The Resourceful Servant

David singing with the group at a meeting.

David's one eye-brow permanently raised and crooked grin makes him come off as easy-going, despite his sharp dressing and official title on the elected leadership of the national church. I’ve recently been hugely encouraged by the national church’s hiring of this youth fellowship leader who breaks the normal employee mold. Previously, the only paid employees of the national church were the president (who was also a full-time pastor), a receptionist who had no office phone and no computer skills, so her only real task was to receive money and give out hand written receipts, and an office guard/handyman. But now they’ve taken a leap of faith and hired a “financial administrator” who is overseeing all the financial affairs that the volunteer church treasurer doesn’t have time to do. Things like managing the daily in-and-out money, the various project monies, and various income streams or institution budgets. It’s a big job. And one that has been chronically under-done, thus causing a lot of inefficiency and loss of money through lack of accurate budgeting. Having someone to specifically do the job is a big chunk of progress. But having someone good at the work is another story. 

Enter David, who is the son of an old, respected evangelist from a nearby town. He just graduated from one of the country’s universities with a degree in Business and Finance. In a country where the students get paid for years and years to go to university and go on strike when they’re not happy with their pay, David is an anomaly. He decided to use the motorcycle that his father sent with him to university to start paying his own way for things. He studied during the day and then became a motorcycle taxi man at night. He found with that arrangement that he could bring in $4 a day ($120 a month), which is what we pay our full-time guard (the best salary of any church related guard we’ve heard of). After saving for a while, he bought another motorcycle and employed another man with a family to make a good living while still bringing David another $120 a month. This almost blows my mind to see someone with that combination of initiative, vision, and hard-work, when I compare it to the many people who come to us asking for help (even people with jobs), because they haven’t saved anything and have no plan for generating income above what they need to get through the month. 

David with the purple shirt in the top right corner.

Additionally, David has been the soft-spoken leader of the youth fellowship group for his university and region for many years. He seems to have a different view of how to be involved in ministry than your normal person aspiring to be a leader in the church. For one, we spent a half-an-hour drive discussing the use of prayer and fasting in evangelism. He shared that he often has to laugh off people’s comments about him getting skinny and being anti-social because they don’t realize what he puts value on in his life. If I ever have to laugh off those comments, it’s more likely because I’m vain and an introvert, rather than super committed to prayer and fasting! So, of course, I’m glad that he’s the one who’s charged with working with all the church’s money!

-- El Padre