In January Karl, along with Bob Moffit of Harvest Foundation spoke at the East Valley Missions Consortium. They were able to share their experiences at Cape Town 2010. On January 30, Karl spoke about the work of Visionledd and Somebody Cares in Malawi at Echo Mountain Church in Phoenix. Echo Mountain has been supporting the Somebody Cares Home-Based Care Program for more than 18 months, and it was great to be with them.
In January Karl participated in a meeting of the Pathways to Global Understanding Board of Directors. Pathways classes are starting again in February throughout Arizona. This dynamic 13 week course explores God's worldwide agenda and the significant role each of us can play in seeing God's Kingdom purposes fulfilled. We believe this class should be taken by every Christian! If you haven't participated in a Pathways class, sign up!
The board of The Alliance for Transformational Ministry (ATM) also met in January. ATM is an alliance of ministries involved in Community Health Evangelism (CHE). It was exciting to here that CHE is now a ministry strategy employed by 390+ organizations in 105 nations of the world. God is doing some amazing things in transforming rural and urban communities around the globe. Through the ministry of Dr. Hugo Gomez and Global CHE Enterprises, we have been involved in CHE for more than 10 years.
In the middle of all of this, Karl has been busy doing all the things that non-profits in the USA have to do in order to keep in good standing with the IRS and State regulations. Not exciting, fun stuff, but all necessary.
Coming Up In February
February is going to be one busy month.
First on the agenda is completing a writing assignment for a new publication called Journeys of Faith. Published by the Faith to Action Initiative, Journeys of Faith will be a tool to help churches in North America partner with churches and ministries in Africa involved in community-based orphan care. Karl and Steve Bowler, Visionledd's Africa Coordinator, are writing an article on partnership. In addition, the partnership between Somebody Cares, Visionledd and Mission Community Church in Gilbert, AZ will be show-cased in the publication. In May, Journeys of Faith will be debuted at the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit in Louisville, Kentucky. Both of us will be at the Summit, and Karl and Theresa Malila of Somebody Cares will be speaking on partnership at this event that attracts over 1,000 people from across the USA.
February 4-13 both of us are going to Fiji! It's not for a holiday, rather it is to visit Homes of Hope, a ministry that provides a fresh start to young women and their children who were exploited through sex trafficking and forced sex. We are going there on behalf of Vision Abolition to spend a week with the leaders of Homes of Hope to learn more about their ministry, and to see how Vision Abolition could be part of an expansion of their work. Malawi is on their radar - so of course we are very interested.
February 25-28, Karl will be at Calvary Church in Atlanta with Jim Cantelon the founder of Visionledd. Jim is speaking at Calvary, and we'll be having a Visionledd USA Board of Directors meeting that weekend as well. Karl will also be connecting with some friends of Visionledd who live in the Atlanta area.
Experience Africa in 2011
Both of us have also been involved in preparing for short-term teams going to Africa this year. We've been working with churches and ministries planning on sending trips -- helping them with preparations, logistics and training.
Visionledd USA is also sponsoring 4 trips to Africa in 2011. We have teams going to Burkina Faso, Malawi and Zambia. Our teams focus not only on serving, but also learning. While each of us can make a difference through serving, our lives will be changed as we learn about sacrifice, thankfulness, worship and relationship with God from our African ministry partners. By serving and learning, God will change our lives and we will never be the same again!
Let us know if you are interested or would like more information. We'd love to have you join us. Send an email to saltteams@gmail.com for more information.
Thank you so much for your friendship, prayer and support.
