He'll probably manage to get out on bail. I'm sure he still has some supporters among the congregation that would vouch for him and give him a place to stay.
I have a question about his trips to Kazakhstan. How common is it for a church to sponsor only one person on a short term mission trip? I'm a Baptist and have seen lots of mission trips take place, but none of the short term trips have been just one person. There is always a team of people that goes.
While it's not as common as a full team (of whatever size - even just three or four, well, two as well, but three or four would typically be more the low end up to dozens) it's certainly not something that doesn't happen with some regularity.
I'd say more often than not it's a pastor, typically the missions pastor or senior pastor, and especially if going to visit someone or someones who actually themselves are missionaries (nearly always at least relatively long term) or nationals who essentially serve as missionaries or have a ministry in their own countries or neighboring or something.
But you also see it with others, especially if they have a particular gifting or training or background that would assist either people on the field long-term or, again, nationals. For instance going to provide counseling for missionaries so sending a pastoral counselor, or a children's ministry person going to help had up a VBS sort of thing, or one who is going to help provide a retreat for missionaries or..well, the list could go on.
All of that is far more common in churches that place a decent amount of emphasis on missions. Whether they prioritize it as something they help financially support pretty heavily, or by sending those from their own church overseas somewhere long term, etc.
And then you definitely have a good number who go over on their own as lay people, essentially, whether officially (representing a particular church perhaps, filling a need that someone - organization, church, missionaries on the ground, whatever - know is a need you might be a fit to assist with or provide training or encouragement or such.
In addition to those, you also have the ones who have their own contacts for whatever reason - friends, family, etc., who may not have any affiliation whatsoever to their own church. Or those who go alone but partner with an organization/ministry on the field vs. one their own church might have an affiliation with.
Take World Relief, for instance - since that's a pretty widely known organization - knows you could train their folks in a particular place on _____ (fill in the blank w/ whatever) because you've written a book on it, or you've previously worked in a capacity that would equip you to meet a particular need on a short-term basis (even just speaking at a retreat for a day or two so their own people can be ministered to, not doing all the ministering all the time) Or if your brother was a missionary pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship and he knew you knew a lot about homeschooling and shared that w/ others wherever he was serving, and they asked (or you offered) to go out and consult w/ families about schooling needs.
If you're going completely solo, it's likely a church might offer prayer support, but typically they won't help with the financial side (as often you don't have much accountability in terms of how your time was really spent, etc.) - and thus, very rarely something that can include raising support for it as in other cases. That means no tax deductible gifts, which then sometimes limits the willingness of others to help provide financial assitance.
If you're going in a slightly more official capacity - church asking you to go to serve missionaries from your own church overseas, or b/c an organization asked you, etc. Then it's far more likely they'll not only give prayer support, put it in the bulletin (like in this case) and possibly publicly be able to raise support (meaning also then tax deductible), etc.
I've gone totally alone and paid everything out of pocket, alone w/ no backing but w/ some who asked for me to let them help with some of that, alone at the request of an organization, alone at the request of missionaries I knew there, alone at the request of friends/family who knew I had a particular gifting, and alone as a church staff person.
Plus I was overseas longer term (so support raised through the organization, while the church also heavily supported me - with prayer and with a good bit of the financial support needed - and of course the emotional support also)
So I've seen a lot of sides to it - both from my own experiences and just a number of other factors/ties/connections in my life.
Hope that helps?
