Conference Weeks

International Resource Staff from Brazil, Thailand, South Africa and the Philippines

The second half of February is booked with great opportunities. From February 20 through March 3rd, I am participating in three Birmingham conferences: The Campus Outreach Resource Connect, a College Missions Retreat and the Briarwood Presbyterian World Missions Conference.

The Resource Connect is an annual conference for Campus Outreach staff who have what we call "resource" roles. The idea behind the Resource staff for Campus Outreach is more than administrative, office or operations staff. Since Campus Outreach is specifically a college ministry, the resource staff and resource teams are those who help resource, support and serve the campus ministries while also being vitally engaged in the main thrust of the campus ministries. The Resource Connect is a time to encourage, support and collaborate between resource staff and teams. It is always an encouraging time for those staff who are often behind the scenes and making things happen. The last Resource Connect I participated in was in 2018, so it was a joy to reconnect with these valuable staff, including four international staff I personally connected with and helped process after the Resource Connect wrapped up.

I will also be participating in the World Missions Conference at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham. Briarwood is Campus Outreach's founding church. This is a church that is committed to missions: including teaching, sending and supporting. Briarwood has been one of our cornerstone financial partners for 20 years. The last time I was in the country to participate in their World Missions Conference was in 2004. I am excited to participate and share what God has done in Brazil and to share about what our new season of life and ministry will bring with Campus Outreach Serve.

Right before the Briarwood Missions Conference, I am participating in a College Missions Conference where I get to have dozens of conversations with college students who are considering the next steps after graduating and how their place in the Kingdom of God affects their decisions. I, also, am participating in a Q&A with a panel of missionaries and will be teaching on Sunday morning.

If anyone will be at the Briarwood World Missions conference this year, please stop by our booth so we can reconnect.

Conference & Contributions

October 2014 is going to meet me with some drastic climate changes. I will bid a brief farewell to Brazil's dry season finale and its 95º dry-heat and brushfire-smokey air. Then, I will say hello to a brisk Fall in the Southern US. Then, I will close out October with a return to Southeastern Brazil's arrival of its monsoon-like rainy season. These rushed travels do have TWO good reasons; not one of them having anything to do with the weather.

I'll start with the second, but most pressing, reason. During my time in the US I will be meeting with some support contacts and churches in Chattanooga and Nashville to try and raise $6500 in one-time donations. Over the past 2 years, Tathiana and I have had an above-average loss of support for various reasons, and we now need to raise a lump-sum in order to finish the year in the black. If any of my monthly and annual supporters desire to give beyond their pledge, it would be graciously appreciated.

Now, continuing the reverse order, the first reason is that I will participate for the first time in an annual conference of all the Campus Outreach administrative directors in Atlanta, GA. We call ourselves Resource Directors because we want to be administrative teams that are a resource to the front-line work of evangelism and discipleship on the college campus. These meetings bring together conversations and meetings about best practices, networking, vision for the future as a ministry and fellowship between us Resource Directors. In my almost 4 years as Resource Director in Belo Horizonte, I have not been able to participate in person because, well… I live on another continent.

I will be leaving Brazil on October 4th, spending some days with my extended family in Tennessee, then a trip to Nashville sometime in the middle, and finishing up with the conference in Atlanta, where I fly out of on Oct 30th.

Hope to see as many people as I can, and raise as much support as God allows me to.