You hear a lot of stories about IGSL, but check out this fun and short tour of the campus featuring one of our current MA students.  It was made for student recruiting, but it’s a fun intro to the campus. Click the image or this link.

Dissertation Coaching Prateep

         Prateep and I got to spend a couple of different times connecting over my course that he’s in, but we also spent time focused on the bones of his dissertation proposal. As you read above, Prateep has developed a deep burden for Asian pastors and the area of conflict. He sees pastors and churches routinely getting stuck or failing due to the inability to navigate conflict in ways that are in keeping with the gospel and Jesus’ teachings. He’s developing his research proposal to study how these Asian church leaders can get free enough from cultural norms and expectations, as well as honor and shame dynamics, to model reconciliation regularly in their personal lives and leadership for the sake of their churches and mission. I’m excited for the possibilities! He had a couple of significant breakthroughs while we were there!

Meet Sol!

 I taught her husband in our first two years in Manila. When I saw her name on the list, I claimed “dibs.” She is a student now, but in 2020 she was working as an admin for IGSL. When the pandemic hit and I was tasked to lead the school strategically through that crisis, Sol was on my team! And I have not seen her in person since the pandemic started. It was great to catch up!

But it was more than just a reunion. She’s working on an exegetical capstone focused on pastoral burnout recovery with the focus as Psalm 23. Her plan is to turn her work into a devotional based on Psalm 23 for Filipino pastors navigating burnout (which is highly common). We got to connect on that as well as I am in the middle of a devotional project myself.  This was so fun and life-giving.

Meet Chuck!

This is Rafael, who goes by Chuck, a Wesleyan pastor who also is doing a capstone project on burnout, but with a view of developing training and workshops for the Wesleyan denomination in the Philippines. His focus is on the emotional and identity dynamics of pastoral leadership in the face of unrealistic congregational expectations and demands. He is working with the Moses and Jethro narrative, Ephesians 4, and Galatians 5 to develop a culturally resonant, but biblically informed, vision of healthy and resilient leadership in the face of culturally rooted pressure and dynamics.  He is also drawing on family systems theory, a niche area of passion for me, so we got to nerd out a bit together.  It was a short time, but it was fun discovering that Chuck and I are kindred spirits in many respects and we will definitely be staying in touch. He also is in my coaching and leadership development course this semester.

       We have safely returned back home from our visit to IGSL. Thank you so much for praying! It’s good to be back with the kids and Morgan was home for Spring Break which was a treat – we even got to celebrate her turning 21! We are home, but there is still so much to share from our time. Our hearts are full!

        Christine and I spent much of this trip doing coaching, program consulting, and missionary care for IGSL’s faculty. But we were invited our last day to have a meal with Shanaka and Naomi, who are on the verge of graduating this June. We were able to hear their story, meet their 3 beautiful daughters, and hear their vision for their ministry. Shanaka is going to be teaching at Colombo Theological Seminary in the capital city of Sri Lanka, but their shared vision really is for church planting in Sri Lankan Provinces.

       Shanaka is in my coaching course this semester. However, we have been corresponding since the last class he took with me because he was so excited to learn about peacemaking and leadership negotiation. He shared that he had adopted cultural patterns of just using his power and authority to get what he wanted and get people to fall in line. He said that the course has changed his professional relationships and how he approaches his marriage and parenting too! It was fun to hear them talk about how their family has grown in the last year because of how they are communicating and working together as a team. 

         Naomi is one of the women in Christine’s course right now. Naomi grew up Buddhist, so how did she get her name? An influential aunt who knew Christ managed to influence Naomi’s parents to give her a Biblical name. She lost her mom to cancer at 8, leading her father to resist Christianity because he was taken advantage of by shady faith healers. But Shanaka eventually led Naomi to faith in Christ, and Naomi’s father as well. Today, Naomi’s whole family are believers!  

            Shanaka grew up in severe poverty, yet his parents came to faith in Christ when he was a child. He developed a heart for church planting among the poor, even though God opened doors for him to become a trained architect. He teaches leadership, discipleship, and practical theology at their school. When they came to IGSL they sold all of their businesses and turned their 3 churches over to successors. They shared amazing stories of learning to live by faith and seeing God provide financially for them during their years of study. Shanaka doesn’t plan to return to those 3 churches. He and Naomi plan to plant new churches instead.

      We had the privilege of joining in an emergency faculty meeting where new leadership restructuring was being announced. We got the VIP treatment and a group photo with us in the middle, because I guess we hadn’t been around in a while. It was a little uncomfortable getting that kind of attention, but such is the great strength of Filipino hospitality to really bless us in our return. We were asked to share a life update and to encourage the faculty, so we each had the chance to share some life updates and also really bless and encourage our colleagues and teammates.
          If you look at the group photo a little more closely, we both spent a lot of hours on this trip so far ministering to many in this photo.  IGSL is going through a leadership change (New President 6 months ago) and a generational change (2/3 of faculty have been there less than 7 years, as many have retired since the pandemic or been relocated like us).  We found that we can offer something unique because we were around with a lot of the previous generations, but we also have gifts that are attentive to new faculty coming in and navigating all the change and the culture.  So God is giving us a lot of opportunities to encourage and support many of the faculty in this photo – spiritually, strategically, in dissertations, in mental and emotional health, and more. 

         Thank you so much for praying! We are seeing God go before us daily. We’ve been so thankful and have been having a lot of fun, even though we’ve been working really hard since we got off the plane.