A photo of a few of the IGSL and Philippine Coast Guard leaders with some of our IGSL graduates standing behind. Some of these alumni have been instrumental in opening the doors for us to bring Christian leadership training and the gospel message to many places within the Armed Forces of the PH.

I (Brian) had 9 out of the 11 of those pictured as students in multiple classes over the past decade. Fun memories!  Amazing the doors God continues to open..

       While Morgan has been hitting big milestones in her life and seeing answers to prayer and God’s faithfulness, our ministry continues at IGSL, which has had some amazing milestones of its own.

         One opportunity to pray for is a training that I and a few of our IGSL faculty are conducting starting this past week for the Philippine Armed Forces.  We are collaborating to teach a leadership module for the Armed Forces of the Philippines General Command & Staff College (eleven 4-hour sessions April-July). It will be conducted on zoom for about 170 officers and reservists. We did a version of this module in 2022, which garnered great feedback; however, this time the trainees will include nine international military personnel from Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Korea,  and Thailand!  I am the instructor for 2 of the weeks (8 hours of instruction), which will be from 5pm-9pm California time on May 15th and May 22nd.  

         I’m teaching in a few areas related to team leadership so I will be looking for ways to engage complicated themes like corruption and abuse of power on teams, peacemaking, psychological safety and feedback, and team health. There is freedom to some extent to connect to gospel themes and Scripture.

        I would appreciate prayers as this opportunity feels a bit intimidating because of the high rankings of the officers involved!

• • Pray I can adapt the sessions well for both the Asian and military contexts.
  • Pray for technology to hold: 8 hours on zoom in Asia can be an eternity navigating bandwidth issues.
  • Most of all – that they would be drawn to Christ through the training and experience.

Skip to 5:35 mark to watch above

For those will children and grandchildren, you can resonate with the investment that goes into parenting with hopes that your kids will eventually own their faith their own. 

A secret fear of many international missionary parents relates to how the costs and transitions involved in it all will impact our kids. We have heard often the maxim that “kids” are resilient, but there’s lot of research, especially on Third Culture Kids, that suggests they may not be as resilient as we often assume with the pain and unresolved grief adding up to a point where distance from their faith or unravel in young adulthood. (See the “Grief Tower” section at the end of this letter) 

So we share this as some of the backdrop of Morgan getting baptized this past Sunday. She has thought about it at different points – but she wanted to do it when she was really ready to do it separate from us and when she had a community that she believed was hers and that God has used in her life.  

Many of you know, Morgan was a big part of what led us to stay in the United States a little over a year and a half ago. When we were praying about the decision that summer we’ll never forget her looking at us and vulnerably sharing about the prospect of returning to Manila, “I have nothing to go back to.”

This was a step she took on her own and for her and us, it’s a celebration of so much of what God has done in her life and on her behalf through the community she’s experienced at church especially. She would have said 2021-2022 was the hardest year of her life (true for all of us!), but she would say 2022-2023 has been the best year she can remember. And she’ll be going to college with 4-5 good friends as she keeps building depth and continuity in her friendships. This has continued to be a challenging transition for our family, but it’s a powerful reminder that God often has beautiful purposes when He asks us to surrender things to Him like we were led to do with our lives in the Philippines in 2021.

So we are celebrating God’s work in her life and Morgan’s perseverance to learn how to walk with God through everything she’s gone through. But a piece of that is seeing the faith, love, and generosity of God’s people around her in some of those tough moments.  We can’t thank you enough for your prayers for her, for our children, and your support of our family in addition to our ministry efforts.  

        We’re detouring from ministry updates to help get the word out about Morgan’s Senior Project. She designed a project and fundraiser for Cerebral Palsy awareness. If you are in the Long Beach area, Thursday from 11am – 10pm is a great window for a ice cream break :).   But you have to show the digital flyer above.   Morgan’s done a great job setting it up.

         As part of her project, she’s also done a great job doing some disability and cerebral palsy awareness for kindergarteners – you can see her reading Daniel Tiger book on disabilities below on St. Patrick’s Day (if you couldn’t tell). She also showed them old leg braces she used to wear and answered questions.

        It’s been fun to see her journey. Morgan has had seasons where her disability was public (she wore a brace that was always visible). Then she had a season where it wasn’t as public or visible and she didn’t want to bring attention to it.  It’s been fun seeing her choose this project and own (and tell in new ways) her story and journey with cerebral palsy.  We’re proud of her!  

         So if you’re looking for an excuse to get some great ice cream, swing by some time that day and support the cause!  But you have to show the digital flyer on this email or if you have it from social media somewhere!  God Bless!

                                                                      Brian & Christine

           Has anyone asked you to mentor them?  Have you asked someone to mentor you?  It can feel a little weird right?  Mentoring is just one way of viewing it, maybe it looks like discipleship, maybe it’s leadership or spiritual development.  But research shows people want it and need it as they seek to follow Christ through the challenges of life. But research often shows it’s not happening very often and people don’t know how to ask for it or offer it. This is no different for ministry leaders!  In Asia, these challenges are great as there is a lack of equipping, lack of confidence, or such a task-focused vision of ministry that neglects to truly develop and cultivate mature and deep leaders that can multiply for the next generation or for other kingdom purposes.

       One of my highlights this semester has been teaching a course on mentoring and leader formation and development (one section shown above).  I don’t know when it was…but sometime in the last few years I started asking myself the question, “Am I old now?” I suppose it’s all relative but I began thinking differently about some of where I put my time and where I should invest more.  This semester provided me an opportunity to do a deep dive on mentoring and discipleship across stages of life for the sake of deeply formed and rooted leaders who know Christ and minister out of Christ’s presence and power over their whole lifetime. It’s been awesome to lead a group of Asian pastors, missionaries, Cru staff, and ministry leaders from all over Asia through this area. 

          Here’s what I’ve found in the journey:

• Older leaders are increasingly want to mentor, but often don’t know how.
• Younger leaders desperately are seeking mentoring, especially those from broken families – but they don’t know how to ask or can believe that they will be a burden.
• Leaders at all levels are wanting deeper and more honest experiences to learn and do ministry with others life on life.
• Mentoring often is informal. But when it comes to ongoing relationships, it’s awkward like dating.  Who asks who?  How often are we going to meet? What’s it going to look like? How do I behave? Can I be honest?

        A key passage is Mark 3:14, reflecting on how Jesus selected and called specific people to Him to go with him (mission), to be with him (relationship), and to eventually send them out to be multiplying leaders. This has been a framework for how IGSL does leadership development training, but it’s also a framework for mentoring as well.  In many places, my students have been consistent that they have been routinely “going with” in ministry, but the “being with” and “sending out” are not always strong in the Asian church.

        A highlight of the year for me was in the discussion (screenshotted above) we had wrapping up the module. I was overwhelmed seeing leader after leader share a commitment to offer themselves sacrificially and lovingly to mentor and invest themselves for the sake of developing the next generation of church and ministry leaders.   Here are some brief quotes shared…..

• I want to help them know God is with them in those hard moments. 
• I can help younger leaders with God-given visions be taken seriously and be empowered on mission and in faithfulness to God. I’m excited to help open doors and remove barriers for these leaders. I can do that.
• I want them to have someone alongside of them because when I was coming up in the ministry I did not have that person and it was difficult and I almost quit the ministry. I can be that leader and mentor for them.
• I want younger leaders to be able to benefit from what God has taught me through pain and mistakes so they do not have to go through them themselves.
• I want to invest in younger people and younger leaders because they are the ones that are best equipped to reach their generation.
• I want to give of myself to younger leaders because I had a senior leader invest in me in ways that changed my life!  It’s my turn to pass that on.

       In our conversation it was unsolicited, but I grew emotional hearing person after person express their passion…really it was professing a commitment to being a multiplying leader in the ways of helping younger believers and younger leaders walk with the Lord and grow into what God wants them to be…for their own walk with the Lord and for what the Church and the Great Commission need. It’s always humbling to see God do work in people’s hearts that can only be a product of His Spirit at work.

       Pray the church in Asia is characterized by a generous generation of leaders who models what it looks like to walk with Jesus deeply, resist temptation, and be fruitful in ministry in ways that pour deeply into the generations coming behind them.  It’s needed!

        If this got you thinking about offering yourself as a mentor or seeking a mentor during this season of your life and faith journey, don’t wait! Pray and push through the awkwardness towards greater life on life impact!

         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 Christine is going to be leading a leaders retreat for the 15 or so faculty women on her team and I’ll be conducting a 3 day workshop for pastors and ministry leaders in Manila.  And I’m graduating! So excited to both serve and celebrate!! Pray for logistics and plane tickets and planning.
• Pray for Christine as she’s focused right now on helping her team to map out the next 8 months with an eye on 2023-2024 and beyond. 
• Pray for Brian – In addition to the child safety investigation and teaching, my free time hobby this year has been working on certification with the Institute of Christian Conciliation (if you’re familiar with Peacemakers Int’l, it’s one of the orgs doing a lot of that ministry now). I’m involved with a couple of different conflict cases where Christian parties are hoping to get mediation help from a Christian and biblical perspective. I’ve wanted to do more practical peacemaking since finishing my Ph.D. to help migrate a lot of the head knowledge into experience and wisdom and strengthen my skill in coming alongside people in these hard moments. Pray for heart transformation in these cases and relational reconciliation! It’s hard and messy at this level!
• Pray for Morgan as she approaches graduation and college. And she turns 18 Monday! 
• 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!

                                   In Christ,

                                                Brian & Christine