Right before Christmas of XXXX a certain international mission Administratium cut subsidies to the mission "fields", which caused the mission to fire personnel. In XXXXX the mission cut the work week to four days, closing the mission office on Friday, and cut all local hire staff salaries by 20%. Rather than support and encourage the decision to "down-size" the mission as a step in the right direction, and give the local church organization more responsibility for their own work, there was fear, hand-wringing, tears, and trembling.
As far as we can see, the budget cut caused no negative effect on the "outreach" of the mission. Remember the Peter Principle: Work takes up as much time as there is to accomplish it.
UPDATE A YEAR LATER: During the "cutting" one of the career missionaries was terminated. The reason, of course, the "budget cut." Yet, in September another missionary couple was dispatched to the "mission field." What happened was that the "budget cut" caused "mission-minded" supporters in the sending country to form an independent mission society. The society ear-marked a special offering toward the support of this new arrival. Probably the talk of cutting "missions" caused more donors to donate more. Who knows? Will the cutters replace the cuttees if the budget no longer needs cutting?
When this particular mission began the organizational motto was Mission Smaller – Church Larger. The motto was another way of saying the missionary was to work him/herself out of a job. Everything the mission did should have been given over, as soon a possible, to the church. The mission would have accomplished the goal and would be free to leave, or find a speciality nook, such as theological education, for its continued presence.
Rarely, if ever, does a heavily funded US mission accomplish the task of establishing a viable local church organization. The organization never reaches it's goal. And, as a result, the mission stays put. The mission turns into an institution, feeding and maintaining itself. New mission personnel arrive, no institutional "memory" exists, the wheel is reinvented. The "farmer" plants and plants and never harvests a crop. If you know of an exception, let me know. There are places such as Panama, Venezuela, Ghana, you name it, where the mission stays on and on. Panama, for instance, has had the presence of a Lutheran mission since 1937 years. Result: BIG MISSION, small church.