Winds of Change

Wasn’t there a song that said the only thing that stays the same is change? Sounds like a country one! Change is the story of our lives. We are in the midst of a time of change. For starters, the president of the IMB has retired and a new one will soon be appointed. Please remember our future leadership in your prayers.

No matter if you’re working for a world class engineering firm like I used to work for or the largest missionary sending agency, one thing is sure: when changes take place at the top, they happen all the way down. For the Americas, the changes preceded the leadership change due to the economic downturn back in the USA. Being good stewards of what God has provided, the IMB sought the best way to position missionaries in the most needed places around the world. The leadership for our affinity (the Americas) is Terry Lassiter. He has the job of determining if the missionaries serving in the Western Hemisphere and wherever latinos find themselves in the world are best positioned to impact a lost and dying world. Already we have seen people reassigned from their original place of service to new ones. Our dear friends the Grady family is one asked to pray about working with a different people group here in Peru. They accepted and have moved from southern to northern Peru and have already started to engage a new people group. Please pray for Terry Lassiter that he that has Godly wisdom to know how to best place missionaries under his charge.

Finally, change has and will continue to reach our team that for more than a decade has been committed to partnering churches in the USA with unreached micro-people groups and people group segments in South America. Last month I asked you to pray for us as partnerships increase and our team size decreases. This month I would like to add that we have a very important meeting coming up on November 4 and 5. The meeting will discuss how mobilization teams from all around the Americas, that have strategies much like that of REAPSouth, will look in the future. One major consideration hits at the very heart of our strategy: will the connection of USA church partner with an unreached people group segment or micro people group continue or will we work to connect them instead with churches in Latin America, training them to send missionaries out among their own. All this is yet to be clear for us. Our leadership realizes that the time is coming in the not too distant future for Latin Americas to not have missionaries sent TO them, but to have missionaries sent FROM them. Please pray for us as we enter into this two day conference on November 4-5 and discuss how mobilization teams like ours will be a part of equipping national missionaries to go out from the churches of Latin America.