Passing the Baton to the Next Generation
April and May have been very full months for our family. We've been working hard together to get our Online Missionaries ready for what’s coming next, including:
• Recruiting a team to provide PATH support for our Online Missionaries
• Working to improve the cultural sensitivity of our Online Missionaries
• Making plans for a revision of our GodLife experience
• Writing the guide for discipleship in PATH mentioned in our last letter
• Testing and demonstrating PATH
Meanwhile, the regular monthly responsibilities have not diminished.
We still have the weekly devotional to publish in four languages, (2.8M recipients), the Volunteer Facebook Group to tend, and more Zoom meetings each week than we can keep up with.
We launched this month with some celebrations. Emily graduated from Belhaven University on May 1 with a Bachelor's degree in Physical Chemistry, minoring in Mathematics. She maintained a 3.9 GPA throughout her four years of college, and will be attending Florida State University in August where she’ll be pursuing her Ph.D. in preparation for teaching at the college level. Since she was a homeschool student, some of you who receive this letter have been part of helping her succeed, and no one is prouder of her than her primary teacher, my prayerful, hard-working wife Cindy, whom we honored May 8th and 9th for our 28th anniversary and Mother’s Day. We’re so grateful for how the Lord has gifted Emily and we’re excited to see where He leads her. Our educational institutions are in serious need of professors with a strong Christian worldview.
This week, the majority of our U.S. Based staff were together under one roof for the first time in about 14 months. This included Emily’s boyfriend Matthew, (see photo at right), an international student from Australia who’s staying with us for the summer and serving in a Public Relations internship at our ministry.
The big news at our meeting was our founder Walt Wilson’s decision to make our president Jeff Gowler Chief Executive Officer of Global Media Outreach. It was a surprise to all but a few of us, and in the meetings that followed, we began fleshing out plans for the next 10 years of ministry. How can we make realistic plans to reach 7.5 billion people by 2030?
We’re expecting new opportunities and new challenges. We haven’t been “canceled” - yet. We do work with both Google and Facebook, so we definitely need discernment to keep us aware of, and compliant with, all the rules we can righteously obey so as to preserve the platform God has given us to delcare the Good News.
Please pray we’ll continue to enjoy God’s protection (or receive direction toward alternatives). Last week, just 72 of our Online Missionaries answered 1960 new Facebook contacts! Thank you so much for your love, support and prayers for our family and ministry!
Love, in Christ,
One Day Closer!
Romans 13:11