A Christian greeting card company came out with a thank-you card saying, "I don't know how to repay you for all you've done. So I'm asking God to take care of repaying you." C&MA missionaries make kingdom investments in the lives of people who can never repay them. There's no amount of money in the world that's enough to equal the value of one person who repents and believes in Jesus Christ, making Him Lord and Savior. In the words of a popular commercial, that's "priceless"! Like all of us, missionaries need money to cover their basic cost of living. So just how are U.S. C&MA missionaries compensated? They are given earthly pay in return for their eternal investment as their sending churches, partners with them, respond to five needs: Cost-of-Living Allowance—Through a third party, International Ministries of the U.S. receives a regular, timely flow of cost of living information from every country where American C&MA personnel are serving. This information is based on actual "on the ground" pricing in each nation. Current exchange rates of foreign currencies in relation to the U.S. $ are factored in to calculate a cost of living allowance for each country. When the evidence demonstrates a rise in cost of living or the U.S. $ weakens in a country, the allowance for that country is adjusted upward. When the opposite is true, the allowance is adjusted downward. A single missionary receives 60 percent of what a married couple receives. Children receive 50 percent of an adult allowance up to age 18. While missionaries cannot amass earthly riches on their cost of living allowance, it represents a focused effort to make sure their basic needs are met. Health Benefits—Some missionaries are in settings where excellent quality health care is available. Others find themselves in situations where this is challenging or impossible to find. At times missionaries have to go to neighboring countries for quality health care. In a few situations, the severity of their illness requires a return to the homeland for in-depth treatment and care. The U.S. C&MA has a self-funded health insurance plan that includes benefits for medical, vision and dental care to help with all of these scenarios. The costs of providing this in the last decade has sky-rocketed with double-digit increases several years. Housing—Through the U.S. Great Commission Fund, the cost of missionary housing is covered. This is done for missionaries when they're on the field and when they're on home assignment. There are guidelines to help missionaries know the rental price ranges the C&MA will cover. In locations where a C&MA missionary presence of seven years or more is anticipated, the option of building or purchasing C&MA-owned housing is considered. Retirement—The U.S. C&MA family of churches provides a service increment for their missionary personnel. This begins after ten years of service and increases every five years thereafter to assist missionaries in retirement. When a missionary faithfully invests the service increment over a career of forty years or more, the result is a very helpful "nest egg" to help with retirement housing and other needs in the senior years of life. Children's Education—With multiple schooling options now available to missionary families, education costs for the children of missionaries have been increasing steadily for the last several years. Presently U.S. International Ministries spends about 10% of their annual budgets on MK ("missionary kid") education and care. A 24-month scholarship equivalent to 50 percent of an adult home assignment allowance is provided to young adult MKs to help them with their first two years of college expenses. With a core value of being incarnational, of learning the language and adapting to the culture of the people to whom missionaries are sent, long term career workers are needed. Sending long-term, incarnational personnel is a long-term financial commitment. The funds to sustain them on the field must flow faithfully month after month. This releases them to fulfill God's call on their lives to take the gospel cross-culturally to peoples who otherwise may not have opportunity to hear and respond. So What Can You and Your Local Church Do? Make sure your church knows how important faithful U.S. Great Commission Fund giving is. Without a faithful flow, the workers cannot go! Build a relationship with a missionary whose costs you as a church can cover. Through that relationship, construct a bridge of partnership so that you're helping one another as you work together in fulfilling the Great Commission. Plan to make sacrificial giving for Alliance missions a part of your personal, yearly budget. Encourage your church to set its highest missions giving goal ever and find creative ways to reach it. In taking these steps, you can be sure C&MA missionaries will not know how to repay you. But they will be asking God to repay you for your eternal investment. More importantly, your on-going support of helping to call the nations before God's throne to worship Him will result in some very special words from the risen, victorious Christ: "WELL DONE, MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT!" If you would like to give to support the work of C&MA churches and missionaries around the world, click here.