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Borthwick Update
Spring 2004 Report

Greetings friends,

We're writing today after just completing a rigorous 6-week block of travel that has taken one or both us to Egypt, Oregon, Hong Kong, Manila and even… Bermuda! OK… the last trip was a party - we returned for a wonderful week in Bermuda to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary (we honeymooned in Bermuda in 1979).

But the rest of the travels were rigorous, invigorating, educational, and - we pray - fruitful. We're writing to report to you, our supporters and prayer partners, how God answered your prayers on our behalf.

EGYPT - DAI Staff Meetings. Let's start in Egypt in mid-April. Every 18-24 months we try to get all of our DAI staff together to share, pray, report, and plan together. This April we met in Cairo and then Alexandria and with one exception, the entire team (and some spouses and board members, who often don't make these meetings) came together.

What a great week of learning and sharing with our DAI co-workers from Egypt, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Russia, Uganda, Germany, Australia, USA, Belgium, India, and South Africa! (If you chart out the locations of our DAI team, you'll see why Cairo was actually a central and convenient location.) We heard about opportunities in the Muslim world, challenges from post-Christian Europe, political strife and violence in Cote d'Ivoire, and holistic ministry in Ghana.

For both of us, the highlight of these meetings was the PEOPLE - getting to see (and in some cases, meet) members of our international team, especially several wives and Board Members. The only "lowlight" of the week was the fact that Reuben and Bosede Ezemadu, our team leaders in Nigeria, were not able to attend because of an air-ticket mix-up.

These meetings gave us more of a sense of what a great team we have. With a "virtual organization" like DAI, and with some of our staff working in difficult locations, the face-to-face time helped us sense a greater degree of teamwork - working together towards the common goal of leadership development. (Check out the updated DAI web site at www.daintl.org)

Other highlights included visiting and meeting the staff of an evangelical church in Cairo that has over 8000 attendees throughout the week. The Egyptian hospitality was awesome, and we got to see the pyramids, the Egyptian museum, the Sphinx, the amazing ministry of the "Garbage Village Church", and the new Alexandria Library.

Two lessons stood out in our minds as we left Egypt:

1. In our team meetings, we were both struck by the work of God through suffering and hardship - the "suffering & success" equation that we reported on in our Sri Lanka report (November 2003). Specifically, our partner Gilbert in Cote d'Ivoire is living in the midst of great violence and a virtual Civil War. The people most equipped to minister to Gilbert were Nicolas and Betty Wafula of Uganda, whose lives and characters were shaped by living 25 years ago under the violent dictatorial regime of Idi Amin. The lessons that God had taught them now became the grounds for them comforting and encouraging Gilbert (see II Corinthians 1:4).
2. In Egypt, we were deeply encouraged by the strength and depth of the Christians there. When we asked one of the leaders about the challenge of Islam, he surprised us with his optimistic outlook. The revival of Islam may set many nominal Muslims on a spiritual journey and search that he hopes will turn them to Jesus.

Please pray for the Christians in the Middle East: first, that God will give them grace to stay faithful in their ministry there (the migration of Arab Christians to the West has devastated many churches) and second, that they will be courageous and wise in their outreach. One leader told us that he believes that Arabic Christianity is the key to unlocking the door to Islam.

OREGON: three days after returning from Egypt, Paul left for five intense ministry days (speaking 15 times) in Portland - speaking to mission pastors, the "Evangelical Missiological Society" and at the Village Baptist Church mission weekend.

HONG KONG: two days after getting home from Portland, Paul was off to Hong Kong in transit to Manila. Hong Kong is always a great chance to visit with Jamie Taylor, talk about China, and learn first hand about the amazing things that God is doing there - especially through the house churches. NOTE: make sure to read "Back To Jerusalem" (edited by Paul Hattaway) if you want to catch Chinese leader's vision for evangelizing the countries between China and Jerusalem: they're praying to send 100,000 missionaries! (see www.backtojerusalem.com)

MANILA: Paul returned to the Philippines for a third time to teach at the Alliance Biblical Seminary (ABS) in Quezon City, Manila. The class focused on developing leaders for youth ministry. This exciting and intense (8:30am to 5:00 pm daily) class included 18 students - volunteer youth workers, youth pastors, pastors, campus ministry staff, an aspiring missionary to Tibet (see below), and a pastor from the Chin people group of Myanmar (Burma).

One of the great highlights of returning to locations like the Philippines or Sri Lanka is getting to see our former students. Nelson (a student from Spring 02) came by to tell me about getting married and serving now as a full-time youth pastor. Randall (Spring 98) is now a youth leader at a large Baptist Church (his wife was in the class). Anne (Spring 98) is now the director of the entire Seminary youth ministry program and a leader in youth ministry for the Christian Missionary Alliance across the Philippines.

The ABS students often write words of thanks to their professors. These come as a great encouragement to us, but we thought we'd include a few here just so you know how your prayers for our effectiveness are being answered.

• "Kuya Paul [Kuya in Filipino means 'older brother'], Thank you for imparting your life to us" (volunteer youth worker)
• "Sir Paul, The contents you have taught us are so uplifting and encouraging to me personally. I am experiencing tremendous pain and discouragement these days and I'm about to quit everything - my studies, my ministries, and my faith… THANK YOU for being the right person to help me understand what I should do to get back on track" (church youth pastor)"
• "Paul, Thank you for your sacrifices in coming to ABS and teaching us life transforming principles and encouraging us to develop the leadership potentials in us. I hope you can be one of my mentors in missions. My dream is to minister to the 'Ladakhi Tribe' (in the Himalayas between India and Tibet)" (student preparing for missions).
• "Thank you for challenging us to dream dreams!" (Youth pastor's wife).

GORDON COLLEGE. In the midst of all these travels our younger version of leadership development (teaching at Gordon College) wrapped up another academic year in May. In the Spring semester, we had a total of 117 students taking courses like "Introduction to World Religions," "Current Issues in Missions" and "Preparing for Cross-Cultural Service." Now several dozen are on their way out in short-term mission service to places like Uganda, Romania, Cambodia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, and Pakistan. We're consistently excited with the privilege of influencing these great students and rising leaders!

SUMMER 04 our focus changes to an emphasis on reading and study. Christie commences in September as a full-time student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (pursuing an M.A. in Counseling). Paul completes Residency #3 in the Doctor of Ministry Program (Missions & Cross-Cultural Studies) in June/July, and then he finishes a three-year writing project on "Ethnicity versus Ethnocentricity" which we hope will become a core course in the DAI training.

Summer will also include some vacation time as well as a 1-week trip to South Africa (August 5-14) to participate in the "Kopano Conference" (see www.kopano.org for more info). This conference is gathering related to CTS (Christian Technical Support, an amazing group of volunteers (launched in part during our years on Grace Chapel staff) who serve by seeking to empower the poor through Micro-Enterprise Development loans in places like Nigeria, Moldova, Peru, Viet Nam, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

A WORD ABOUT SUPPORT: we don't like to spend a lot of time on this in newsletters, but our ministry through DAI depends on the generosity of people who contribute to the ministry on our behalf. For those who read this who already support us - THANK YOU! We thank God for your partnership with us.

For those who'd like to support us, tax-deductible gifts can be made payable to "Development Associates International." Support gifts should be noted "Borthwick support." If you'd like information on giving electronically (auto-withdrawal or credit card), please contact Cheri Matas at: CMatas@daintl.org

For all readers, please pray with us as we're still trying to increase our monthly support by just over $400/month ($5000 annually) - to offset the increased cost of health insurance. Any gifts (designated "Borthwick Support") can be sent to:

Development Associates International
P.O. Box 49278
Colorado Springs, CO 80949

Paul & Christie (www.borthwicks.org)