Stumbled into an interesting post on the matter.  Here is a blurb…

… I remember way too much fund-raising visiting churches that were excited about giving a couple of thousand dollar a year. And some of them had the message board with the multiple missionaries. But, do the division in your head. A missionary with a full travel and ministry budget can easily cost $60,000 to $100,000 per year. That means that at $2,000 per congregation, one would have to visit 30 to 50 congregations, or a whole year of fund-raising, because most congregations want you there on a Sunday. That happened to me on all three of our fund-raising trips. I used to envy the two missionaries in our organization who had 10 or so churches footing their entire support.

Now think about it a different way. What if those medium-sized churches with multiple missionaries cut it down to just a couple of missionaries? They would then be able to give some significant support to that missionary family and shorten the time that the missionary parent had to spend away from his/her children. Imagine investing $15,000 to $20,000 on just one missionary. Why with just five churches of that type, a missionary family could spend most of their furlough together and recouping energy for their next stint overseas.

You see, theoretically, furlough is a time for a missionary to unwind from the high stress of living in another culture, preaching a message that may not be either common or popular. It is a time to reconnect with family to re-establish roots. It can also be a time to do some studying and to catch up with the latest in missiological or other thought. It may be that the missionary realizes that they lacked some training that they need before they go back. But, all too often, the missionary ends up not having the opportunity to either rest or to prepare for the next stint overseas. Rather, they are expected to become a traveling circus and put on a show every Sunday. Since a congregation only sees them one or two days, they do not realize that the missionary is going to be doing the same thing over and over and over for a year, with, perhaps, little time for themselves or their family. (Source and the rest of the post.)

Personally I think he is on to something.  I also think that supporting fewer missionaries makes it easier for the typical church member to pray for missions and missionaries as well as partner with the ministry.  Thoughts?