Faces of His Harvest

Here are portraits of the new missionary class you're helping send to the field and sustain on the field in partnership with us!

Sudhakar: India

Sarah: Sierra Leone

Josiah: Ukraine 

Haley: Ukraine

 Ann: International

 Jesse: Republic of Congo

 Stephanie: Guatemala

Jenny: Lebanon 

Thani: Lebanon

 Rob: France

Kristy: France

Walter: International

Thank you for helping make these ministries possible through your encouragement, prayers, and financial gifts!

Back In The Saddle! (BITS)

Your Prayers Were Answered in Wonderful Ways

Thank you for praying for our trip to St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada and back (August 4-15) to help lead Global's latest Candidate Orientation Class. Our 2,300 mile round trip was uneventful, the weather in Canada was perfect, and the orientation was a success on every front.

Global Candidate Class of August 2017

Karen and I made multiple border crossings without incident, didn't leave anyone behind, figured out how to navigate alternate canal crossings (to and from our Canadian office) when the inter-coastal bridges were raised for passing ships, and met each of our core objectives for the event. 

Here I am leading Session Two of my three session Partnership 101 presentation.

I led eight sessions related to partnership development, Karen and I led a workshop together, and Karen coordinated/led our Concert of Prayer Wednesday evening. Karen also arranged all the logistics of life and training at our Canadian Office related to in-house snacks, troubleshooting, and behind-the-scenes problem solving. She's the rock on which our orientation hospitality system is built. Yay, Karen!

Karen leads us into Wednesday night's Concert of Prayer.

This was our fourth orientation and it was the best yet. Next week we'll start planning for our orientations in February & August of 2018.

Here I am with Global's President, Brian Albrecht, preparing to distribute certificates of completion to our candidates as part of our closing banquet Friday night.

As part of my role documenting the event...I shot 700 photographs. Here I am taking a photo of missionaries to Ukraine as we have our picture taken by a missionary to Nepal, having his picture of me taking a picture taken by a missionary to France during our field trip to Niagara Falls.

Here's our orientation team debriefing the event Monday morning at our US headquarters in Buffalo, NY: Karen, me, Greg, and Melissa.

There are lots more photos to share! Be watching your inbox and Facebook for our next blog posts!

The sunsets at our retreat house were awesome.

Canada and Back or Bust

Please pray as we head north to help lead Global's next Candidate Orientation 

in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Karen and I'll jump in the Honda early tomorrow (Friday) morning, drive to Canada, and spend the next week orienting 11 missionaries, called to 8 different ministries, for service in 7 different countries!

Be assured that through your gifts and prayers, you're just as much a part of this orientation as we are!

Counting Sheep - Calculating Air Fare

Instead Of Counting Sheep
Sometimes I wonder how much money the internet has cost the airlines. I'm sure you lay awake at night wondering the same thing.

Karen prepares to visit four countries in six hours.

I mean really, just the other day Karen was in Belize, Canada, Guatemala, and Uganda all in a matter of hours all without leaving home. That day was a bit slower for me. I was only in Canada to meet with Karen while she was "in Canada" to work with our boss organizing the logistics for Global's next Candidate Orientation Class.

It's crazy when your wife is at home, you're in the office eight miles away, and you "meet" in Canada for a couple hours. Let's see...what DID that day cost the airlines? Between the two of us, Skype cost your typical domestic airline nearly $5,500 that one day.

That doesn't take into account the week I was in France, Texas, Ohio, Iowa, and Canada (twice) for meetings...ka-ching? There's another $4,800. And that's just air fare...not rental cars, lodging, food, souvenirs...for two people...multiply that by everyone traveling via internet...

Here I am in Iowa (while in our office in North Carolina) meeting with Heather, who's headed to Sierra Leone, Africa.

No wonder the airlines seem grumpier and the skies just a bit less friendly than they used to be.

Speaking of Grumpy
And while we're speaking about grumpy...this is the time of year that Tucker doesn't sleep much at night either. She's busy counting tomatoes that have yet to grow on the plants in our salsa garden. She guards them in her mind at night, counts them in her mind.

Me, grumpy? Do I look grumpy? Where are the tomatoes?

Tanner, on the other hand...doesn't worry about much. He just finds a quiet, private corner and goes into relaxation mode.

Tanner

Some days, in some ways, I wish I'd be more like my dog.