Maybe you’ve heard presentations from people at your congregation before. Talking about going off to distant lands and inviting you to partner with them. You might have marveled that anyone could consider such a a strange venture. But you probably also marveled that these people could get up and give a presentation in front of your Bible study or congregation. After all, public speaking is consistently ranked as the greatest fear (or near-greatest, spiders are pretty terrifying!) people have.
It isn’t to speak in public. It isn’t easy to talk in front of strangers. And it isn’t easy to ask people to partner with you in prayer, encouragement, sharing the story with others, and finances. So much of this first round of orientation was spent helping those being deployed around the world in church work articulate the work and the need in a way that is clear, concise, and specific. Even though I’ve been training, teaching and eventually preaching for close to 30 years now, there’s always something more to learn, and certainly this kind of presentation is different than preaching a sermon or teaching a history class!
I’m grateful for the time and resources deployed towards assisting us in these presentations, and trust that as we visit together you’ll all be willing to share feedback as well. Incidentally, if you’d be interested in myself (or possibly the whole family!) coming to your neck of the woods to meet and talk personally about my anticipated work in Southeast Asia and how you and others can partner in it, please send me an e-mail or leave me a note here – we’re in the process of setting up visits in the coming months!
The Nelson Family Indonesia 