So Much To Thank God For
Dear Friends and Family,
We thank you for taking time to read our year-end news – it means so much to us! We were grateful to see many of our Chicago friends in September and then last week for a few days after Thanksgiving. You are gracious to make time to stay connected when we come and we were blessed!
We've had significant progress this year with:
- Board Development with excellent facilitation
- New projects being pursued in China and further developed in India
- New staff additions (read below for the details)
- Transition in leadership with our strategic Women to Women Ministry Training
- Funding for our “More Than A Mile Deep” Africa Training System
“We are doing something we are really excited about,” David told a friend recently who asked over a cup of coffee, what his thinking was concerning retirement. Nancy and I feel that retirement, at its best, should be the opportunity to do something you have always wanted to do. But, if you are already doing that, then why look for something different? God has given us a very strategic part in His kingdom to equip church leaders with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed in leading others to the transformed life Christ offers. This is the critical bottleneck in the Great Commission . . . not bringing people to an initial decision to follow Christ, not gathering converts into churches, but providing trained leaders who can shepherd those churches, full of new believers, in the manner Christ commanded.
Here are some quick snapshots of key leaders we have added to the Entrust team. We feel this represents some great progress for our ministry! We knew one of our challenges was to fill certain key leadership positions within our organization. Frankly, we had no idea where these leaders could come from. As it turned out some came from within the organization and some from outside. Here are just four examples!
“If you ask me to do development I will quit!” That was what Carol, one of our staff members, told David early on. He was sorely tempted, however, since before coming to us she had superb success in development, but she burned out in the process. One of David’s prime responsibilities is raising funds for the organization (in addition to raising personal support, which many of you contribute to). So guess who is now our Development Director (and happily so!)? And God did the asking . . . which is always the best way. It is a privilege to team with Carol Crom, our gifted Director of Development at Entrust.
“Mothers, don’t let your babies grow up to be missionaries . . .” is not exactly the way Waylon and Willie sang the song nor is it quite what you expect to hear from someone charged with recruiting for Entrust. But Entrust’s new VP of Mission Mobilization is Dwight Ekholm, a guitar/banjo player from Campus Crusade’s New Folk/Armageddon days now also a veteran missionary whose earned doctorate seems to give him a license to quote Bob Dylan whenever he speaks. Among the wonderful set of tools he utilizes, in recruiting new staff, is this creative tongue-in-cheek parody of all the reasons a parent might try to dissuade a son or daughter from becoming a missionary
When a Swiss unbeliever enrolls in a linguistics class full of missionaries, you can guess what might happen. He will either develop skin like a rhinoceros or succumb to the incessant efforts of his classmates. Ruedi’s interest was linguistics and little did he know that he would marry one of those classmates (from California) and become a missionary himself. Ruedi and Jenny Giezendanner come from Wycliffe Swiss to Entrust as VP of Innovation (a position they fill jointly). They bring a great deal of expertise having served in Switzerland, Germany, Cameroon, Morocco, Dallas, Indonesia, Malaysia and India. Their assignment will be to ensure Entrust is using the finest educational methodology appropriate to the distinctive needs of each culture.
We thought we were meeting about a China partnership, but God wanted us to meet our future HR Director. God had multi-purposes in our dinner together with Jon and Peggy Sperling. Our great need was for an HR director and I was resigned to the possibility of having to hire someone who would essentially learn on the job. While talking about China in a Chinese restaurant (where else) we find the spouse of our eventual partner is a trained HR person seeking a meaningful position where he can bring glory to God. God’s plan is great and we praise Him for His provision!
We thank the Lord and we thank you,
David and Nancy.
David and Nancy.
P.S. – Please check out David’s articles, including his most recent one – “Busy Mind, Frantic Heart, What Happened to Jesus?” on our ministry website www.entrust4.org.
All Gifts Should be Sent
to:
Entrust
P.O. Box 25520
Colorado Springs, CO 80936
719.622.1980
For online gifts click on this link:
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