Miles and miles

Greetings from… [she checks calendar]… Raleigh, North Carolina! Today I was the keynote speaker for a lovely group of women at HOPE Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Raleigh:

Tomorrow I’ll be with the brothers and sisters at Peace Church EPC in Durham, NC. Then next weekend it’s Reynolda Church EPC in Winston-Salem, NC. And then I think I’m done for a while. (I hope!)

So far this fall I’ve driven 4876 miles, visited a dozen other churches like these, attended presbytery meetings in Virginia and Georgia, and connected with many, many of God’s wonderful people. Why? It’s #whatmissionariesdo, all part of telling the story about global theological education and how I've been called to serve, while God provides the resources as he chooses. The good news is we're at 60% of the needed ongoing financial support. Now I'm waiting to hear from some of the aforementioned churches as they finalize their 2017 mission budgets.

As I think you know by now, the goal of all this is to help train emerging church leaders in the developing world. I’ll be an international Theological Education Specialist for Serge – in partnership with EPC World Outreach – based in Dublin, Ireland, and teaching in theological institutions alongside Serge's church-planting efforts in Africa, Asia and post-Christian Europe. I’ll help Serge develop and strengthen theological training across their fields of ministry.

Well, yes, but... it’s all in God’s hands. To paraphrase my devotional reading yesterday, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to Dublin and spend a few years there, doing ministry and training leaders’… Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that’ (James 4:13-15). It’s true, I’d love to say, "I’m going to Dublin today or tomorrow." But it will happen in God’s own sovereign plan and timing (i.e. when the support is raised). Patience, patience, patience – and trust. Not my strongest suits, as many of you are aware!

Meanwhile, since you probably don’t need to see photos of me repeatedly filling the gas tank in my car or listening to audio books on the road, here’s something more meaningful to share. Last month I sent you a video of my students in Kenya talking about their passions for ministry and why Africa needs theological education. (If you missed it you can click here.) Now here are a few of my students at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS) in India talking about our class and how they want to use what they learned in their South Asian ministry contexts (click here to watch this 6-minute video). 

Maybe you’re feeling the Lord prompting you to become a partner with me in this sort of global theological education? One-time gifts are great – thanks! – and monthly or yearly pledges are even better. If you feel the Lord nudging you to be an ongoing partner. now would be a great time to let me know. It’s those promises of ongoing monthly and annual support that tell World Outreach and Serge when they can release me to move overseas. You can give here to Serge or here to EPC World Outreach.

Thanks for hanging with me through this long, exciting, daunting, and sometimes exhausting, process. Please keep praying that the Lord provides everything needed for the call he’s given me – and that I’ll have the patience and trust to wait. And thank you for being in this with me as pray-ers, givers and friends! 

I've been enjoying the beautiful autumn in Virginia
Next year in Ireland?!