Financial and Ministry
Information 2004

Year Summary Information for Missionary David R Cox
Missionary to Mexico City, Mexico

Our Income (Business and Personal)
Our Supporter Base - Who sends us support?
Our Budget and Support level - Where does the money goes?
Our Activities and Ministry - What we do with your donations?
Our Needs - Non-Financial Things that you can help us with.
Our Projects - Projects we are currently working on.
We are not making it very well financially (our plans)

Our Income (Business and Personal) for 2004

• HOME CHURCH - We receive almost all of our income through Ferndale Baptist Church, our home and sponsoring church. When we travel in the US visiting churches we usually receive love offerings made out directly to us or they send it through Ferndale.

• WE ARE A BUSINESS - We are a business, both actually and for purposes of income taxes. When you see how much money we take in, you need to look at the bottom line, not the gross taken in, but what we made after taxes. I believe I had somewhere around $10 in interest on my checking and saving accounts. All retirement funds are reinvested so I had no income to declare this year on any of that. We own no house, no property except for our vehicle.
  
  We take all the legitimate IRS business expenses for our "business" that the IRS allows (usually we do claim all business expenses in some years I do not count all the expenses so that we can pay a little more into Social Security on the hope that we will have some high years to boast what our payout will be through Social Security in retirement). These expenses listed below are what I enter in on my 2004 Taxes (Schedule C).
   

Notes - 2004 Rent - $750/month, $9000 for year. Tax Liability - $2,861.10. Balance $8388.07 ($699/month income). Not that I could not save for our tax liability this year and had to take money out of retirement in order to just pay our taxes owed.

Our Supporter Base - Who sends us support?

• Our Supporter Base - We have only 23 churches that regularly support us, and about 10 individuals that regularly or irregularly support us (some give occasionally, once a year, some years they do not give anything). We also have two Sunday School classes that give us a combined support of $35/month.

• These days most missionaries are making around $5000/month and have close to 100 supporting churches, many getting much more income than that because they have a "work fund" which is calculated apart from their regular monthly personal support so as to report to churches a low support level. We have no work fund other than the tithes and offerings of our church (where our own tithes and offerings go) and our regular income reported in the above chart. We do give some money outside of our local church offerings because as a Pastor there are situations where people need help and I cannot ask or do not feel it possible to divulge the confidence people invest in me in telling me situations, so we just give out of our own pocket without passing it through the church, but I count that as an offering above our tithe. Usually when we travel visiting churches in the US, I also try to make it a habit of putting at least $20 in the offering plate of the church I visit for testimony's sake (I consider it poor testimony to not put something into the offering plate when it is passed around. In some churches I have hesitations about doctrine, practice, or something else, and I do not put anything in. This is as God leads me.) I also try to make it a habit to respond to needs of my brethren when I see needs I can meet, and we often give special one time gifts to other missionaries and evangelists and sometimes pastors in poorer churches when God reveals needs to us.

• Money from our Church on the Field - The money the church gives us as a personal salary is reinvested in needs of the church or in ministry expenses (such as meals for our church, literature, handouts at church, or things directly related to my ministry) and is not included in any of the above considerations. I consider it more an expense account which I use for church business expenses.

• Church Statistics - Our US Supporters averaged $94/month each, for a total of $2176/month normal Gross Income support. We have 23 regular church donors, of them 19 are Baptist churches, 3 are Bible churches, and one is a Community Church (and 2 Sunday School classes). The largest church donor is my home church, Ferndale Baptist Church, which allows individuals to specific offerings over their tithes toward missionaries, and their support averaged $430/month. After them, the next largest supporting church gives $200/month (two different churches give this amount) and the least monthly support coming from a local church is $6/month (with several in the $15, $20, and $30 dollar range).

• Individual Statistics - They average $43/month each, total of $431/month. The largest individual monthly regular donor gives $125/month, and the least (regular) individual donor gives $5 a month (several give $10).

• Total Statistics - We have an actual support income (by commitment shown by faithful monthly giving) of $2,592/month ($31,104/year), and this year we actually received $34, 024.65 or averaging $2,835 a month Gross, - $1182 Monthly Business Expenses = $1653 Net income monthly.

• Monthly Income - 2004
    Jan  $3,159,    Feb $3,310,        Mar $2,667,
    Apr  $2,513,    May $2,436,       Jun $2,116,
    Jul   $3,498,    Aug $2,103,       Sep $2,760,
    Oct  $3,746,    Nov $2,239,       Dec $3,474.
  Total Income 2004 - $34,024/ $2,835 a month.

• Highest Monthly Income - Oct $3,746 (includes a one time gift of $1000).

• Lowest Monthly Income - Aug $2103.
  Note that half of the churches and individuals do not give monthly but every two or three months, and as these months that they give do not always coincide or are distributed equally, then there is sometimes a large difference between one month and another. To add to this, some months a church cuts a check and mails it to Ferndale but it arrives after the cut off for that month (usually the end of the month) so it goes into the next month. Some individuals and churches also stop without warning for sometimes 4 to 8 months and then start up again (usually not catching up what they missed). We have several this year that are monthly donors that all of a sudden have stopped giving for a long stretch.
  
  Welcome to the life of faith! We do not feel that it is ethically correct to write and ask why and of course never to rebuke some donor for not giving. They have financial problems and as God moves their hearts and fills their pocketbooks, they will begin again. Usually they do begin again, and if they definitely drop our support they usually write and tell us that at least, and sometimes why they are dropping it (economic problems, church dissolving, new pastor, etc).

Our Budget and Support level - Where does the money goes?

• I wish I could honestly say that we live by a strict budget, but we don't. We have no idea of what our monthly income will be. The rule is, if you have more than normal, you better tuck it away for when you have less than normal.

• We have worked out a proposed monthly budget (which I use to calculate and base our needed monthly support). Go here (Monthly Budget) to see it. This explains our "normal" expenses and how much I am estimating for each item and why.

• We are not making it very well financially - After reviewing our budget page and comparing it with the above summary information, you will conclude with us that we are not making it on what we are actually getting. Our after-business-expenses income is around $1650/month, from that we have a $250 tax liability that is impossible to get out of, a $165 tithe obligation, $700 rent, and $500 food bill. Between those few things, we are have used up our income completely. This year (2004) I had to withdraw retirement money to pay our tax liability. Go here to see what our plans are about this.

Our Activities and Ministry - What we do with your donations?

Our Main Ministry - is Church Planting and evangelism. See David Cox - My Philosophy of Missions

2004 Remarks

Focus of our Church - We have tried to focus on giving good biblical content in the sermons and praying for and working with the people God has given us so that they grow spiritually and they are capacitated to do the work of the ministry. We also have tried to keep a constant emphasis on evangelism.

Evangelism - Since we have returned in 2003, we have distributed about 8,000 24 page booklets on salvation that I wrote and printed. We also have distributed probably around 20,000 God's Simple Plan of Salvation, mostly in the markets. We have also talked to people besides that.

Attendance over the past year - Our new church location has helped us have a steady stream of visitors. Unfortunately not many have stayed. We have had several come from other churches that have later left us. One couple wanted a more "lively" service (with electric guitars and drums and such) and I explained why we don't go that route and they left after 3 months. Others have come because of the distance to their regular church, but once they came for several Sundays, they miraculously got rides and attention by their church. Some came but we feel they were unsaved. Usually I try to get them aside after church (I invite them to Sunday lunch in a restaurant) to witness to them individually or talk with them after the service. Some have accepted the Lord with me. I can only report what they say.

Personally, I do not count it a success unless the person accepts the Lord and decides to live accordingly, getting publicly baptized and then becoming an active member and participant in our local church or some other Fundamental local church.

Over all we have about 40 regular people if they all come at the same time. We have had church meals with around that number. We normally run in the mid twenties on Sundays. A lot of them have problems with spiritual growth and without hearing the preaching of the Word, they will probably not grow.

Building - God provided us with a building in June of 2004 (loaned rent free), so we have been trying to make that as effective as possible, painting, plastering walls, planting grass and flowers and installing electricity. We still have a tremendous amount to do, but our few people are helping out.

Thursday Prayer Services - Living in Mexico City is difficult to describe. Most people start work between 8AM and 11AM, and get off between 4PM up to 9PM. One of our families leaves work at 9:30PM and gets home around 10:30PM. This makes it impossible to have a meeting midweek with few families who work these kinds of schedules. We decided to go to a schedule with no Sunday School, start at 11AM Sunday morning and go through 1:30 or 2 PM Sunday afternoon, and a 5PM evening service. We took about 20-30 minutes each Sunday morning to take prayer requests and several pray for them. Starting in 2005 we have started Thursday 7:00 PM prayer services.

Baptisms - We were happy to have baptisms this year and several of our people were baptized. We still have several that need to be baptized (some children), and we are hoping that this new year we will have our own baptistry.

Abdiel and our first church plant - We are happy that we were able to help Pastor Abdiel this year with his church in several ways (preachers class, DVBS, etc). We also had a summer team and went out with them door to door canvassing for the DVBS and the church services.

Raul and His leadership - We have great hopes for Raul that God will call him into the ministry. He has personally sacrificed a lot over this past year, and we have given him several chances to preach, and he is slowly getting interested and involved in that. Please pray for them.

SPIRITUAL BATTLES

I want to share with you some of the spiritual battles that we are waging in our church with some of our church people. These are issues that I feel our people are battling with, sometimes in their own lives and families, and sometimes even though they do not personally believe in a wrong way, there are influences trying to persuade them to hold erroneous positions.

• Women who dominate their husbands and run their families in place of submitting to their husbands.

• Lack of priority in spiritual things, most notably seen in (1) lack of attention and energy in the things of the Lord, (2) lack of priority of God and His work in their lives (slack church attendance, arriving late, not witnessing, not reading and meditating on God's word, etc), (3) lack of giving God His proper place in their economic lives, (4) lack of taking opportunities to witness, invite to church, and influence family and friends for God.

• Young people (teens and children) that are rowdy, impatient, and uncontrolled (partly the kids fault, partly parents who do not discipline biblically).

BLESSINGS

• New house which is much better that what we have had for the past two years.

• A building for our church to meet in.

• Faithfulness of two families on Thursday night prayer meeting.

• Saturday church cleanup - families who volunteer and want to do something for the Lord.

• Saturday evangelism - various interested church members who come faithfully.

Our Needs (Non-Financial) that you can pray with us for.

• More fruit from our evangelism efforts. Fruit that remains.

• Not losing people to other groups.

• Visitors that return after several visits to our church.

• Real work of God in the hearts of our people so that they truly understand salvation and live it. We want to see all our members very actively involved in the work of the Lord and producing spiritual fruit worthy of salvation in their lives constantly.

• More solid Christian families, parents that are examples and that discipline and love their children, fathers who work and provide for their families, couples that love each other, mothers who act like godly Christian mothers and wives should act.

• Single godly men for the many single women in our church.

Our Projects - Projects we are currently working on.

Our Building - We are still trying to slowly improve the building we are using. We need Sunday School rooms as well as real plumbing. At present we just have a direct connect to the street which is fine if there is water from the street. Usually there is a trickle. Most people down here put in a storage tank for water (high for pressure) with a pump and lower one under the ground (to collect water). As such it is against the law to connect a pump to the water from the street. We also need electricity in our make shift Sunday School room. We also want to build our own baptistry.

Books - I am still writing short books on different subjects. I am trying to find time to write these things and it is getting more and more difficult with teaching school to my kids. It has been my desire for several years now to buy a color laser printer to print these books myself. I think this is the cheapest route in the long run, few (under 1,000) copies and many titles. A color laser printer costs around $500.

Evangelism - I want to rewrite a salvation booklet (about 12 pages) and print up 10,000 of them. We want to visit every house in our area (of the church) out to where we live. It is about 7 miles out and there are literally millions of people in this area. We need money to actually print this literature.

Preacher's Class - It is my desire to also have a preacher's class. As time goes on we have more contacts with preacher boys, and it would be nice to teach them some things like making a sermon outline, principles of interpretation of the Scriptures, a proper and correct philosophy of the ministry, etc.

We are not making it very well financially (our plans)

Every year it seems like it is the same thing. I see our income, I see our outgo, and it just does not add up. I hope that next year things will be better, but they get worse instead. The normal thing to do (that we do) is to wait and hope and pray for the best, and if things get too bad, then we have to go back to the US for more deputation. (Furlough would imply rest and just visiting our supporting churches but since 1986, I think I have had one single year of "furlough", the rest was running from border to border, coast to coast just to keep up with what need support we need.)

At this point, furlough is getting harder and harder as literally thousands of missionaries are running around the US raising funds from the limited churches that are involved and interested in missions. Unfortunately many missionaries spend great sums of money to raise money, and they do not have any problems with spending more time in the US raising money than on the field working.  I do. I want to stay on the field and in "the work".

The last deputation time we were in the states (2000-2002), a new "phenomena" has appeared on the missions scene. Now US based ministries are now calling themselves "missionaries" and are putting a full court press for gaining us "foreign missionaries" for these limited funds. For example, a large church (1000 people) with church school in a major city had two of their "staff" (graphic artists) branch off into their "own" ministry. They do graphical artist work for Christian ministries. They were in a missions conference raising $4000/month for each of them. They still remain on church staff, and most of their work is doing promotional brochures and advertising for this church and school. I asked about this fellow (I know him personally) about helping me with a prayer card and he said that they still charge others (the only freebies is for their own church work).

In another missions conference I met a full time fund raiser for a small church with a Bible and tract printing ministry. This church has 5 full time "fund raisers" in different areas of the country, besides a full staff in the print shop of their church. Consider each of the fund raisers has about $4000/month coming in, they need around $20,000/month just to cover the salaries of these fund raisers that run between mission conferences and church meetings. I asked him about getting free Spanish Bibles and tracts for our ministry and he said that he would try to find the name of the missionary in South America that I would need to get in contact with to get them. I would have to pay shipping of course. They give their literature to missionaries on a first basis to those who help with their expenses above shipping.

I have run across probably a half dozen such printing ministries ("free to the missionary") but if you are not tight in their group, you get nothing. One missionary in the border between Mexico and Texas I ran down trying to get free tracts and Bibles in Spanish, and he said that he is busy and I would have to try next week (this was Tuesday). He lives there and I am in Texas all of 2 days when I come up. He said he could give me a small box perhaps, but he would have to see because all of that is for his own personal ministry just across the border.

These ministries are abounding everywhere, and most churches pump big missions bucks into them. Us poor "foreign missionaries" simply have to pay local printers to print what we need. We are in direct competition from these "ministries" and it is ever more difficult to get a meeting and worse to get support. Mostly the large churches which give hundreds of dollars to each missionary each month usually are supporting brother so-and-so's printing ministry (personal friend). Our experience is that the small country church giving $50 or $30 a month are the ones who don't fall so easily to this stuff.

As such, if we go back to the US for a year furlough, it is generally a wasted time anymore. Normally I cannot book meetings from Mexico, and once I start booking meetings, it is 6 months in advance of when the meetings are. By January most pastors have their missions calendar filled up. I have wanted to return to the US for 1-2 months each year, but that hinges on getting two months full of meetings and likewise that is impossible from Mexico.

To return on furlough you really need two years. By the second year you are finally getting good meetings that bring in support.

Our other problem is that of the small number of churches that we can get meetings with. Many have no funds. Other churches are closed to us because many churches have a very narrow group of mission boards they support and allow their missionaries to come from. (A particular board, a particular school they follow, or a fellowship) We have gone the mission board route before, and I feel it is just not biblical. (Go here to read what I have to say about this.) In the end, I do not feel it is justified or biblical. We will not go back under a mission board, any mission board, the Lord willing. I see this as just another gimmick to get money out of missionaries on the fields' pockets. Why do we need a million dollar home missions office when a church office will work and is free? Go figure. Somebody has a swelled head and has to glorify himself.

Please note that most acutely, we are needing a new vehicle. Our present 1996 Lumina has been leaking transmission oil for 2 years now. I had a new transmission (rebuilt) in 2002. I do not want to put more money into this vehicle but get something else. We have $500 which a church donated for this purpose so far. We also need to replace the $3000 I took out of retirement to pay my 2004 tax liability, not to mention putting some more money into retirement each year. We have not put anything into retirement since 1999.

We are praying that our only other two sources of solving this problem of finances produces something. These other two sources are (1) our church on the field grows and helps us more financially, and (2) our presently supporting churches raise their support for us.

Visits: