Yes, we had a fire . . .
Waldo Canyon Fire - most destructive in Colorado history.
Flames up to 100 ft. tall.
Fanned by winds up to 65 mph.
An official said, "This is as serious as it gets."
A number of Entrust staff evacuated, but none lost homes. We know of seven homes lost to Navigators staff alone.
That fire is contained, but there is no stopping what God is doing around the world!!!
Nancy and I want to thank you for your prayers and expressions of concern. It is hard to concentrate under threat of evacuation, making lists of what to grab at the last minute, if a huge fireball starts heading for your home (where you already are storing what other people grabbed when they were on the evacuation list). A big distraction for about a week, but we are so glad to be back to total focus on the ministry God has called us to.
As we told friends recently, we have never been more enthusiastic about what God is doing than we are now. It seems like things are coming together on many fronts, with some strategic staff additions, fresh partner opportunities and a few initiatives that have required a lot of energy to get started, which are now picking up speed.
As we told friends recently, we have never been more enthusiastic about what God is doing than we are now. It seems like things are coming together on many fronts, with some strategic staff additions, fresh partner opportunities and a few initiatives that have required a lot of energy to get started, which are now picking up speed.
Yes, some exciting things are happening for the ministry. God is bringing some very strategic people who are excited about Entrust’s particular vision for attacking the greatest bottleneck to winning the world . . . trained church leaders.
On the next page, I have tried to describe how Entrust does it differently and why we feel so strongly, about what we do. (See "Let me tell you what excites us . . .")
We so appreciate your faithful support. We have made some wonderful gains in our support since coming here. For that, we praise God. In October, it will be three years.
Praise Notes. We thank God for:
- How Africans are embracing More than a Mile Deep (MMD), our "written for Africans by Africans" accredited leadership training program as it continues development.
- Our exciting new China partnership with Global Partners in Hope (http://globalpartnersinhope.org).
- New additional senior leadership joining Entrust (soon to be announced).
- Our new, very capable Human Resources Director, Jon Sperling.
- Giving to Entrust staff and Operational Funds are up significantly over last year!
- Nancy and Women-to-Women Ministry Training leadership team seeing extensive multiplication in equipping other missions.
- Increased favor with significant foundations for funding some of the above ministries.
Our Prayer Requests:
- Stamina for heavy responsibilities and demands of travel
- Protecting personal boundaries so we don’t forget to have fun while we work hard
- Our personal walk with the Lord
- Wisdom in every area – including strategy, team building, problem solving
- Continuing the trend in new staff additions and fresh recruits
- God would lead additional partners to our personal support team
Let me tell you what makes us excited about leading this ministry of Entrust.
We work in leadership training for which there is an abundant, well-documented need in the developing world. That’s why just about every mission (other than relief agencies), do some form of leadership training.
What makes us different from so many is that we take the time to listen and learn what is needed in each particular culture we work in. Instead of a “one size fits all” approach where we take all the accumulated knowledge the church believes essential in the West and dump it on the “have nots” around the world, we take the time to find out what they already know (which often surprises us).
Then we watch, listen and finally ask lots of questions to find out what they really need to know. Often they have little need for what the West would say is most important for leadership training. Just as often, the knowledge and skills they may need most are not even addressed in the West and we must create the training together.
This is what we do in sub-Saharan Africa, India, Central Asia and the Middle East, in Eastern Europe (where we have been for over 30 years), and beginning now in China.
