Closing

Last evening we closed the meetings with a special time of worship to glorify God for what He did during this historic week in the life of OC. The above video is a summary of the last half hour dedicating our 'Rock of Remembrance' and committing ourselves to the global task before us. Please rejoice with us in what God has done.

Great Progress!

Hector Pivaral opened worship this morning with one of his songs that spoke about the missionary's heart. It began a wonderful time of worship in song, followed by a very impacting message from Dr. Ronald Geer on the topic of unity.

We made great progress yesterday on the first discussions concerning the practical issues, most importantly the future role of the Area Directors. Today we will finish these discussions and turn to building an implementation time-line. I invite you to join with us in prayer that God would give wisdom in these significant remaining topics.

Special Thank You to Eric

A few moments ago Greg, on behalf of all of us, thanked Eric in a special way for his hours of work and gifted facilitation of the Internationalization efforts to date. We all express our deep appreciation and indebtedness to Eric for bringing us to this point.

Day 3 - Relationship Building

The third day of our time was dedicated to moving deeper in our relationships with each other. After another special time of worship, we traveled by train to Chichester to visit the cathedral. We had a lunch at a 'Texas steak house' where we celebrated Larry Kraft's birthday together. The day ended with a report from Eric and Ray on the 'Becoming Globally Friendly' conference that they had attended. Enjoy the photos.

Welcome to Tony Lee

I have had the joy of knowing and working closely with Tony Lee ever since my family moved from Indonesia to Singapore in 1989. Over these past twenty years Tony has served for various periods of time as our OC Singapore Field Director and as a member of the OC Singapore Board. It was as a result of Tony’s encouragement and invaluable assistance that in the early 90’s we were able to successfully send out the initial OC Singapore missionary which helped launch OC ‘s Internationalization efforts. Over these past years Tony has consistently been a champion of Internationalization within OC. I am therefore thrilled that Tony has accepted our request for him to serve as the first moderator of the Global Alliance Guidance Team. I am fully confident that Tony will faithfully carry out this strategic responsibility with the same high level of commitment and competence which has consistently characterized his ministry over these past twenty years. I am looking forward to partnering closely with Tony in the months ahead.

Greg Gripentrog

Big Thank You to our International Forum Five

Between the initial Global Alliance meeting last May in Manila and this week's meeting, five people served as a committee to do the ground work to prepare us for the organizational step forward. The forum was led by Eric Smith (US) and included Josue Campagna (Brazil), Greg Gripentrog (US), Craig Kraft (Canada), and JoJo Manzano (Philippines).

We all want to thank these gentlemen for the hours of service they gave to OC in helping the Global Alliance move from a concept to a reality.

First OC Global Alliance Guidance Team

Today was an historic day in the life of OC. Today the first official steps of organization have been taken. The name of the representative group from the Mobilization Centres is the "Alliance Team." It is comprised of two representatives of each MC. To provide the ongoing communication and coordination of the Global Alliance, it was confirmed that a Guidance Team of 5 members from the Alliance Team would be elected to represent the AT between meetings. Your first Guidance Team is:

• Josue Campagna (Brazil)


• Tony Ford (UK)


• Greg Gripentrog (US)


• Craig Kraft (Canada)


• Tony Lee (Singapore)

Upon their election, they immediately met and elected the first moderator of the Guidance Team who is Tony Lee.

Our thanks to each one who has agreed to serve and our prayers are with them.

Interview with Ronald Geer

This interview is with Ronald Geer our India Field Director sharing his thoughts on the day and some prayer requests for tomorrow.

Highlights of Day 1

These are the highlights in photo of the first day's activities.

Becoming Globally Friendly

The first leg of this trip was a two day conference in Chicago sponsored by Cross-Global Link. The topic of the conference was the issues facing north American missions as we embrace what God is doing in His Church around the world. The summary of the topic was best expressed by move of mission from a 'from the west to the rest' mentality to God's new reality of 'from everywhere to everyone.'

Thirty-two missions participated in this largely small group discussion based conference. The two days were challenging, stimulating and in some ways overwhelming for me. The task before us is daunting, yet (as one participant expressed it) God has already done it, we need only follow His leading.

As I move now into our Globalization meetings, I invite you to pray with me that these topics will not remain theory, but that God would grant His wisdom to put practicality and implementation in place. As we move forward, OC is committed to do so in such a way as to continue its sixty year history of serving the church to fan the flames of the Gospel.

Part of a Team

Virtually no ministry happens along. Each day that I minister here at the US Mobilization Center, I learn more of the reality of what it takes to keep one worker in the Harvest. Similarly, I know that I can't do this ministry without you - our encouragers, prayer parters, supporters and fellow missionaries. This blog is devoted to giving each of you the opportunity to experience major minstry events right along with me. To kick off this site, the first event will be our Internatinalization meeting to be held at the end of this month in Worthing, England. My goal is to post a series of short updates or videos giving impressions, progress and interviews with our participants from around the world. My hope is that through this new technology, you can become more effective partners in prayer and in sharing our ministry.