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Port Colborne, ON – This morning I looked out my window and saw some birds flying around the canal. As I watched them, I was reminded of Jesus' words in Matthew 6:25-26: "Do not worry about your life ... Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" It was a fitting reminder, as I have been wrestling with some anxiety lately. The birds do not worry about today or tomorrow. God takes care of them. Since God does that and I am "of more value", I can also trust God to take care of me. Of course, that is easier said than done, but it is something I am going to remind myself of when I feel the anxious thoughts creeping in.
What about you?
I believe it is due to many prayers that the training meetings in Malaysia went so well. As meeting organizers, we crafted a program that would engage training and leadership development people across our organization in thinking about how we could best equip any and all for the mission to see vibrant communities of Jesus followers among the least reached. With prayer at the core, we see this happen through mobilizing believers boldly, engaging deeply with people and communities, sowing the good news broadly, discipling purposefully, and empowering local leaders for multiplication. In the meetings, we went through how we currently equip for this and what we needed to add, change, or stop to be more effective. By the end of the week, each team had an action plan for how they were going to implement the findings in their local area. Pray they would be strengthened, motivated, and supported in this next phase of the work.
In January, I took on a new role as International Director of Organizational Learning, in addition to my existing responsibilities. The focus of this role is to facilitate OM to be a movement in which the transfer and sharing of skills, knowledge, experiences, and best practices is widespread, efficient, and leads to modification in strategies, approaches and behaviour as we pursue our mission. Essentially, we want to be learners and learn as an organization in such a way that we can be more effective in pursing the mission to see vibrant communities of Jesus followers among the least reached. I’m currently talking to a variety of people across OM to understand how learning is happening and how we can be more effective.
Praise: For the fruitful training meetings in Malaysia. Continue to pray for the people who came as they implement their action plans.
Pray: For me as I take on my new role, especially for wisdom and discernment.
Pray: For the spiritual retreat to be a refreshing time to meet with God
Pray: For all the upcoming events - there is a lot going on.
Home church: Winkler EMMC, Manitoba
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This article was originally published in The Recorder Vol 60 No. 2