It was a delight to have Holly join me for the past week in Iowa as we engaged together in annual team meetings with our Pathways team and also trained a large midwest contingent of almost 30 pastors who are actively training with us globally.

Our Pathways team is certainly growing. Including those who are in the “partnership development” phase, we will have 21 team members soon.  The first day of our annual time together, we shared with one another updates from our lives, we prayed together, laughed and (in some cases) cried together, and planned for the training the following day.

Then on Wednesday and Thursday, about 25-30 midwest pastors who are experienced Pathways trainers joined us. We studied the Word, our curriculum revision team (Steve, Mike, and me) rolled out the changes we have made in our material over the past year and fielded many questions, and we discussed other issues related with our work. I led a discussion on how to handle financial issues when working cross-culturally, and Mike led a discussion on spiritual warfare.

One of the highlights for me was having Holly get up and share her testimony in front of the group. This is only the second time she has shared somewhat publicly about the ways God worked in her life to heal her from her long-term struggle with health. She did a great job, and had worked VERY hard over the past few months to craft just what she wanted to share. Many tears were shed as she gave testimony to the glorious God who, in His perfect time and way, taught her vital spiritual truths.

Along the way, we engaged in many discussions with the pastors and our teammates, and I was encouraged that I was able to get some traction in a few cases toward planning trainings in Africa for the future. Prayer was the glue that held the sessions together, and Holly did a fabulous job working with our administrator Diana and others to come up with several good, creative prayer times.

On Friday, we finished that time by hearing from those who will be joining our team, and shared a vision for what the future of Pathways might look like. Then our curriculum revision team stayed on for a few more days to crunch through more work on various aspects of our Pathways material. Along the way, as a side benefit, I enjoyed the chilly Iowa landscape by going on runs most mornings and swimming in the camp 25 meter pool each evening.

It was a good, productive time. Now I’m prepping for preaching this weekend at my church on 1 John 2:18-27, and then take off the next day for two weeks of training in India. Thank you for your prayers!