Dear Friends,
Wow! Our first 6 months in this new adventure of faith has gone by quickly! We have asked God to use us as He pleases and make us effective for spreading the good news of Jesus in our city, in our nation, and in our world. Having never walked this path, we asked Him to give us opportunities to be productive for His purposes. He has definitely answered with many opportunities! We are learning wisdom in navigating them.
Since our January email giving you an overview of our ministry focus, we’ve enjoyed serving and seeing God work in a variety of ways. He has allowed us to be a part of . . .
In our City
- Working with and encouraging pastors and leaders across the city to further the gospel through Christ Together Greater Austin, our Hill Country Association of Churches, key city events, and one-on-one coaching and encouragement.
- Exploring bringing training to Austin to equip market-place leaders to make significant and strategic gospel impact (SALLT) as well as collaborating with Resource Global, a ministry focused on mentoring and developing Christian business leaders of the future.
- Consulting with and preaching for some of our sister churches to encourage their mission as well as speaking at the Austin Disaster Relief Network banquet to celebrate how God is using them in our city.
- (Cindy) Collaborating to complete our parent-discipleship/small group curriculum for Hill Country’s Courageous Parenting pilot.
In our Nation
- Developing a strategy with Christ Together National pastors and leaders to pass the gospel saturation vision to the next generation of pastors.
- Training of 11 Exponential Multipliers Learning Communities of pastors and denominational leaders across the nation in discipleship and evangelism, incorporating learnings from our Hill Country story.
- Christ Together City Envisioning with Milwaukee pastors for gospel saturation of their city.
- Strategic planning between Christ Together and New Thing Network, a church planting network, to partner together for gospel saturation.
- Mentoring for two cohorts of pastors, one with 11 large church pastors focusing on succession and the other with pastors and key national leaders focusing on effective leadership.
- Leading a breakout at the D6 Family Conference (Tim and Cindy) about Courageous Parenting’s vision and strategy.
- Speaking at Christ Together National’s Fellowship Retreat (Tim and Cindy) on Eternal Perspective for Life and for Each Day.
In our World
- Participating in a vision trip (Tim and Cindy) and board meeting (Tim) for Via Nations in Mexico City, learning and strategizing about reaching the nations VIA the nations.
On a Personal Note
- We helped Tim’s parents move from their single-family home in Cedar Park to a senior living community. Cindy, particularly, enjoyed the flexibility to help them with the move. Watch out Lakeline Oaks Senior Living! Richard and Dawn are joining what God is doing in your community!
- Our 6 grands, all 4 and under, are a joy! So glad they are living in Austin!
- Kate, our only child not living in Austin, will be home from Abu Dhabi for much of the summer. Yay!
- We are enjoying serving and working out of the house together!
Please pray for what is coming!
- Working with the Houston Church Project to expand its church planting efforts across the U.S. and potentially in Austin.
- Speaking (Tim) at Via’s annual Ministry Leaders Training the end of June. Please pray that he and Cindy will be an encouragement to the leaders at this 5-day experience.
- Preaching for two sister churches in July.
- Mentoring a leadership cohort of pastors in August.
- Traveling in September (Tim and Cindy) on a vision trip to Rwanda to see and experience what God is doing through much needed training of national pastors with a view to serving with the training team.