One thing I love about my Pentecostal Heritage

Giving to World Missions

May 23, 2025

Huldah Buntain — Calcutta Mercy — The Buntains—some of my missionary heroes—giving everything for the Gospel in India.

One key reason I love my Pentecostal heritage is our unwavering priority of World Missions.

From my earliest memories, I have been around missionaries. We have hosted them, eaten with them, traveled with them… funded them…

Missions giving is not unique to the Pentecostal tradition by any means, but it has been a central and unwavering part of our history, identity, and practice since the beginning.

I remember as a child in 2nd or 3rd grade raising a thousand dollars for missions over the course of the year. In my young mind, that was like a million dollars. For many kids, it kind of is.

From an early age, my parents and pastors showed me the importance of funding and praying for the advancement of the Gospel in the uttermost parts of the world. Teaching me to give abundantly beyond a tithe at an early age is probably why I am unable to say skip missions offerings. It has always been part of my walk with Jesus, giving to his mission.

As an adult, I am weak during missions services. I cannot help but give. I hear a need and instantly feel the Holy Spirit moving on my heart to give. This comes not out of obligation or guilt, but rather a lifelong practice of sensitivity to the heart of the Holy Spirit and a desire to fulfill the Great Commission.

I’ve been blessed to have this practice instilled into me at a young age. I have been even further blessed to have a wife who knows my soft heart for missions. Every missions offering, she simply redirects my question of “How much do you want to give?” back onto me. In her love and humility, she graciously allows me to give without fear, worry, or debate about our gift.

I do not think if I had not been taught from a young age that missions giving was essential for my spiritual walk that I would give the way I do today. Going from giving $1000 one year as a kid to personally supporting 5 missionaries on a monthly basis only happens because I was shown to have a generous heart to see the world come to know Jesus.

There is a huge need. Our giving increases every year, but it’s still not enough. More and more people are in need of a missionary to tell them the good news of Jesus Christ.

I hope my story helps you hear from the Holy Spirit the call to invest in World Missions!

Be like me as I follow those generous leaders before me… support a new missionary today, even if it’s a few dollars a month. (I added a new one this past week. It is so exciting supporting my classmates in school who are new missionaries across the world!)