|
Commissioning Service
July 8th, 2023 was a special day for our Global Servant family! If you have followed our journey you know that this is such a momentous milestone in our time with International Ministries. We are so excited to serve with our ministry partners COBAMI in Oaxaca, Mexico.
If you missed watching it live you can watch it through this link. Click it and it will direct you to the Facebook video recording!
|
Our IM family
We were honored and blessed to have many IM staff, colleagues, and IM Board of Director member present at the Commissioning!
|
|
Back row: Gary Baits, Global Servant Alumni; Left to right: Sharon Koh, Executive Director/CEO of IM; Jill Lowery, Donor Advisor and Global Servant Alumni; Adalia Gutierrez-Lee, Area Director of Iberoamerica and the Caribbean; Mylinda Baits, Global Consultant; Sarah and Nora; Jeni Pezinski, Director of Mission Mobilization; Luis Matos; Paul Gibson, IM Board member. Everyone pictured played a special role to make the weekend and day special for us. |
Left to right: Jeni, Luis, Nora, Adalia (our Area Director), and Sarah at the Port of Olympia enjoying the view and beauty of God’s creation. |
|
Our MPT
Betty Utter and Emily Kok were present at Luis’ commissioning; they were so welcoming in greeting everyone who came. Emily was our photographer who captured every moment of the service and reception.
Our two other MPT members Rev. Sarah Strosahl Kagi and Josh Kagi were there in spirit! We are thankful for this team of four faithful friends who have come alongside us to be our advocates within the American Baptist Churches, prayer partners, videographer, and communication advocate. Sarah, Emily, and Betty have been with Sarah’s MPT since 2018! We are thankful for our mission partnership team! |
|
Nora at MTI
While Luis and I were in cross-cultural training and language aquisition classes at MTI in Colorado, Nora was in the nursery. She did amazingly well being cared by strangers, as this was her first time ever being in a nursery/day care setting. Over the month the strangers became friends and familiar faces and she loved being with them. The kids program made tie-dye shirts to represent being a Third Culture Kid (TCK). The three colors represent their parent’s culture, the new culture they will be raised in, and their own culture which will be an amalgamation of them both. Here is Nora with her sweet nursery teacher Mella Dee. |
Three things
Three takeaways that we learned at MTI
1) Learned to see different cultures from a different lens. We learned to not think what other cultures do is weird, but it’s simply just different.
2) Learned our conflict styles. Not only was this super informative in regard to future ministry relationships, but also helpful in our marriage.
3) Learned the importance of good good-byes to help us with our transistion from our passport country into our host country. |
|
|
Family Time
We were thankful for some family time with Sarah’s cousin Erik and his wife Krista while being in Colorado for our Cross-Cultural training at MTI. They took us to Garden of the Gods. It’s a beautiful park that we highly recommend you experience if you are in the Colorado Springs area.
|
Church visits
While we were in Colorado for the month, we connected with two new churches. First Baptist Church of Cañon City and First Baptist Church of Sterling welcomed us with open arms even though one ended up being virtual because of Nora’s health. When we returned to WA we connected with friends at Belfair Community Church. |
|
|
|
We are so thrilled that we are both commissioned by International Ministries and are ready to serve as a family! Will you help us reach our support goal and send us to Mexico? We only need 2 more churches or individuals to partner with us at $500/month and 1 church or individual at $300/month then we would be fully supported! Please know that any amount that you can give will be used for God’s Kingdom and enable us to serve in Mexico. Thank you for your generosity and your partnership in God’s mission in Mexico. |
|
|
Watch this video from Pastor Jaime, director of COBAMI, to catch the excitement to having us join them in God’s mission in Mexico. We are honored to be their first Global Servants of International Ministries and we cannot wait to work with them in Oaxaca! |
|
On earth as it is in heaven
Matthew 6:10
|