MINISTRY / Blessed and a blessing

Blessed

The members of the board of directors and the administrative team stood around our liaison, placed our hands on him, prayed for him, and spoke a Scripture passage over him.

Usually, this happens when a pastor is installed into his new ministry. But when our liaison accepted this call nine months ago, distance prohibited any formal installation.

That changed at our annual board of directors meeting at the end of May. We met him in person for the first time because he was able to attend the meeting.

A blessing

Our liaison, Barnabas (for security reasons we'll use this name) is a Confessional Lutheran pastor who lives in Southeast Asia. He serves as the ambassador to our friends and students in China.

We discovered multiple benefits having Barnabas as part of our discussions. Barnabas provided insights we would have missed without him. He provided perspectives that would escape Western Christians. The result: an improved plan for proclaiming God's grace over the next years.

Barnabas was blessed by 316NOW’s leaders; he was also a blessing to our plans to proclaim grace across China.