Christie, zooms, and resumption of travel
Greetings praying friends,
Several emails of late have started with “How’s Christie doing?” so we want to start by thanking so many of you for your prayers and encouragement.
CHRISTIE UPDATE: for those who are new to our updates, a quick summary. In late October, while Paul was in meetings in Colorado Springs, Christie tripped and fell on our basement (cement) floor and experienced a “trochanteric fracture” (the top of the femur). Surgery followed and then eight days in the hospital, twelve days in the rehabilitation hospital, and weeks on a walker, then a cane and multiple Physical Therapy appointments. We finally made the drive to SW Florida in mid-January and life and ministry continues here.
Christie summarizes her status update: “First, a huge thank-you for the cards, calls, prayer, care and encouragement from so many. You lifted my spirits through these challenging days. I’m now almost four months into a recovery time that the doctors predicted would be ‘6-months before you’re back to normal.’
“We were able to drive to Florida in January, and the time here has been a recovery gift. When we started doing the ‘snow-bird’ thing (December through April in warmer weather), we had no idea of how warm weather, the ability to swim, walk outside, and even bike could be such a catalyst for healing (I just got back on my bike last week and we actually did a 10-mile trip last Friday!).
“I still have some level of pain and muscle spasms every day – so your ongoing prayers are appreciated. But I thank God for excellent progress!!!”
MINISTRY LIFE ON ZOOM: ministry in 2022 has started like much of 2020 and all of 2021 – virtual ministry by Zoom. January and February has included:
- Paul speaking for the first time ever at a Zoom funeral for our long-time friend Dave Auld.
- USA Zoom meetings for DAI Staff on Tuesdays, for planning travel into March and beyond, for introducing the book Mission 3:16: God’s One-verse Invitation to Love the World, and for teaching at various seminars.
- Global Zooms that have taken Paul to Sri Lanka, Singapore, China, India, Costa Rica and one hosted in Nigeria that was linked to over twenty countries of Africa.
Is Zoom our training future? In the Nigeria Zoom cited above, one of the mission leaders asked me, “Where do you see the future of missions as it relates to Zoom and technology?” I’ve done much thinking about this question, so my response came quickly.
“Zoom and modern technology has been an amazing gift for communication during this COVID-19 era. They (and other technologies) can be amazing as a resource, a catalyst, and a dissemination-of-information tool. But these will never be a substitute for God’s priority of bringing the Good News of the Gospel in person – incarnational ministry. Transformation comes from life-on-life relationships. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is referred to as ‘the Word.’ But ‘the Word’ didn’t become a book; the Word became flesh (John 1:14).”
TRAVEL MINISTRY RESUMES. In that spirit of life-on-life, incarnational ministry, we are excited (and a little nervous) to report that our DAI face-to-face ministry will resume in early March – almost exactly 2 years since Paul returned from teaching in India March 9, 2020.
As travel resumes, please pray for wisdom, excellent ability to communicate, patience in dealing with all of the travel details re: COVID, and of course – good health!
Here’s what’s on the schedule now through September.
- March 3-13 (Kampala and Mukono, UGANDA): DAI teaching the Culture, Ethnicity & Diversity course in the Masters of Arts in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) at Uganda Christian University (with other meetings including preaching at the Deliverance Church Makarere Hills and doing recordings with our colleague Finney Ongole.
- March 26-29 (Knoxville, TN): Paul speaking at the Mission Conference of Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church, a very significant partner in our support and for DAI over all.
- April 2-10 (San Jose, COSTA RICA): joining in ministry with our DAI Ministry Center Director Arthur Denyer to offer training for pastors and ministry leaders in fund-raising.
- May 16-20 (Colorado Springs, CO): Crowell Trust Board meetings.
- July 29-August 7 (Dakar, SENEGAL): joining in ministry with our DAI Francophone Africa Director Kailu Kelly Kumbu to offer training for pastors and ministry leaders in fund-raising and possibly the themes of the Culture, Ethnicity and Diversity course.
- August 22 and 23: (southern CA): details still being worked out for presenting DAI to the Barnabas Group.
We thank God for you, your encouragement, prayers, and partnership in this ministry.
Gratefully,
Christie & Paul
A Special Word About 2022 Finances
Our financial support was adequate in 2021 – in spite of a reduction in both our financial support and our financial support team. Our ability to meet expenses was due both to generous end-of-year gifts (THANK YOU!) and to lack of expenses related to travel.
BUT as we enter 2022, travels resume (as you’ve read above). We raise the funds needed to cover travel to places like Uganda, Costa Rica and Senegal.
We welcome the resumption of face-to-face ministry, and we thank God for our prayer and financial support team! If you’re not on that team, we welcome your participation. If you’d like to join us in financial ongoing monthly partnership or with occasional gifts, you can give:
Online: Go to https://daintl.org/give/paul-christie-borthwick-gifts/ then complete the other information.
By mail: Tax-deductible contributions designated “Borthwick Support” should be made payable & sent to:
Development Associates International
13710 Struthers Road, Suite 120
Colorado Springs, CO 80921