Some have asked me 'so what is Gateway?' Gateway is Mercy Ships entry training program. It's a three-month course that prepares folks to work with the poor and needy in a cross-cultural setting. The curriculum includes topics in three broad areas: faith foundations, cross-cultural communications & community development, and personal/interpersonal development. At the end of two months, the participants spend one month on field service in a developing country. Our speakers are a combination of local and international teachers, speakers, and staff. The participants come from everywhere, although since 9/11 some nationalities have had difficulty getting visas to the USA. I have enjoyed hearing the testimonies of how the Lord gets people here to Mercy Ships and what He is doing in their lives that has inspired them to want to serve in missions. Then it's great fun to see them gell as a group, become transparent with each other, learn to work with each others' strengths and weaknesses, and get a bigger glimpse of what God can do through them to love world and bring about change. So that's it in a nut-shell. It sure seems to take a whole lot of details to bring it all about, but it's a good nitch for me in this season.
I am a little sad not to be sailing away on one of the ships, but land is good too. (smile)
Sorry to be so long between updates, but I'm still having trouble having internet access outside of the office. Not much time during the day to blog...until later...
