Praise God for his blessing on our Converge Asia Impact Team gathering in Arizona last month. As a team we are so spread out, so we do not meet face-to-face often and this time miraculously no one was absent. For the first time we met our new Asia Director, Chaz Nichols. He will also be our direct boss by assuming the leadership role of our team until a permanent leader is found. Please ask God to supply a leader.
Our meeting was a great opportunity to look back and see all that God accomplished in 2023. John was on 4 trips into Asia and visited leaders in 10 countries. The rest of the team visited other leaders in Asia. The Asian leaders also come our way and we met with them in the US. Our team in 2023 was able to develop some budding partnerships with two teams of local leaders. We also sparked several opportunities that we will see develop in 2024, especially Vietnam. We will further deepen all of these partnerships in the years ahead.
For our whole team, we are seeing the value of our commitment to equipping local Asian leaders to catch and foster a vision for gospel movements. Our commitment to these leaders means our key role is to find the best ways to come alongside and equip them. As you would imagine, we are challenged to meet the needs of each leader and their situation.
Our Asia Impact Team also took a look ahead into 2024 and set our ministry schedules for the coming year. Besides equipping several leaders online, John will be traveling to Asia at least four times next year. Our team established priorities to develop contacts in Mongolia, Bangladesh, and Nepal, along with continuing our work in India, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. John, of course, will also carry on mentoring leaders and coaching church planters in Japan. Four of the wives came to Arizona and Elaine led them in a retreat which was a great blessing for these women in ministry.