Ministry Update

In the past few months Cafe 1040 has been extremely busy and some amazing things have happened. There have now been over 40 students that have gone through the program, we have been to many different conferences, college campuses, had a fundraising cruise, sent 11 students for the current semester and this just in, a new member has been added to God's family. (See 11 students and their luggage above)

Currently I am working with 3 students to get them prepared to leave for North Africa, on the 14th of August. I have completed all the screening process, which involves a phone interview with the student, a phone interview with the parent's, a phone interview with the pastor and an employer reference check. Once the screening process has been completed and the student looks like a good candidate, we move to the Pre-Go training process.

This process consists of making sure that all the logistics are taken care of, from immunizations to passports. The main part of this training is support raising. This is where I walk the student step by step through their support raising, from writing the support letter, to having one on one support meetings, all the while training them for their future in missions. All this is done through random phone calls at any hour of the day and the structured conference calls that we have to make sure that the entire team is on the same page and that we are building the team and team unity through this process.

Some of you may not know this, but the number one reason that missionaries will leave the field to return home is other missionaries. So, as you can see, this team building is key for the success of their time overseas.

Last but not least, I am putting together my schedule for the months of August and September. I am planning on visiting many colleges and universities in the South East, attending a few conferences, and meeting up with a couple ministries that we have partnerships with to help keep up relations. I'll keep you posted when plans are more concrete.

Until then....

-Mike