Category Archives: Uncategorized

Morgan Graduated!

       To say it’s been a full couple of months would be an understatement, but not sure much compared with seeing Morgan graduate and celebrating her. This was a big part of the decision to stay in the U.S. a couple of summers ago. She was in a dark place. We were in a dark place.  Graduating high school is an accomplishment alone. But what she did in her 4 years was remarkable to us:  7 months in person adapting to high school in Manila.  8 months of pandemic life and learning online while on lockdown in Manila, 9 months of being online in the PH while in the United States under 20 different roofs, and adjusting to a 4500 person high school starting from scratch with 2 weeks notice.  In all that God did so much in her life, especially the past 18 months and we are so thankful to Him and so proud of Morgan’s grit and perseverance.  Please be praying for her (and us!) and we transition her to college in late August.

               Thank you for praying with us and partnering with us!

No One Does This for Us!

         “No one does this for us!” was one of the comments that I heard from a pastor who attended the 3-day “Taking Resilience to Heart” workshop I conducted during our recent visit to IGSL with leaders from the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Ecuador. This was a time to slow down and reflect, share from the heart in community, and discern redemptive paths forward. 

            So much of what we do in ministry focuses on forming and equipping leaders for multiplying ministry impact. But what happens when the multipliers find themselves in burnout, spiritually empty, or stuck in trauma?  In such situations….what is being multiplied?  

            Most leaders are still carrying heavy burdens from the past few years which can hinder us emotionally, spiritually, vocationally, and also physically. I’m grateful for these men and women who trusted me and each other with their vulnerability and losses from the past few years of pandemic life.   

           Here are a few other comments we heard during the time and during our debrief of the event:

  • “Thank you!  I have been numb for so long. I don’t connect with anyone anymore. I’ve just been going from activity to activity. My care for those in my flock has disappeared because I’m just going through the motions. I needed this to help me remember God’s care for me and gentle invitation to repent of the ways I’ve been coping with my pain and grief instead of bring it to the Lord.” – Lead Pastor in a Manila Church
     
  • “I will remember this training for the rest of my life as long as I live because this reminded me of my identity in Christ in a way that has changed everything.” – Associate Pastor in a Manila Church
     
  • “This has profoundly shaped my view of Christian leadership. I have always been trained I need to control my team and congregation because if I don’t, they will control me. This does not allow for transformation in community. I’ve learned the power of vulnerability for discipleship and transformation!” – Pastor from Pakistan
     
  • “I think the best way to describe these few days is that we’ve been helped to reconnect with God as our Father, with ourselves, and with others after we’ve been stuck fighting one problem after another while trying to keep our families afloat for so long. We’ve been able to reconnect with our humanity and feel seen.” – Family Life staff member in the Philippines
     
  • “Our family has been through so much struggle financially and we experienced church betrayal and we’ve had our plans changed because of the coup and violence in Myanmar. God is helping me understand all of the impact of these things on me so I can trust Him with them and see how He wants me to respond.” – Pastor from Myanmar
     
  • “I lost 5 family members due to covid and I have not been able to move forward spiritually or in leading my ministries. I haven’t known how to begin to process that.” – Pastor’s wife in Manila
     
  • “I’m excited about what’s next. We’ve not just had opportunities to share our lives, but you’ve helped us see where God might be preparing us to do next and begin to dream again – I’m getting excited again!” – Associate Pastor in Manila

        This ended up being a meaningful time of many leaders who just had not had a guided space for them to process their own experiences as a leader during the pandemic or the pandemic’s impact on their spiritual lives.  It was deep waters and I was exhausted by the end, but so rewarding.  Even more, it was so encouraging to minister to others out of the ways God has ministered to Christine and I over the past couple of years. It felt like a 2 Corinthians 1:1-2 type of ministry the whole time!

            Here are some of the photos of the time:

 

 

Morgan In Ecuador

          We sent off Morgan with her team on Tuesday with our church which is going to partner with a ministry in Rio Bamba, outside of Quito, Ecuador, in their ministry to mountain villages there.  They made it there safely and today is their first day of active ministry. Pray for their team and for God to work in them and through them!

    As you can tell…it just “might” be a big deal when Morgan goes to college in August!  This is where some of their “TCK-ness” emerges in a strong way and it is fun to see.  Please be praying. While Morgan is serving in Ecuador, Colin and Kaelyn are both volunteering and serving with VBS all week this week.

PH Armed Forces Officer Training

                 We asked for prayer last month for a training that I and a few of our IGSL faculty are conducting this Spring for the Philippine Armed Forces Command College – for mostly Lieutenant Colonels and Commanders in terms of ranking, people that oversee anywhere between 300-1000 personnel typically. I taught two of the weeks (8 total hours of instruction) on Team Leadership.  Thank you for praying because I was pretty intimidated by this opportunity because of the high rankings involved and numbers, but after an hour of the first session I really settled in and had a lot of fun with it.  It might have helped I only had to look at one zoom screen at a time to avoid thinking of the five additional screens just like it!

         There were multiple opportunities for me to weave in my faith in Christ as I used research from Jim Collins’ Good to Great and Patrick Lencioni to discuss leadership humility and the call to look out for those around us and not just pursue our own advantage in organizations, often called “careerism.” There is a real value of teams in the PH AFP, but there often is a gap with the values or character “virtues” of the leaders and team members, so my task was to help these high-ranking leaders understand not just “why” teams are effective and needed, but “how” high-performance teams are cultivated and what it requires in the character of those on the team, especially the leader. 

          I have the opportunity to also communicate the gospel clearly as I will explore Monday – team conflict, conflict resolution, and reconciliation through confession and forgiveness. Please pray for life change and fruit, but also that our whole training would continue to have favor in the eyes of the AFP.  They recently asked IGSL to participate in reviewing and consulting on their entire officer’s leadership training curriculum!  Amazing!

May 2023 Prayer Requests

         We are in the first week of the new semester. Here are some additional prayer items for the next month or two:

  • Manila! More to come on this but Christine and I are planning on going to Manila together for about 10 days in the May 25 – June 4 range. We’ll share more, but I’m graduating! So excited to both serve and celebrate!! Pray for logistics and plane tickets and planning.
  • Pray for Christine’s PIM retreat: She is leading the 1st faculty/staff retreat for the PIM team since before Covid from May 28-30. Pray as she ministers to weary women leaders and gently helps them move forward strategically.
  • Pray for Brian’s pastor and missionary workshop: for burned out and weary leaders in Manila May 29-31. Pray for healing, renewal, and revived vision for the leaders that attend and those they will care for in return.
  • Morgan and Ecuador:  She also has decided to go to Ecuador on a summer mission trip with our church this summer which is exciting. She’s almost finished with the support raising process which has been great for her to experience. We’re excited for her!
  • IGSL Online Program:  There is big progress being made towards an online MA program.  This would be a 2-3 year MA for ministry leaders designed differently than a lot of our online offerings in the pandemic. This is an opportunity to develop something that will really expand our offerings to students who cannot come to Manila.

                  Thank you for praying with us and partnering with us!

IGSL ALumni Working for Peace in Beirut, Manipur and Sri Lanka

“In short, the next generation of pastors says they feel unprepared for some of the biggest challenges facing the modern Church. Whether as a major contributor or a serious consequence, this sense of being unprepared is part of the growing epidemic of burnout.” – Barna
Barna: What Pastors Wish They’d Been Prepared For
(2022 compared to 2015)
          Before this update goes to places like India, Lebanon, and Sri Lanka, if you look at the research above, one of the immense discipleship needs of our generation relates to navigating conflict and peacemaking. Research (and the eye test) shows the impact of unresolved conflict, polarization, and violence on society…and on churches.  The percentage of believers who understand how being reconciled to God informs how we are to proclaim the gospel in our conflicts through confession and forgiveness is lower than what you may think-and that impacts ministry multiplication. But more than that – leaders in the church do not feel equipped to lead and shepherd people in these areas. 
 
           In the U.S. and globally, there is a need for peacemaking leaders in the church who can shepherd the church towards true peace in Christ and do hard work of bringing the peace of Christ to the human strife in every corner of the globe.  As you get a small snapshot in this update, pray that the Lord of the harvest raises up church and Great Commission leaders who are committed to the work of reconciliation in and through the church.  Conflict in the world is plentiful, but the workers are few. We want to see the church be the agent of grace and reconciliation Christ has empowered it to be!
           Bassem, who is defending his PhD this month at IGSL, is here conducting peacebuilding across different groups and leaders in a deeply conflicted social and political situation in Beirut, Lebanon. God has been opening doors through his research to build a network and platform to teach and equip leaders for peace amidst war, refugees, and interfaith strife.

         Last week we attended a gathering of IGSL students and alumni connected to our Peace Studies program and it was an amazing time of hearing how God has placed some of our students and alumni in unique places for timely and powerful ministry.

       One amazing story relates to a current IGSL PhD candidate, who I hope to graduate with next month and is a pastor and a Dean of Faculty at a seminary in Beirut, Lebanon. Bassem has been delayed a few years in completing his Ph.D. because of the revolution and unrest in his country and the influx of Syrian refugees and the interfaith tensions that come with that. His congregation has led the way there for Christian witness through caring for refugees in ways that has led to many coming to faith in Christ. It has been difficult ministry, but God has produced tremendous fruit and open doors.

      As Bassem began to tackle his dissertation research and interview leaders in Lebanon in different areas, it created a network for him between leaders from different government agencies, churches, denominations, and NGO entities. He has been granted powerful platforms to do peace-building work and peacemaking training as a Christian pastor and leader in inter-faith contexts and across political lines in ways that are powerful and are only conceivable as the hand of God! Beirut and Lebanon as a whole is a place desperate for lasting peace. Bassem’s faithfulness to care for Syrian refugees and his mere attempts to get his dissertation done led to an unexpected platform that is pointing people from other faiths to Biblical reconciliation and the Prince of Peace. Please pray for him, his church, and the seminary, and their ministry!

        It has been humbling to see the ways God is using some of our Peace Studies and IGSL military alumni networks to proclaim the gospel through their unique platforms. Pray for more peacemakers – more Daniels and Nehemiahs – to draw people in need to Christ and open doors for ministry!

         Currently, there are some very difficult situations in Asia for Christians.  In the last week or two, over 50 churches have been burned in the Manipur region of India (more than what was reported in this CT article), where we have several IGSL alumni pastoring and working in ministry (and one graduating student this year).  The persecution is high and we have not heard from all of them yet.  There is immense persecution right now and dozens of churches have been targeted and burned and I think over 50 people are reported as having been killed. There is fear the persecution spreads to Nagaland, where we have more alumni and where one of my dissertation committee members is doing peace and reconciliation work. 

          Sri Lanka is facing different types of struggle, conflict, and despair. One IGSL Ph.D. alumni, Chris, did his Ph.D. on reconciliation in Sri Lanka based on the theology of reconciliation in the book of Hosea. Upon graduation, he became head of a prominent denomination before Sri Lanka sank into its current economic crisis (last report 60% inflation). He mentioned a growing spirit of despair as suicides are skyrocketing, including family suicides. This trend speaks to the hopelessness so many have in that country – a hopelessness that has penetrated the church in many ways as well. It was powerful to hear how God is using Chris to lead initiatives of hope – to help the Sri Lankan church anchor themselves in the hope of Christ as well as to help Sri Lankan agencies and institutions encounter the one true hope of Christ.  A door has opened for him to publish a book based on his peacemaking and reconciliation work between God and others in the book of Hosea for Sri Lanka which is one possible tool to help breathe life to believers and non-believers alike.

           The world is hurting.  We’re grateful to be able to be a part of providing the specialized training, mentoring, and field skills to help called men and women stand in the gap in these hard situations and in these hard places.  Please pray for the world, for the global church in the face of persecution and with the opportunities to be agents of peace and reconciliation. In the hard moments, sometimes the power of peace and forgiveness shines all the brighter! God is our hope and is with every believer in these trials – let’s pray and seek His heart and power for bringing God’s peace to a broken world. 

The Grief Tower Tool

One of our Spring Break family activities was spending some time doing “grief tower” processing as we do periodic check-ins with our kids. This is a great, practical resource for those caring for missionaries and their families. It helps kids name accumulated and unresolved losses in a way that introduces what healthy grieving looks like (as well as unhealthy grieving). I think it is a good pandemic processing tool too!

This was a bittersweet time – processing the losses and being grateful too for one another and how God has worked. But our kids are more in touch with losses with going AND coming back so conversations are maturing with them for sure.  And of course, the post “grief-tower” family hug. 

I know – probably not the average “Spring Break” family activity!  We all enjoy talking with each other about the Philippines and its impact on us because we’re all going through different, but similar things in the transition. It’s good to grieve with hope!

IGSL Partnering with the PH Coast Guard

       Through the process of the collaboration with the PH Armed Forces, the  Philippine Coast Guard requested a formal renewal of our partnership in order to strengthen their commitment to see their officers trained into high-integrity leaders. PH Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Abu, the one with all the medals, stated strongly how impressed he was by IGSL’s educational philosophy and commitment to character and family life. He stated he aspires to see these qualities lived out in all 26,000 coast guard personnel and auxiliary officers!  Check out some of the fun photos below of their visit to IGSL’s campus a few weeks ago. I’ve had the privilege of teaching a couple of different sessions for coast guard officers so it’s wonderful to see God continue to open doors for partnership and the ministry that our students and alumni ultimately have through those partnerships.  

          It is the high season of new student applications and acceptances, which includes our military partnerships. Please pray that the Lord leads the right students to IGSL that have Great Commission vision, passion to learn, and hunger for the Lord.