August 2015

The COVER Letter

(Front) Yusuf Herman, MaryAnne Moran, Daniela Jones, Ray Dotzler, Jay McKenzie, Joselynn McKenzie, Jordan McKenzie, Bethany Thomas

(Row 2) Jan Dotzler, Kara Garrison, Cris Jones, Kelcy Gallagher, Bailey Henderson, Patricia Bossman, Christine Bell, Jackie Signaigo, Georgiana Thomas, Penny

Alden, Jo McKenzie, Janine Roberts (Row 3) Kathy Wooten, Heather Matthews, Ike Adams, Virginia Hutton, Joanna Zeiner, Ron Zeiner, Suzanne Jones,

Duane Jones, Carla Richardson, Chelle Courter, Kathryn Goodloe, Amanda Samrani, Jeff Dixon, Stephen Thomas, John Alden (Row 4) Paul Moran, Matt Hayes,

Christy Hayes, Rick Estes, Rebekah Estes, Micah Jones, Anna Jones, Michael Bossman, Jim Courter, Peggy Yost, Medhanit Amanuel (Row 5) Craig Garrison,

Jeff Henderson, Raymond Jones, Mike Yost, Stephen Venable, Luke Wood (not pictured: David and Melissa Trimble and family, Laura Harvell, Della Jones and

family, Joel McKenzie, Ray and Stephanie Smith)

Hello all,

Our 2015 Summit is completed and we are now, once more, spread around the world. Thank you for yourperseverance in doing good works! A great man once said, “Faith without works is dead”.

I have been reading the feedback you gave about the Summit. Overall, you were positive and very thankful forour determination to provide adequate member care, for the prayer support from our band of intercessorymissionaries and for the counselors we have available to you. You liked the food, the accommodations, and thequality of the break-outs.

We heard you say that you would welcome more feedback to your prayer requests and we, along with those whopray together for you, plan to drop you more frequent emails about how we prayed. We have consolidated thenotes from our group sessions on member care and fundraising and they are attached to this COVER letter.

Most everyone appreciated our speaker and the depth of his presentation. However, some considered himwordy and too intense. I have found that there are “cool preachers” and there are “hot” preachers. Cool preach-ers emphasize the Father heart of God as they speak and hot preachers emphasize the righteousness of God.Both are entirely biblical. How comfortable we are with either style is not the primary thing. Personally, I preferthe “cool” but my own dad is a great preacher and he was definitely a “hot” preacher!

I asked Mr. Venable to speak on the Glory of Jesus. I wanted to emphasize that, as servants on the mission field,we are kings and priests unto Him, bringing glory to His great name. This, I think, was accomplished at thisSummit. As someone wrote, it would have been better for us to have had his notes prior to the sessionknowing now how challenging his sermons would be. But, we are thankful that you have the notes and teachingsso that you can hear and see what you might want to study more.

Another concern was a lack of time to debrief, congregate, fellowship, and just kick back. One person asked ifthe evenings could be used to hear from other CI missionaries and about their work. Another said we have greatspeakers “in house” so why bring in anyone? Many felt the evening sessions went too long.

I hear all this and my response is yes, these are healthy critiques which we will consider in our next Summitplanning. Thank you! And, oh yes, the “biodegradable” bed sheets were abysmal. A few of you went toWally’s and bought sheets! Sorry about that!

At the board meeting following the Summit, Matt and Christy Hayes (Shell, Ecuador) were approved to begin thetransition from short-term to long-term status. They will attend CrossTraining in Wilmore as soon as we can get iton the calendar.

Comrades, we have a great reward for our steadfastness in Christ Jesus! By His grace we have been saved, arebeing saved and will ultimately be given a new, eternal, glorified, regenerated body. Thank you for caring abouthurting and destitute people. It is a privilege to know each of you and to serve as your director.

Blessings to you all,

a missions organization, fueled by prayer and worship,

mobilizes people to evangelize the world,

loving and serving Jesus Christ.

P.S. Please check out the attached Group Notes from the Summit!