A major reason the founders of the Assemblies of God organized in 1914 was to do together what we can’t do apart. One of the purposes of our Foreign Missions outreach remains today as when the Holy Spirit raised up this Fellowship 90 years ago — to provide the long reach that spans the distance between responsive hearts and desperate deeds.

We can be most effective at touching people with compassion because we have first planted the church. Please read our mission statement on this website. Ours is a comprehensive mission. The church doesn’t just meet physical needs but spiritual needs as well. The most efficient means we have of administering relief is our worldwide Assemblies of God church family, a network of more than 250,000 local churches in 200 countries and territories. Before disaster strikes, the local church is there ready to serve. And after the headlines fade and other relief agencies head home, the local church remains, to become a spiritual family for those reached during the crisis.

Disasters can be opportunities for American Christians to hold up the hands of our fellow-believers overseas, enabling them to touch needy people. American churches provided the touch by giving. Our Assemblies of God missionary family provided the reach by connecting the givers, with the need.

When calamities strike around the world, the Assemblies of God is there—with the compassion of Christ—to offer help to suffering men, women and children.

Our missionaries and national churches are already in place in troubled regions throughout the world.  So, in times of crisis, our missionary family and fraternal fellowships are the most efficient means of distributing relief and providing medical care.  In addition, we have the opportunity—and the obligation—to help those in our spiritual family who are suffering.

Our missionaries’ and churches’ response demonstrates how, under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, through united action we can reach and touch the needy in our world.

Our mission is to enter into our Lord’s work of “bringing many sons to glory.”[1] The truth of God’s Word and the Spirit’s compelling work in our hearts determine that we do missionary work. They also determined how we do it. The issue really comes down to what we believe.

We believe the words of Jesus, “for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”[2] Feeding the poor and caring for the suffering are both kind and Christian. But if we must chose between ministering to physical needs alone or doing so while presenting the gospel and providing a spiritual family where people can grow in Christ, the choice is very clear. Unless the needs of man’s eternal soul are addressed, any effort to meet his physical and social needs is both incomplete and temporary. Historically, many missions organizations have diluted their missionary purpose and ultimately degenerated into agencies of mere social reform at the exclusion of proclaiming the gospel.

In Assemblies of God World Missions, compassion ministry is always integrated with sharing the gospel and establishing the church. Whether giving medical care to the suffering or feeding the hungry, our missionaries always attempt in some way to share the good news about Jesus and connect people with a church.

In some countries, especially in recent years, compassion ministry has even been the means through which doors have opened to the gospel. Compassionate response to disasters and even civil wars have resulted in believers being born into Christ’s eternal kingdom and churches being established.

It is important for people to understand what we do. It is equally important to understand what we do not do. The fourth part of our mission statement says, “We are touching poor and suffering people with the compassion of Jesus Christ and inviting them to become His followers.” Assemblies of God compassion ministries do not merely touch people’s physical needs. They also reach people with the good news about Jesus.