The Greatest Journey?

(At left: a Hubble photograph of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, 3000 light years from earth. I wrote this inspired by photographs like this one, which remind me just how far our Savior came).

Not the inn keeper staggering from a warm bed to unlatch the door for a frantic husband and step-father to be. Not the shepherds, in the dead of night scrambling over rocks, wading streams to find Messiah, swaddled, and lying in a manger. Nor well-traveled gentiles (perhaps with knowledge descending from Daniel, that Magi of old) who, enlightened by a star, persist in paying homage to the Jewish King of Kings.

Not even mother Mary ten days on a donkey to Bethlehem pregnant, pushing against her due date a husband hoping those are false labor pains he’s hearing about. No, none of these! 

From celestial splendor to a prickly bed of hay, from the highest praise of cherubim and seraphim to a barnyard melody of poor cattle lowing. The Creator, inserted into his own creation, to be carefully cradled in a carpenter’s hands. All that way he journeyed seeking, searching ... for you.  

- David Goodman

 

 

Never do we feel more pressed for time, and at the same time, more privileged to be engaged in the continuing journey Christ initiated over 2000 years ago, bringing the news of everlasting peace and joy to those who will embrace this free gift.

Ministry is a team effort and the only reason we can do what we do is because we have a great team behind us who make it possible. We are humbled and grateful for all your encouragement, prayers and support.

As we mentioned last month, this year brought many opportunities to refine Entrust strategies for empowering leaders overseas. Our goal is to release church leaders from an over reliance on Western curriculum which often fails to address their most pressing concerns. With proper tools and training they create contextualized lessons using their own language for teaching other leaders. You should see their excitement when they realize they let go of their learned dependence! Your prayers and support make this happen!

Shown below is the obligatory family album update with Matt, Monika, Olive and Rockwell - Jessica’s wedding (to a great guy, Joey Snyder) Megan and Sophie celebrating Josh’s graduation from Med’ school.

As 2014 comes to a close, we know you might be considering end of year giving options. We are thankful for encouraging offerings for staff and general fund and we are praying for a much needed strong finish. Please remember Entrust general fund as well as Entrust staff around the world who are serving in so many strategic places.

Remember as you celebrate the blessings of Christmas. We have all that because God sent his son on “The Greatest Journey.” It is with that Christ- like quality Entrust staff goes to far off places with the Good News. It is all . . .

Because He came,

David and Nancy

 

 

 

 Thank you for your partnership, prayers and support!

You can also send gifts to:
Entrust, PO Box 25520, Colorado Springs, CO 80936-5520
Attach a note “For David & Nancy Goodman, M125”
Office: (719) 622.1980
Email: DGoodman@Entrust4.org or NGoodman@Entrust4.org
Web: www.Entrust4.org
 

What Gets You Out of Bed in the Morning?

For me, David, it is the minus side of the ledger . . . and I’m not talking money here. 

Perhaps the reason, so long ago, I switched from a Math major to English was that numbers don’t inspire me as much as communication . . . but the minus side of the ledger worries me. You remember Jesus’ parable of the talents? Each one is asked to give account for what they did with what they were given. Each entrusted differently and then asked individually what they accomplished with it. We will all have that conversation with Him individually one day, and personally, that’s a huge reason to get out of bed!

What am I, David, going to have to answer for? (Nancy, of course, is my heart and soul partner in all this).

Need
So many don’t know Jesus! It may seem counterintuitive, but Jesus’ whole purpose of coming to earth was to reach the lost (Jn. 3:16) yet to do that he put most of his energies into training leaders who multiply other leaders, each equipped to guide people into the kingdom. This is what we do at Entrust. My job is to make sure we do this with excellence.

Strategy
I must shepherd Entrust strategy, to carry out our mission of training leaders, which must be developed in multiple contexts where Entrust serves.

Wisdom
A leader’s greatest critic is often himself. That critic can paralyze him. A leader must listen well, think clearly, and act bravely. On a daily basis, I ask God to enable me do all three in the power of his Spirit.

Supply line
Our frontline field staff needs a reliable support framework. Entrust is a team, a network with diversely gifted, interdependent individuals each doing their part. Each one depends on their support team in the States. Our Colorado Springs office channels that support and runs interference for them in the growing number of services and legalities required to keep them on the field.

Priorities
Circumstances push certain issues to the top. Balancing and organizing these priorities remains a constant but necessary challenge as I determine which ones must take precedence.

Recruiting

It has been decades since I slept in a dorm so I had to chuckle when Nancy and I found ourselves staying with students in their dorm rooms as we represented Entrust at the Moody missions conference in October. This is the easiest part of a big learning curve we are overcoming on how to recruit the younger generation. We will be back on campus in a few days representing our newly developed internship program and STEP field experiences. Check them out! (http://www.entrust4.org/involved/serve/internship; http://www.entrust4.org/involved/serve/step

Stakeholders

Since our field staff is supported by personal gifts (as are we – Thank you! Thank you!), one of my challenges is raising funds for Entrust operations. Kind of like your pancreas--most attention goes to the visible parts of our bodies. You might not even realize what your pancreas does until it stops doing it with its usual efficiency. Along with responsibility for our personal budget requirement, I need to raise funds for the Entrust pancreas.
 

Innovating

Most leadership training is written by Westerners. Yet who better to do it than those who work in the culture and understand the challenges? There is not much curriculum written by local leaders overseas. Why? Because they don’t know how, they don’t believe they can and they don’t have access to the tools they need. Our staff has been developing methods for equipping indigenous staff in India to create their own leadership training. The results of the workshops our team has led there are quite exciting. The team is currently continuing their field testing in India. 

 

Equipping

Entrust staff is faithfully serving in Asia, Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia, and India to train leaders. Nancy’s energies, through our women’s training, serves specifically in Latvia, Switzerland, Texas, Asia, Thailand, Ukraine, Colorado and more - regularly providing week-long growth experiences in these locations for nationals, missionaries, and local lay women. Our staff and trained volunteers work with groups of highly committed, like-minded believers who desire to “entrust” all they learn to reliable people – multiplying leaders who will do the same! It is exciting and exhausting!

 

Family

Following an inspiring and successful All-Staff Conference in the Caspian Crescent this spring, we turned our attention to Jessica’s wedding and Josh’s graduation from med school. (I should also mention Matt was wooed by another tech company, advancing his career). They are all amazing adults loving God, loving one another. We thank God for each of them! (Grandchild # 4 due in March J!)

That’s a lot to answer for! Please join me and Nancy in praying for all these areas, and see our list of specific prayer requests, below.

Giving Tuesday

We’d like to ask you to consider one or more of the following opportunities to support the work that Nancy and I, and other Entrust staff do, as we “entrust” the word of God to leaders around the world:

• Commit to pray for Entrust as a whole: its staff, students and areas of work. You can find specific requests at http://www.entrust4.org/involved/pray; scroll to the bottom of the page to find our prayer calendar.
• As God provides and as your finances allow, increase your regular giving, or renew your financial support if you’ve given in the past. This helps us cover the continually increasing costs pertaining to our work with Entrust, especially the great amount of traveling we must do.
• Give a special gift on Tuesday, December 2nd, “Giving Tuesday.” This day has been set aside as a response to Black Friday and Cyber Monday by encouraging people to “give back” to non-profits and charities. Gifts submitted on this day will be matched dollar-for-dollar; your gift goes to your designee and the matching amount goes to Entrust’s operations fund, which is currently running low.
• If you know of anyone who resonates with the work of Entrust and might consider joining our support team, please forward our newsletter to them or ask permission for us to contact them.

We thank God for your friendship, partnership and prayers – we will say it again and again because we mean it! We could not do this without you, your fingerprints are on us and you go with us daily as we serve.

Humbly grateful,

 

David and Nancy

 

Thank you for your partnership, prayers and support!

 

 

 

You can also send gifts to:

Entrust, PO Box 25520, Colorado Springs, CO 80936-5520

Attach a note “For David & Nancy Goodman, M125”

Office: (719) 622.1980

Email: DGoodman@Entrust4.org or NGoodman@Entrust4.org

Web: www.Entrust4.org

Good News?

Thank God for His good news, but we live in a world where so much of what we hear on the news these days is quite the opposite.

(At Left) The Arabic sign for “Nasrani” (those who follow the Nazarene) being scrawled on homes where Christian inhabitants are given the choice to convert or die. This apt comparison is a chilling realization. Much of the world downplayed Nazi atrocities until it was too late to act on behalf of victims.

Is it any wonder . . . that we can watch news reports of children being dragged from bombed out rubble or hear evidence of escalating atrocities on the other side of the world while dispassionately eating an evening meal, then switch to the ball game as if nothing happened?

Such experiences are so commonplace you may have stopped reading already. We are so easily inoculated against feeling anything about these tragedies to which most of us are not connected. But when you have friends and colleagues who are living through this horror it becomes quite another matter. I feel responsible for each of the following . . .

As ISIS brutalizes its way across Iraq, executing male Christians and enslaving Christian females, one of our Entrust staff reports their shock and dismay at multitudes of Christian refugees lining the streets in the Kurdish region which is under siege. I ask about their exit plan, assure them we will help in every way possible, and pray it will not become suddenly relevant.

Deciding whether a staff member should follow through on training scheduled for the Ukraine just a few months ago as Russian troops moved in (it was postponed: subsequent events underscore this as the correct choice, but we are praying for our partner mission that is on the ground there).

Whether it would be safe for staff members to fly into Iraq a few weeks ago for a family camp which brings Muslim background families together with Christian background families in a gently evangelistic setting. Camp was not canceled, our staff participated, and by all reports everyone felt safe despite the turmoil a few miles away.

Ebola spreads across Africa as we watch the news and fear for a staff member whose family, including a host of adopted war orphans, resides at ground zero in the country of Sierra Leone. They respond that one of the reasons for Ebola’s spread is that when a family realizes the victim has something more than the flu, they are usually taken by motorcycle, sandwiched between a driver and a caregiver, effectively infecting both during that trip. The children are under enforced isolation in a house until, hopefully, the infection raging around them ceases.

A State Department travel alert for Thailand, where we do training and plan to send future staff members. Do we need to re-evaluate? What happens following the imminent death of the ailing king should clarify the situation considerably.

Longtime missionaries in SE Asia are taken into custody and accused of spying. Unbelievable, but these are the realities of serving in a country hostile to Western Christianity. While they do not serve with Entrust, is this the risk our staff entertains by going there?

With many of these situations, we must continue to assess and evaluate the dangers and safety of our staff and partners on an ongoing basis.

What can God’s people in the US do?

1. Pray fervently.
2. Be aware. It would totally immobilize us if we took to heart all the tragedy happening each day around the world. Yet, our fortunate circumstances give us the responsibility to make ourselves aware of what Christian brothers and sisters are going through, the risks they take to proclaim their faith.
3. Look for ways to be involved. Your support of Nancy and me at Entrust (and many other mission efforts) helps us deploy gifted servants who reach out to needy regions around the world. “To whom much is given . . .”
4. Strategically choose to reach beyond the blessed, comfortable, hermetically sealed context of living in the US. Reach out, be informed and engage with the messiness of much of the world while listening heart to heart. I heard a commentator say, “Not many countries in the world have the luxury of two friendly neighbors to the north and south and nothing but fishing to the east and west. We do not have to worry about missiles being lobbed over our borders.”

Please let us know how we can be praying for you.

 

Thank you for your partnership with us and with Entrust!

You can also send gifts to:
Entrust, PO Box 25520, Colorado Springs, CO 80936-5520
Attach a note “For David and Nancy Goodman, M125”
Office: (719) 622.1980

Email: DGoodman@Entrust4.org and NGoodman@Entrust4.org

Web: www.Entrust4.org



 



Kindle Afresh

Dear friends,

Just a few words, as we are currently traveling overseas . . .

It has been an extremely busy first quarter of 2014, and we are overseas for 24 days of ministry in the Middle East. We are working with precious brothers and sisters in Christ at a training institute. Afterward we will head to our All-Staff Conference “Kindle Afresh,” April 30 – May 6. Please pray! Your prayer support is essential! This is a very important time together to connect and build up all the servants from Entrust with refreshing worship, inspiring teaching and time to engage in important conversations for ministry effectiveness.

We continue to be in the process of recruiting the next generation of new staff to carry this ministry forward for the next several decades and we will be introducing 8 new staff at this conference! We are grateful for God’s presence in our lives, in our Kingdom work, and in the lives of our partners and family. We thank God for you! If you know of anyone you think might be interested in joining our ministry effort, please send them to us! There are many roles and places to serve!

We do not know where the last 3 ½ months have gone … there has been some travel, a long weekend in California with a small group of Chicago partners, a week of staff and board recruiting, and teaching in Texas at Dallas Theological Seminary, to the Northwest - Seattle and Whidbey Island for conversations with two foundations, Entrust staff, and friends. We’ve also had the privilege of hosting three groups of friends from Chicago, Vancouver and Dallas here in Colorado Springs … now that we think of it, this is how the Lord has blessed these three months.

We see exciting things happening for our mission. We need wisdom for the possible options ahead for Entrust, some outstanding opportunities and partnerships. Below is a brief summary and a long list of prayer requests. We could never have imagined how each of you has supported us like you have . . . but we see the Lord’s hand and leading and we thank Him, and we thank you! We commit to being good stewards of your trust.

In Christ’s love, David and Nancy

EXCITING MINISTRY NEWS!
India
We wish we had a video to share about the report our India team gave to the staff about the exciting equipping that is happening in both southern and northern India. The church leaders are looking forward to having our team return in May to continue what has been an empowering resource for them!

Pastors attending a training in India

Asia
Our Asia team returned after two weeks with church leaders there –this also will be part of a continuum. We hope to build a training system that provides regular training in small groups, with high accountability for taking the responsibility of being a life-long disciple-maker by “teaching them all that I have commanded them to do.” Our team will return at least twice a year and before we know it, in a few years the baton will be passed, it will multiply, and will be entrusted to reliable people, over and over again.

APRIL 21, EASTER MONDAY update
The Lord has kept us in His care for our first week of travel and ministry, with many miles by air and car. On Easter Sunday we participated in an Easter Service from 12 AM – 5:00 AM (not a typo, it was a five-hour service of scripture and prayer and reflection on the cross), followed by a sunrise worship service with music, teaching, praying and breakfast together. Sweet fellowship with amazing brothers and sisters – we will share more at a later time.

PRAYER REQUESTS
We know you are praying friends and partners, and we also are praying for you. Please pray for David, who has a lot of responsibility on his heart and mind through May 6th. Following this long trip he will have to prepare for Jessica’s wedding service…so you might as well pray through May 17th! In the right column of this blog are other upcoming events for which we would appreciate prayer. 

 Thank you for your partnership, prayers and support!

             You can also send gifts to Entrust, PO Box 25520, Colorado Springs, CO 80936-5520

Attach a note “For David & Nancy Goodman, M125”

Office: (719) 622.1980

Email: DGoodman@Entrust4.org or NGoodman@Entrust4.org

Web: www.Entrust4.org

 

When the earth moved

Looking back ... there are a handful of events, which, at the time

I didn’t realize

would yield

such profound effects

in my life.
 

    

     The day as a seventh grader I said goodbye to my parents for four years.

     The afternoon I sang to my bride as she walked down the aisle.

     The first time she told me she was pregnant.

     My first Sunday as pastor of my first church.

     My first day as the president of Entrust.

In retrospect, I realize each of those times I had little idea

     what lay ahead,

     how I would change,

     how I could never go back.
 

Add to that ... one more event

when I was 6.

I made a profession of faith

because my teacher shamed me into it!

Actually, I was just making public

what my parents had taught and modeled.

I had very little idea

what I was doing,

yet I was making my way

down a path

that I would choose to stay on

at many critical intersections of understanding.
 

Combine all my experiences,

and you have an idea how the disciples felt.

A rugged cross, an empty tomb,

their whole world turned upside down.

Now totally transformed

     by what happened in the space of only three days.
 

I’m still learning the implications of that decision 

each new day ...
 

As were they ... for the rest of their lives.

 

David G. Goodman

President, Entrust
 

A Teacher's Greatest Disappointment

Have you ever poured your life into someone only to see them turn into just about the biggest disappointment possible?

I’ve had disappointments as a teacher and discipler. But none nearly as great as the one I am going to tell you about.

I won’t give you this prof’s name, because you would recognize it right away. Suffice it to say, he took on a very promising young man to disciple in the faith. The teacher’s reputation was such that if he were to let it be known that he was looking for someone to mentor, most people would drop everything to volunteer for the position.

There was nothing this prof wouldn’t do for his student. He took his protégé along on trips so the student could observe how the teacher handled some of the most challenging situations. The young man not only had the opportunity to hear many hours of teaching, but in private moments also had opportunities to ask his mentor any question and expect an answer.

Not surprisingly, the teacher had enemies. For some it was professional jealousy, others were offended by things he said. Perhaps his greatest mistake was in letting anyone, even his young student, get so close to him. Then again, maybe he saw it coming all along.

For it was through this student that the professor’s enemies found their opportunity and quite literally, crucified him.

OK, by now you know who I’m talking about and how it all turns out.

If you’re a teacher, if you’ve ever discipled anyone, what makes you think you might not have a failure or two? If you, as a discipler, make yourself vulnerable, why should you expect to not experience hurt, even deep hurt, on occasion?

“For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort, too.” (2 Cor. 1:5, ESV)

Remember, you and I trace our spiritual lineage back to the 11 disciples who did NOT betray Jesus. We pass along that legacy of love to those we disciple, who will in turn pass it along to their protégés.
And if you have a Judas in your life, remember, Jesus had one, too.