The New Year has begun, and we are looking forward to many new opportunities to serve God and God’s people in the coming year. We wear many “hats” in our new role as missionaries serving Baptist partners in the Asia Pacific region. Here are a few that we wore recently, and will be putting on again in 2017:

Social entrepreneurship training through Samaritana Transformation Ministries in the Philippines. At the invitation of colleagues Thelma and Jonathan Nambu (http://samaritana.org), we offered a training in social entrepreneurship for leaders of several organisations that work with women escaping from prostitution. They all have livelihood programs to help women develop other ways to support their families, but the organisations want to be more self-sustaining themselves. Thanks to Bruce’s doctoral research in faith-based social entrepreneurship, he is able to help them find ways to apply tools of business in the service of God’s call to empower at-risk women.

Supporting strategic planning and a mission conference of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (CPBC). Our recent trip to the Philippines gave us the chance to reconnect with friends and colleagues at the CPBC and its schools and hospitals. It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since we served there! Now that we are living in the region, Convention leaders have invited us to assist in their strategic planning process as well as their first regional mission conference in Hong Kong.

Reinvigorating worship close to home. We’re working with the members of a NZ Baptist church’s worship ministry to help them apply the appreciative inquiry method to understand their role in the church’s health and faithfulness. We’ll return in February to facilitate a reflection and planning retreat with their leadership teams.

These are just a few of the ministries YOU are involved in as you walk with us. We wouldn’t be able to support Baptist convention leaders and churches in the Asia Pacific region without you supporting us through your prayers, emails, cards and financial gifts to IM. 

As you walk, saunter, or run into the new journey of 2017, may you meet God in surprising ways. When you do, we’d love to hear about it!

Tau Hou Hari (Happy New Year in the Maori language of New Zealand), 

Faithfully,

Ann & Bruce