Strengthen the Foundation

Happy Easter to you all!

I have the privilege of serving Friends Network as the Director of Member Care, which means I get to love and care for all 50+ of our missionaries and their family members overseas. In my role I often connect our missionaries to resources. Fellow staff, experienced missionaries, partner organizations, and alumni all play a role in supporting our team. These people are invaluable resources in my work.

As I consider the resources available to us as we care for our workers, I am also reflecting on our essential donors - more than one thousand households who financially invested in our ministry in the past year.

Yes, you are a part of this team! And in this season of organizational growth and change, we need you more than ever.

Since the formation of Friends Network in 2020, our missionaries have spread across twelve cities in seven countries, with new workers entering the field each year. We’ve completely changed the financial structure of our organization, we’ve added staff, and we’ve expanded our efforts to care for our missionaries across Asia and Oceania.

In this era of Friends Network, nearly all of our missionaries are financially supported by their personal network of family, friends, churches, and schools, and we see the blessings of this funding model every day. Our missionaries can focus entirely on full-time ministry rather than having to find local employment. They receive constant prayer and encouragement from their supporters. And the missionaries’ frequent communication with their network makes mission work real and relevant to a whole new population of people in the United States.

So many of you are a part of these support networks and you have set up recurring weekly or monthly donations to support a specific missionary. This model of financial support has strengthened our missionaries. Now we need partners to strengthen the foundation beneath them.

The general mission support fund of Friends Network provides what we need to train, care for, and sustain the missionaries, and we rely on your shared investment. This fund provides:

● Member care

● Training and onboarding

● Administrative support

● Ministry strategy and vision

● Insurance, financial accountability, and compliance

As you can see, gifts to individual support funds fuel the missionaries, but gifts to the general mission support fund fuel the whole mission.

Here’s where you come in: Our general mission support fund is projected to fall short of what is needed to finish the year strong, and we are praying for the necessary support to help us close this year’s funding gap.

If you currently support a missionary, please prayerfully consider offering a recurring or one-time gift to general mission support.

If you currently support with undesignated gifts, please prayerfully consider increasing your recurring gift or offering an additional one-time gift.

If you support Friends Network with your prayers, please prayerfully consider supporting the ministry financially with a recurring or one-time gift.

God is still working through this ministry to shine his light in places that need it. God is still working in our missionaries to draw them closer to him as they trust his provision, care, and guidance in foreign lands. God is still allowing ordinary people into this extraordinary mission of the great commission. God is still revealing new opportunities for mission fields and bringing eager workers who want to join the Friends Network family.

God is still sovereign over this ministry, and he is the provider of what it needs to carry on.

The need for this work remains unchanged. Please partner with us today to strengthen the foundation that allows every missionary to thrive and every soul to be reached with the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

God bless you all.

In his care,

Gwen Schroeder

Director of Member Care

Pictured: Missionary Stephen Wiesenauer (Thailand) and Josh Heyn (SE Asia)