What it costs to support your missionary

Supporting the Whole Missionary

SEND aims to provide an adequate but modest income to your missionaries based on the cost of living in the country where they serve. We understand that each missionary family faces unique needs, so we offer some flexibility in our support structure, not wanting finances to keep anyone from cross-cultural ministry.

  • SEND values the spiritual, physical, and emotional health of your missionaries, knowing that thriving missionaries have the energy needed for Kingdom transformation.
  • We support choice in education, offering a flexible support plan that reflects each family’s needs for their children.
  • We want to see missionaries step into retirement with sufficient funds so that you can release your support money to another missionary.

 

please feel free to contact us.

 

A SEND Missionary's Financial Needs

  • Housing: Rented or mission owned.
  • Pension: Plan aims to set missionaries up for financial self-sufficiency in retirement.
  • MK Education: School costs for missionary children.
  • Insurance: Medical and life coverage.
  • International Administration: Leadership team provides training, coaching, supervision, and accountability to meet SEND’s mission and vision for ministry. They also oversee global security, training, personnel, and communications.
  • Travel: The cost of travel to and from ministry area, taking into account the possibility of emergency travel.
  • Work Expense: Ministry costs such as evangelism materials, travel, teaching supplies, and other outreach aides.
  • Salary: An adequate but modest amount to meet living expenses while maintaining a culturally appropriate lifestyle. Salary based on location and family needs, not position. Because the world constantly changes, we periodically adjust salary to reflect new costs of living and currency exchange rates. Our salary structure can flex to accommodate some school loans for recent college graduates or elder care needs, as appropriate. Salary also includes Social Security or Canada Pension Plan.
  • Home Administration: Member care includes coaching and training new missionaries during their journey to cross-cultural service; processing donations; managing health, retirement, and disability plans; recruiting new missionaries; and providing media resources. This percentage provides about a third of the home office’s operational costs.

*Current individual need charts are available for each SEND missionary on request.

SEND's Financial Principles

Faith
 The members of SEND look to the Lord to fully supply their needs. The work of SEND depends entirely on God’s gracious provision.

Local church
 The local church sets apart and commissions missionaries to service. SEND respects that special relationship between the sending church and its missionaries.

Partnership
 God achieves his purposes through his people. SEND is grateful for the many friends who support SEND missionaries and seeks to strengthen its partnership with them.

Support commitment
 Support commitments from churches and individuals inform SEND of a donor’s intentions. These commitments are not contracts and are not legally binding. This information helps SEND determine if a missionary has enough financial backing to thrive in ministry. Support commitment cards are available on request.

Jurisdiction
 The laws relating to finances established by the governments where SEND members live and work are carefully applied to both mission and personal finances.

Voluntary disclosure
 Anyone who writes or calls SEND International can receive details of SEND International’s Constitution, doctrinal statement, operating policies and procedures, financial audit reports, or other information.

Additional Posts

Skills Your Team Needs Most

By Erin Brown • July 24, 2025
At SEND International, we’ve seen time and again how God brings the right people to the right places.

From Uncertainty to Trust: Abigail Niles' Journey to Romania

By Erin Brown • July 2, 2025
"This probably looks impossible, but you serve a God who is greater." These are the words of Abigail Niles, a young woman who followed the Lord to Romania.

The Weight of Sacrifice

By Diaspora North America • June 29, 2025
March 7, 2025 Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution only to break it in less than a week? On March 1, 1.8 billion Muslims began their annual fasting month called Ramadan. They are supposed to fast completely—no water or food—during daylight hours from March 1–Mar 29. It begins with much fanfare, promises, and declarations, as fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. Muslims believe that faithfully keeping the fast ensures one’s place of favor with God. But many Muslims won’t be able to keep the fast through the whole 30 days. The reasons and excuses are myriad. Sometimes they will continue to claim to be fasting, but in reality, they are eating behind closed doors. To gain God’s favor, they must fast through the whole month, not just part of it. So, they live with the guilt and shame of not fulfilling the requirements of Islam. What was supposed to help gain their salvation now stands in condemnation. A Feast Within the Fast To complicate matters even more, Persian New Year’s Day is March 20, right in the middle of the fasting month. Persian New Year is one of the most important cultural holidays for most Iranian and Afghans, as well as many others with a Persian background scattered throughout Central Asia and the Middle East. In fact, many people with Persian heritage don’t just celebrate on one day. Their New Year’s celebrations extend over two weeks! How do they reconcile these two weeks of festivities within Ramadan? For Arab Muslims, it is a non-issue. But for the Persian world, it IS a struggle. The hard-core Taliban will try to push people to keep the fast. However, many will lean more towards keeping their more ancient pre-Islamic traditions of New Year’s. I would encourage you to take time to explore with your Muslim neighbors and colleagues why they fast. Then share why Christians fast. Perhaps read Isaiah 58 with them, summarize it, and ask for their thoughts on this passage. One more thing to note during Ramadan is the Night of Power. Each year, during Ramadan, on or about the 27th day of the month, there is a special time called the Night of Power. This year it will happen on or around March 26. Muslims believe the Night of Power is when Mohammad first received the revelations of the Quran from the Angel Gabriel. Prayers offered up by Muslims during Ramadan—especially prayers in a mosque—are believed to be weightier than prayers at any other time. However, prayers on this special Night of Power, prayed in a mosque, are considered infinitely more valuable than any other prayer. Many Muslims will stay up all night praying on the Night of Power to earn extra points with God. There is a small problem in all of this, though—Muslims can’t agree on which night is actually the Night of Power. It is sometime during the last ten days of Ramadan, with tradition stating that it is on the 26th or 27th night. There are several resources to help Christians and churches pray for the Muslim world through this month of Ramadan. I would encourage you to connect with some or all of them. Please make others in your church aware of these resources. Perhaps you could even host a special prayer time at your church, utilizing these resources. Ramadan 30-Day Prayer Guide Booklet – This can be purchased as a hard copy or PDF. Prayercast – A wonderful website with many videos on the Muslim world. If you sign up, you can receive daily prayer videos that also work great during a Sunday worship service to help raise awareness of the need for prayer for the Muslim world.
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