. . . and certainly humbled by the people we are privileged to work with. What a joy to be part of this. Here are some quick glimpses.
— Dark, handsome and mature beyond his years . . . He was recounting a story as hair-raising as any novel, the difference being that the dangers were not fiction. Now, a highly esteemed Entrust staff trainer, he first came to us as a refugee fleeing for his life, leaving behind a prosperous business, his family and the world he knew only to find the transformation and new life only Christ can offer. Rather than chase after the immigrant’s dream of life in the West, he is pursuing his dream of a ministry of transformation to his own people (I am intentionally vague to protect him against the political realities of an anti-Christian government. The dangers remain for his family and the people who are flocking to Christ and meet for worship under penalty of death in his home country.)
— “This is a very intimidating group of women!” That was Nancy’s first thought as each person in the group introduced themselves. On her right a gifted counselor, on the left an accomplished ministry leader in a mega-church, next to her a seminary graduate . . . just to name a few. “Am I over my head taking on this training experience?” she wondered. That thought was soon forgotten as there developed an atmosphere of intimacy and mutual support as ten women and two facilitators examined their own walk with Christ while learning to facilitate the training process and help one other sharpen their skills -iron sharpening iron in the process of transformation Christ wants to lead us all through.
But Christ is More than Adequate . . .
— “Certainly, I was anxious!” It was my first time to address 120 multitalented and broadly experienced Entrust staff and stakeholders. Kind of like the opening tip off of a basketball game (way back when). There is something wrong if you don’t have that welcome feeling of adrenaline surging through your body. But it wasn’t all about speaking. In an atmosphere of worship, prayer and the study of God’s Word, we had meetings to problem solve and clarify vision. A multitude of conversations to ensure communication flow from the field to the home office. Times to encourage, times to listen, times to celebrate and commiserate. Sometimes counsel was needed. Then there was the traditional fun night where I was privileged to slick my hair back and with the bass part for a 50’s style group, The Monotones, singing “At the Hop!” It was exhilarating for us to see ourselves filling a role God had so obviously prepared us for.
“Wherever we go, Entrust wants to leave behind movements of transformation.”
What does that look like? Most of the time it is searching out how God is moving in a particular place and then strategically coming alongside the leaders to equip them and provide for them a means of multiplying themselves to equip others.
I am continually reminded that the role of a missionary has changed dramatically since the day my mother and father first went to Africa as pioneer missionaries. Now, more a partnership than ever before, in most places it is nationals who do the work of the ministry, but missionaries bring desperately needed training tools and capacity building. What makes Entrust distinctive is that we make the extra effort to understand the unique demands of each cultural context so we can develop tools that equip leaders to address those specific needs. That is how transformation happens.
Here are some examples:
Hostile locations: We still find ourselves working in stressful locations. Entrust began working behind the Iron Curtain. Today, as we spread across the world, we find that The Adversary is still trying to make things difficult for the church - yet Jesus’ promise to Peter still holds in that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against His church. Our refugee turned missionary is only one example. I recently led a team to India to initiate an exciting new partnership.
Targeting the state of Orissa, which was in the news not long ago because of the persecution of Christians, we anticipate 3000 converts in this next year alone. Entrust is partnering with over 100 indigenous ministries to train them in transformational ministry that brings community health education, cooperative financial principles, medical education and healing ministries to show Christ’s love to unreached villages. We are seeing movements of transformation taking place through these rapidly growing house churches. We are currently developing a biblical discipling process, for them, that is not dependent on print and can be fully utilized in that semi-literate, oral culture.
Endemic Poverty and HIV: Two huge challenges in Africa are a pervasive cycle of poverty and the scourge of HIV. Most pastor training programs, coming from the West, do not show how the Bible speaks to such issues. Entrust training not only shows how God’s Word addresses these issues, but requires students, while still in the course, to develop hands-on skills. Graduates will have real-world experience in confronting issues that enslave Christians along with others such as animism, oppression of women, etc.
Equipping Other Mission Organizations: There may be no better way for Entrust to multiply our impact for Christ than to equip missionaries from other mission organizations. Such as:
• Christian Missionary Alliance
• Barnabas
• Christian Reformed Mission
• East-West International Ministries
• GEM - Greater Europe Mission
• iAlethia,
• New Tribes
• Open Doors
• Operation Mobilization
• Pioneers
• SEND International
• SEND Canada
• Teach Beyond
• The Mission Source
• World Team
Women: For too long women have been a neglected resource for the church around the world. Nancy’s experience was part of this ministry where she serves on the leadership team. Entrust wants to multiply this transformational experience for women across the globe. These mission organizations come to us to learn how to equip women in a scalable manner by facilitating women to train other women. Entrust has refined this process over our 30 years of ministry and has learned how to adapt it in different cultural settings.
Men: We are responding to the growing need for Entrust to provide similar men’s training. We are shifting some of our resources to train other missions and strategically explore how to refine our tools and better equip men as lay leaders for the church in changing societies around the world. Recently, Entrust initiated men’s training for New Tribes missionaries, as well as for some leaders of the Centers for Church Based Training in Dallas. Together we seek God’s leading as to how we can partner for Kingdom ministry.
We will be in the Chicago area between July 24 – August 15 and we are eager to see you! We’ll call and let you know by email if there are any group gatherings – We are still scheduling these! - David & Nancy
Please send checks to:
Entrust
PO Box 25520
Colorado Springs, CO 80936
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India was very fruitful for the 13 staff on this fact finding mission. It is estimated that church growth outstrips the capacity of the seminaries to train Christian leaders in India by a million pastors (something we learned from our study before going—Breaking Tradition to Accomplish VISION—Gupta and Lingenfelter. To prepare us to conduct focus groups and meetings with area church leaders, we had extensive orientation and workshops. Then our team led Church Leadership Training over a two-day period, dividing the sixty men and women into small groups for more targeted instruction. 
