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BORTHWICK UPDATE & SOUTH AFRICA REPORT
SEPTEMBER 2004

Serving with Development Associates International (DAI)

Greetings friends,

We enter this new season with a great sense of gratitude and anticipation. We celebrate God's faithfulness, and we're looking forward to exciting and challenging months ahead.

Before reporting, a brief overview of this letter/report: below we'll offer a report on ministry in South Africa, an update about teaching and studies, a focus and schedule of upcoming travels, and a progress report on two financial partnership opportunities. (You can also view this report and schedule on our website - www.borthwicks.org.)

SOUTH AFRICA REPORT: in August, Paul traveled to South Africa to be part of the "Kopano" conference. The Kopano [Unity] conference [www.kopano.org] brought together over 100 men and women from 15 nations - all affiliated with "Christian Technical Support" (CTS). CTS includes some pastors and church leaders, but most are volunteers who dedicate their resources and skills to empowering the poor through Micro-Enterprise Development. Kopano was their opportunity to celebrate God-at-work in their various countries, fellowship and learn from each other, and strategize for greater Kingdom-of-Christ impact on their communities and nations.

Micro Enterprise Development (MED) is a strategic and practical solution for helping the world's poorest people break out of the cycle of poverty. MED is not about receiving more "hand-outs" but by receiving training and capital to help people create their own self-sustaining businesses. And the CTS partners do all this in the name of Jesus Christ and as witnesses for Him!

The conference was an exciting time of hearing about communities transformed by business creation in the townships of South Africa, or families relieved from chronic poverty in Bangkok, Thailand or villages being served in Christ's name in war-torn Sri Lanka. The Latin American theologian Rene Padilla, writing from the context of poverty in Buenos Aires, observes that, "The poor need to be liberated from fatalism to recover a sense of their own human dignity and the possibilities of creative participation in changing their own situation." Micro-Enterprise Development offers this creative participation.

The Borthwicks' relationship to Kopano goes back more than a decade when Todd Engelsen and others developed the vision that is now CTS. Over the years we've served primarily as encouragers to Todd & Leslie and their team. BUT - in keeping with our DAI value of "connecting" resources - we were very encouraged to be told that we were directly or indirectly responsible for the "connecting" of the people involved in eight of the twelve CTS international partnerships. These connections were evident even in the speaker team that included Paul and missionary statesman Panya Baba (who is the key link to the CTS partnership in northern Nigeria).

Paul's role as a speaker was to challenge them as leaders to be walking in the footsteps of Jesus - following His compassionate, peaceful, and sacrificial steps. [Paul's sermons are in full manuscript form on www.borthwicks.org/kopano_messages.html]

Kopano was an experience of celebrating God doing "more than we could ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20) through CTS. We believe that Kopano will have a great long-term impact in locales where there are many nominal Christians (Mexico, Haiti, Bahamas, Peru, Brazil, South Africa, Moldova), in countries confronting Islam (Nigeria and India), and in places that are predominantly Hindu or Buddhist (India, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, Thailand). CTS is also looking forward to developing new potential partners serving Angolan refugees in Namibia and Sudanese refugees in Uganda.

If you're interested in volunteering in service with CTS, you can contact them about opportunities and upcoming training by writing for information to: ctsorg@aol.com

SCHOOLING & RELATED CHALLENGES: soon after Kopano, Christie started as a full-time student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary! She's working towards her M.A. in Counseling - which will have its obvious future application to our commitment to developing leaders. But for now, Christie's BIG challenge is being a full-time student, a part-time DAI staff, and working occasionally at the microbiology lab. (She significantly reduced her work hours at the Lab so that she can take a full load of courses.)

Paul resumed teaching at Gordon College on August 30th and continues work on his Doctor of Ministry degree (all class-work and related papers are completed. The dissertation is the remaining hurdle). FOR BOTH OF US - please pray that we'll be disciplined and diligent students in the midst of all of the other demands of ministry life.

UPCOMING TRAVEL: an updated travel schedule through December appears below (and it's updated on our website (www.borthwicks.org/travel.html), but four things represent special opportunities for these next several months. Please pray with us.

  • LAUSANNE MEETINGS IN THAILAND: from September 26-October 6th, many of the DAI Staff will join leaders from around the world to wrestle with issues related to leadership character, leadership values, and leadership development. Our President, Jane Overstreet, is one of the global leaders strategizing for these days together (see www.lausanne.org). If you give to our support, you're already involved in this conference as our DAI support will cover Paul's air ticket. If you don't support us regularly or you'd like to give to a special project, READ ON!
  • IFES LEADERS IN MARBURG, GERMANY: (November 12-17). As part of the ongoing development of our DAI partnership with IFES, Paul will be addressing the international strategic management team on topics related to leadership character. IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students) is an association of student ministries in over 120 countries (see www.ifesworld.org).
  • NIFES 2004 - NIGERIA (November 22-28). Paul has been asked to be a plenary speaker at the NIFES [Nigeria Fellowship of Evangelical Students] student mission conference in Abuja, Nigeria. NIFES is the largest "Inter-Varsity" in the world, and their mission conference is the largest student mission conference in Africa, the "Urbana" of Africa. They will have more than 10,000 students participating from many African nations. If you give to our support, you're already involved in this conference as our DAI support will cover Paul's air ticket. If you don't support us regularly or you'd like to give to a special project, READ ON!
  • CHINESE MISSION 2004 (December 26-30) near Philadelphia. Chinese Mission is sometimes called the "Christian Urbana." It's a mission conference dedicated to the mobilization of Chinese-Americans. Paul will be giving two plenary addresses and leading two workshops.

SPECIAL PROJECTS: we mentioned briefly in an August email two special financial opportunities to invest in leaders. Here's a quick update:

  • DAI STAFF TO LAUSANNE MEETINGS IN THAILAND. We need YOUR HELP in raising the funds needed for a number of our DAI associates from poorer contexts to help cover their air travel and other expenses.
    • GOAL: we are trying to raise about $9000
    • RAISED SO FAR: $2500
    • INTERESTED IN HELPING? Gifts should be made out to Development Associates International and designated "DAI Staff-Lausanne meetings." If you'd like to support a specific ministry center director, ask us and we can tell you what they need. These gifts should be designated "DAI Staff [give the name of the person you want to support] - Lausanne Meetings." Any gifts can be sent to the DAI address below.
  • 10,000 students / $10,000 / 10,000 BOOKS TO NIGERIA. Related to the NIFES student mission conference (above), the directors have asked us to secure for them 1000 to 5000 copies of each of Paul's missions books so that Nigerian students can purchase them at Nigeria-affordably prices (maybe $1 to $3 per book). We're trying to honor their request, we've negotiated with the publishers, and of course we've waived any 'royalties'. The dollars we raise will subsidize the books. If they are sold, the minimal profits that are made will go towards the overall NIFES ministry.
    • GOAL: we estimate that $10,000 can secure close to 10,000 books.
    • RAISED SO FAR: $6150
    • INTERESTED IN HELPING? Gifts should be made out to Development Associates International and designated "Nigeria Borthwick Books," and sent to the DAI address below.

ANY GIFTS CAN BE SENT TO:

Development Associates International
P. O Box 49278
Colorado Springs, CO 80949
ATTN: Cheri Matas

We value your prayers, your partnership, and your investment in us...

THANK YOU

Paul & Christie


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