From Kevin Higgins, International Director of Global Teams
Most of our friends and partners through the years know Susan and I as people who worked among Muslims and lived in South Asia. And we faced all the challenges that any one in another culture and language and religious context faces: sickness, confusion, discouragement, stress, and burn out. We also experienced moments of great satisfaction and joy.
I have now been the International Director of Global Teams for 14 years. We have been living in the USA that entire time and traveled to more and more countries as Global Teams has grown.
To be honest my role as director. ..training, casting vision, seeking to discern His leading, learning to more humbly hear His voice in my teammates, and being part of a Global Teams movement that is comprised of a dramatically diverse multicultural membership and leadership, has been perhaps the most challenging thing I have ever done...more challenging than fish farms in Asia or sharing His words in a rural mosque.
This last week our international leadership team saw a short clip of a commercial which depicted a group building an airplane. ..as it flew with passengers aboard at 35,000 feet. Yes it was a created scene and full of humor. But it portrays exactly how the last 14 years have felt: trying to build a movement while it is moving...construction in midair.
How do we know who the right people are to send out? Where? How do we train them well. ..not just one time but as a lifelong process of growth and transformative discipleship? How do we honor and work with each other in a multicultural and multilingual organization? How do we develop financially as a global movement and not just with funding from the West?
These things keep me on my knees.
I know that many people pray for me and for Global Teams. We count on it and can't imagine doing anything without it. ..
I'm grateful to be back with New Covenant again this week. ..home to Susan and I and to Global Teams North America and Sheryl and in many ways to Global Teams Latin America as well.
You are such a blessing. ..
Building the plane as we fly it...
Kevin Higgins