://findmissionaries.org' site, which is already part way in that direction (see their FAQ at http://www.findmissionaries.org/mw.php?action=faq) - I wonder if they have considered 'doing a Kiva' ... ?

Anyway, I do still like the idea - I would just want to see it get off to a good start...!

Alan

A lot of people look for safety and being comfortable with someone they give money to. Going through established organizations who check people out makes people feel comfortable that they aren't getting scammed. I could see a known establishment doing something like this. It's a neat idea.

I imagine if there is a middle man organization there are a number of laws that need to be looked into. A paypal account for a missionary might avoid some of those. It's an idea with promise. :)

The idea was to kinda combo what I want to do with Lost and what Kiva is doing. Lets say a project is listed. For example a missionary in peru needs to build a church building. So the cost is established and the amount of laborers estimated. Then Lost ministries hosts the project and we put it on our website. A trip is planned and a cost to go on this trip is calculated. When the number of laborers needed some with special skills some just general bodies needed is reached and the cost is covered the trip is planned and then completed. The cost of the trip is payed by the laborers attending and the cost of the project is raised by people donating. Where the funds are stored might get tricky. A paypal account controlled by the missionary or their board might work best.

Authenticating would be a problem but I might be able to require legit mission boards before I take contacts I have not meet in person. It wouldn't be a sign up for kind of thing. Real contacts and evaluation would be done.

I like the idea but I need to work on the execution and details. Let alone learn how to code it and find the time to organize it :)

Alan is correct that the operation of Kiva takes a LOT of hard work. However, the way it operates is that it connects NGOs with a donor base. Let's take Hope International, for example, which is a Christian Community Development organization that does Microlending. I happen to know that Hope is an NGO that is partnered with Kiva to allow their (Hope's) clients to access funds by putting them directly on Kiva's website. But this takes a LOT of work.

Hope goes into a community, takes a picture of the entrepreneur, writes down their story, and then goes back to their local office (let's say Rwanda, for example), puts it up onto Kiva's website, eventually obtains the funds for the entrepreneur, then takes that money and gives it to the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur then earns money, and pays back the loan - through Hope International, to Kiva, to the lenders. It's a complicated process, but it works well.

It allows all sorts of NGOs (Christian and Secular alike) to gain funding for entrepreneurs in their program. As a result, the NGO can also implement their "bent" in the training, implementation, etc... All Kiva is doing is providing a gateway.

If you were thinking about doing something like this for missionaries (but just in the form of donating), the process would be much more simple. But it is definitely possible to transfer the cash (securely) via electronic means into the currency of whichever country that missionary resides.

I personally don't think that this idea would solve any problems, because missionaries are usually sent by a church or a missions board. If someone wants to donate money, donating it to the church or the missions board is the most appropriate way to go about that.

BUT, I do think that there would be GREAT potential for donating to small, local, indigenous churches and country-specific missionaries that don't have many (or any) connections on the outside.

Just my 2 cents.

i was thinking about it and maybe it would be better for us to collect the cash and organize the trip locally without direct involvement of the missionary and hand deliver it when the trip arrives. It would be more like an organized short term missions trip that wasn't contained to a local church. People from different churches across the country can join in and choice to go on the trip. I think with Lost I want to concentrate more on specialized individuals. People like engineers who could get a small group together with maybe a few trained technicians to build a radio station in a foreign country. We design the facility and purchase the equipment then ship it to the missionary and all arrive at a specified time. We have a plan and a purpose a few days later the missionary is broadcasting and we leave him to continue with his ministry without having to pay to hire local professionals to build it for him.

Jonathan,
I would urge you to consider this model some more. In my opinion if something like this were to happen, I'm not sure how much "good" it would do in the long run. I am not saying that Short-Term missions trips planned by Americans are a bad thing. I just think that they need to be planned, thought through, and carefully orchestrated WITH the people on the ground very, very well.

One thing that I have grown to discover is that often times, short term missions trips that are intended to do a good thing can actually cause irreparable harm in an indigenous community overseas, especially when the local people are not consulted.

Often times, we come up with some very good ideas that would work wonderfully in America. But if we tried to bring that idea over to, let's say, a poor village in Pakistan, the idea would crumble to pieces - because we do not understand the controlling forces behind the community, and because we do not understand what the community actually needs.

Another factor to consider is that usually, building materials are a LOT cheaper to buy in the local context, rather than if they were bought in the States. If the materials were purchased in the local community, there would be other benefits too:
* It would help support the local economy
* The materials would be suited for that specific environment
* You would definitely save a lot of money. In dollars, you would pay much more for the materials here than if you paid for them in the local economy
* You wouldn't have to deal with the cost or the hassle of shipping the materials over

It would be different, of course, if a local missionary approached you and said "hey, we need this. Can you help?" Then, that would be a wonderful opportunity to partner with the missionary AND the local community by using the skills you have as an engineer to help fulfill a missionary's need, by using the local community's products (and thus giving them a "way" to get involved too, and to feel like they are a part of the project). To take it a step further, it would be even better and more ideal if you were able to have some of the indigenous people help with the actual project.

Just some things to think about that I think are vitally important.

- David

I don't plan on just finding people and inventing problems. My goal is to make personal contacts with missionaries and mission boards to help them. I have currently a two fold plan for Lost. Short term I am working on tutorials and ideas I think missionaries might need. These are simply informational in nature and will usually involve a prototype being constructed that will be offered to anyone who can use it after the tutorial is completed. Some of these ideas are detailed instructions for construction and use of a solar power autoclave or a spiral pump that is simple to build and will pump water from a flowing river a good distance for home use or irrigation.

I currently don't know anyone who can use these items but I think they might be useful and not that expensive to design/build. So I will assemble information like this and do research and development for missions and try to find new ways to make life on the field easier.

Missions trips and major projects would only be undertaken when a missionary requests them and they would be in charge. We would only act as a information gateway and conduit to assemble the people needed. My goal is to eventually have a large group of specialized individuals that can be called upon for advice or actual in field work if need be.

Me for instance I know a lot about radio. I am learning more and more each day. If a missionary wants information on how to setup a station I can help. However if they wanted to build a station and we could help then the equipment could be found here or over there and assembled. A detailed plan worked out and discussed before the trip is finalized and then myself and others who are willing to help would fly out on a short term trip to assist the missionary.

The goal is not to find people to help but to connect people and gather information. To take the guy sitting in a pew every week and connect him to a missionary that could use his help. The missionaries are in charge. I don't want to invade their areas just enable them to seek help if desired and get ideas to help them reach the people around them.

Thank you for your input that is why I posted this here. I want to get a different view point and hash out the details with people who have more experience dealing with churches and missions then I do. I went to a large Christian college and only ever attended one church before going to college. Now I work at the college and attend their church so sometimes my limited experience with other ministries tends to lend me to find ideas that work great on paper but when you introduce people the entire thing would fall apart.

It all sounds like a very good idea, and it seems that you really are thinking this through. I didn't mean to imply that you weren't, or that you were thinking about unreasonable ideas. I just wanted to throw that caution out anyway.

Going back to the original idea, the idea you have to connect missionaries with "people in the pews" is a great idea. I think that there ARE good, appropriate ways to do that. Keep brainstorming, and keep us informed!

- David