What are you doing this week in Greenwood, Indiana Gary and Diane?

DIANE

This week, April 26 to May 2, Gary and I will be in Indiana at One Mission Society headquarters for a Church Multiplication Facilitator conference. This may sound very dull and boring but it will be anything but that! If it were just ordinary business meetings, I would not be looking forward to it at all! There will be meetings, but they will all be biblical and prayer centered. 

That was the thing that impressed me the most the first time we visited headquarters. This organization is Christ-centered and runs on prayer. The people who work at headquarters are just regular people like you and me - those who love the Lord and want to serve Him with their lives. Before our first visit, I had no contact with them. Gary had spoken on the phone at length to Becca from recruitment. So he had some idea of the heart of this organization. BUT I still had some reservations! So we went just to get to know this organization and its people. 

Located in Greenwood, Indiana, OMS is a large campus in the middle of town. There are many buildings for administration plus housing for people who live on campus. And also homes and apartments to house us for special weeks like the conference we will attend. They make these rooms available to us for a minimal cost. As soon as we entered the headquarters building with its many flags flying out front, representing all the countries that OMS had missionaries working full time, I felt the love of Christ present. Everyone was so friendly and obviously loved their job. As I said before, just ordinary people who love serving the Lord. I knew right then that The Lord had directed us to the right place. We really did no real investigation of agencies. This was truly Gods hand in our lives leading us to them.

So this week we will be doing some training. reviewing Train and Multiply and coaching. But all sessions begin with Bible Study and prayer. So we are refreshed and renewed spiritually during this time. We also get to connect with other CMF 's, people who are doing what we do in other countries. We have fun with skits and other things and are better equipped to do the job that God has called us to do for Him. This is why I am looking forward to this week. It is such a blessing to be a part of this organization.

When we were confirmed to be a part of OMS both Gary and I said we did not feel equipped for this job. When we said that, Paul Cox said, "We at OMS like to say: God does not call the equipped, He equips the called." This week is a part of that equipping process. We are excited to be a part of it. And we know beyond a doubt that we are called!

GARY

As with any enterprise, there is much time required to prepare, plan and train in order to be able to do your best job.  When all the dust settles, of course it is God who makes things happen, but we need to be as prepared as we can so that as His tools we are not hindering or slowing the work..

Next week, we have our annual Church Multiplication Facilitator's Seminar in Greenwood, Indiana, just outside of Indianapolis.  Diane and I will be spending classroom time from 8:00 AM to 5:00PM Monday through noon on Friday, working with the material we routinely use in the activity with which we are involved in Honduras.  We will review the existing material, we will be introduced to new material and hear about uniquely effective methods that have been used with the material.  In addition to the training itself, we will be hearing from each of the CMFs who are working  in countries from around the world.  My roster of attendees indicates that we will have people from every continent except Antarctica who are performing activities just like we are to spread the Gospel, develop strong groups of believers and who will start new churches in the areas and the environments in which they find themselves.

While we are all in these meetings, there is a prayer team of volunteers from OMS that will be praying for all of us, and with each of us at appointed times throughout the week.  They will pray for those specific areas , people and situations that we are encountering in our work in the individual countries, and also for personal and family issues that may be pressuring each of us.  We would ask that as you are able, you will continue to pray for Diane and I , but also for all the OMS volunteers that are able to attend the seminar this year, and for the work of One Mission Society in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. Diane and I both feel so comforted and inspired by the prayer that is being offered up for us and for the volunteers that are doing the majority of the work in working in the prisons in Honduras.

From Friday Noon until Saturday Afternoon, May 2, we will be attending a training seminar on coaching of the volunteers.  This is good reinforcement of the skills that I used during my working career as a sales manager as well as my selling skills.  While I enjoyed my career selling chemicals, it is great to be selling a much better product now with eternal guarantees!

Our current plans for this summer include a trip to the Dominican Republic to attend the ECC Latin America Regional Coordinator's Conference at Pico Escondido, a Young Life Camp in the interior of the Dominican Republic about 90 miles from Santiago. The purpose of this conference is to encourage the Regional co-ordinator's from each of our partners in Latin America to continue developing and establishing their own independence and support mechanism following up on the ideas and concepts that were introduced at the VAN (Value Added Networking) Conference held in Indiana last summer.  This trip will be approximately 10 days and we will be leaving for the Dominican on Monday, May 11.