Dear friends,
Hello again! We are so grateful to you all for your prayers and encouragement to us in our ministry of mobilization here in College Station. It is hard to believe, but we recently passed the 5 year anniversary of our return from PNG in April 2020! And it has now been over 4 years that we have been involved in mobilization ministry. The past few months have been encouraging as we are seeing many efforts that we’ve invested in over the past years begin to bear fruit. We’ve also gotten “smarter,” figuring out what strategies are more effective and trying to direct more of our energies there.
It has been a very full semester with most of our ministry this spring focused on efforts right here in College Station and to some degree the greater Houston area. Our biggest project has been with the Perspectives class. This year I was the coordinator for the Bryan/College Station class. We had 150 people turn out for the first night, with about 125 eventually registering for the 15-week course. It was great to hear from a variety of speakers including our very own Ethnos360 CEO, Steve Sanford, in April. Through the course and related activities, we’ve been able to build many relationships with young adults interested in missions. One of the highlights this semester was getting to go with a few of the students on a “Temple Tour” in the Houston area where we visited Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist temples (pictured above) as well as a Muslim mosque.
Besides Perspectives, we hosted a couple of big events with students this semester. One of our regulars has been the “Into the Buddhist Mind” cultural event. This is a great opportunity not only for students to learn about another worldview and culture, but also provides another opportunity for us to build relationships with students who might have a growing interest in missions. After my coworker Dave does the presentation, I am able to spend time reaching out to the students who want to know more about Ethnos360 or meet up to talk through these things on a more personal level.
A final event we hosted was modeled after the Buddhist cultural event, but in this case we spotlighted tribal animism in Papua New Guinea. We invited our friends Justin and Lauren to come and share about their experience church planting cross-culturally and living among the Pei people of PNG.
I made a “PNG Stew” inspired by some of the foods we ate in PNG (sweet potato, plantains, taro root, coconut milk, etc.) It was a great evening and the group we hosted seemed to really enjoy learning about church planting in a tribal culture!
I used the title “Gaining Traction” up above for two reasons. First, because it does seem that the years of investing here locally have started to bear fruit as I mentioned already. The other reason relates to a new role I was asked to take on earlier this year: a position on the Ethnos360 Advancement Leadership Team. The ALT overseas our mission-wide efforts of mobilization and communication across the country. As the coordinator for our USA Rep team, I am able to integrate what we are doing as Reps with the overall advancement strategy of our mission. In an effort to work more effectively, we have been applying concepts from Gino Wickman’s book Traction. He emphasizes strong vision, wise priorities, and efficient meetings. Learning all of this has taken quite a bit of time, but our team is looking forward to how these efforts will pay off in allowing us to work more effectively together!
Family Update
We were blessed to be able to take a week earlier this month to spend time with the kids and grandkids in Corpus Christi. It was great to be able to unplug from emails and work responsibilities for a week after a very busy season. The three granddaughters are all growing like weeds and continually reaching milestones of maturity! We are truly blessed. The blessings are continuing as Elle and Harper recently announced the arrival of a baby brother or sister coming this October! We thank God for his abundant goodness to us!
Summer Plans
We are looking forward to the slower pace of summer. It will allow us to focus on some strategic planning for the upcoming school year. A few of the ministry items on the agenda for the summer in no particular order:
- Perspectives – wrapping up a few details from the 2025 class and looking ahead to the Spring 2026 class (yes, already!) I am also attending an Instructor Development Workshop in a couple of weeks to become fully credentialed as a Perspectives instructor.
- Discipleship and coaching – both Perspectives alumni as well as individuals I have met through the events that we hosted this year. We are really sensing discipleship as a key to mobilizing. I will be spending time developing some discipleship curriculum to use with some young men that I’ll be mentoring in the Fall.
- Organizing a Rep Conference for our dozen or so Ethnos360 Reps. Our reps all work individually across the country, so we try to get together every couple of years to encourage each other and refresh our vision. This will take place in late August up at our Ethnos360 training center in Missouri.
That’s a glimpse into some of our plans. It’s a slower pace but there should be plenty to stay busy with during the hot summer days. We appreciate you guys standing with us through your support and prayers! Thank you all so much!
Gratefully in Christ,
Neil and Becky
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