"We have to pray with our eyes on God, not our difficulties." - Oswald Chambers

FROM THE DESK OF: the Director of Mobilization

A variety of projects are crossing my desk this week! 

My summer intern, Grace, graciously offered her help editing a “short-term mission trip training manual,” and I’m pushing it toward completion in the next few weeks. On a related note, I am also researching mission trip management sites, through ministries like eFurther, MissionMinder, and ManagedMissions — all offer FREE services to help organizations like ours manage their mission trips. As we continue to mobilize more and more short-term and long-term workers, these resources will help the Mobilization Department stay efficient and effective! Three cheers for organization!

Our big sports project this month happens next week, when four men will go to their local airport and fly across the oceans to the Middle East. It is a lot of travel for a short training workshop, but these sport professionals are generously giving their time to teach local coaches and help our company make important connections. We are just beginning work in this Arab country, and are excited for the opportunities God is providing. Join us in praying for safe travel, meaningful conversations, and a chance to enjoy beautiful weather, scenery, and friendship.

Earlier this week, I visited a local university class, sports facility management, and spoke with the fitness & recreation majors about ways to combine sports, international travel, and giving back. It was fun to see a light bulb go on for some of them, and it reminded me of the stops and starts of my own career journey. When you’re 21, the world is full of options and it can be hard to begin taking steps forward when you aren’t sure where you want to end up! Thank God we can trust His purpose for our life: "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.” [Proverbs 19:21]

For the Win[dow],

Erin Meek, DOM

VERSE OF THE WEEK: Micah 6:8

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

COUNTRY OF THE WEEK: RWANDA

In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in a state-orchestrated genocide, in which Rwandans killed up to a million of their fellow citizens, including approximately three-quarters of the Tutsi population. The genocide ended later that same year when the predominantly Tutsi RPF, operating out of Uganda and northern Rwanda, defeated the national army and Hutu militias, and established an RPF-led government of national unity. Approximately 2 million Hutu refugees fled to neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and former Zaire. Since then, most of the refugees have returned to Rwanda, but several thousand remained in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, the former Zaire) and formed an extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF did in 1990. Rwanda held its first local elections in 1999 and its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in 2003. Rwanda in 2009 staged a joint military operation with the Congolese Army in DRC to rout out the Hutu extremist insurgency there, and Kigali and Kinshasa restored diplomatic relations. Rwanda also joined the Commonwealth in late 2009. In January 2013, Rwanda assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2013-14 term. (CIA World Fact Book)

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PRAYER REQUESTS:

  • Pray for the Church to lead in national repentance, reconciliation, and healing.
  • Pray for the provision and hope for widows, orphans, and other continued victims of the genocide.
  • Pray for committed believers to stand firm in the face of cultural and tribal pressures.
  • Pray for Uttermost reps in the field.
  • Pray for the Uttermost US office.