WELCOME BILL and MARTY STURDIVANT!

With international experience in South Asia, Eastern and Western Europe and the UK, the Sturdivants are now based in Portland, Oregon. Their heart for Muslim ministry will take them regularly to the Middle East, as well as connecting them to immigrant communities in the U.S.

“In April, 2010, we had the privilege of visiting Iran. After traveling throughout the country and praying for the people, we sensed that God was asking us to be involved in training and equipping these wonderful new believers in the Word of God and the Christian faith. This trip clearly reinforced our growing hunger to once again participate in global missions efforts.”

Contact Bill and Marty about sharing their ministry in your church or home group!

Associates on the Move

Jon & Harriet Askew
Oct 15-28 - Kosova ministry

Carey Childrey
Sept 30 - Preaching on the Book of Revelation
Oct 11 - Mödling, Austria ministry
Oct 31 - Teaching at First Methodist Church, Fairburn, GA
Nov - Teaching at First Baptist Atlanta Intl. Class, Atlanta, GA
Dec - Colorado Ministry Trip

Mike Garner
Oct - Christian Therapist Fellowship Training on
Inner Healing/Spiritual Warfare
Oct/Nov -Tentative trip to Austria to train Inner Healing Prayer Team & work with refugee ministry leaders
Nov - Tentative seminars on Inner Healing/Spiritual Warfare in Oregon/Washington

Doug and Candy Goins

Oct 31-Nov 7 - Teaching, Annual Mission’s Conference
Peninsula Bible Church, Palo Alto, CA

Jerry Hogshead
Oct-Nov.- India and Bangladesh

Gordon Rohn
Oct 14-17 - Regional Unreached People Group meetings Chicago, IL
Oct - Meet with Bishop of the United Brethren in Christ Church, Phoenix, AZ
Feb 2-3 - Go Ye Fellowship Committee and Trustee
Meetings, Pasadena, CA
Feb 20-27 - Church Missions Conf., Concord, CA

Stuart Rowell
Oct 13-Nov 3 - Traveling in Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia,
Albania & Poland for ministry
Nov 8-12 - Ministry in Pristina, Kosovo, Bosnia,
Serbia, Albania & Poland
Jan - Speaking at Missions Conference, Southern Germany
Feb - Ministry trip to Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia

Larry & Jean Rus
Oct 5 - Begin assignment in Counseling/Member Care Center, Antalya, Turkey

Bill & Marty Sturdivant
Dec - Leading training on “The Gifts of the Spirit” - Turkey
Jan/Feb - Exploratory ministry trip to Kuwait (tentative)

Jim & Leta VanMeter
Nov 5-6 - Women’s Retreat, Black Forest, Colorado Springs, CO
Feb 4-6 - Spiritual Life Retreat, Los Angeles,CA
Feb 10 - Mission Leaders Seminar, Colo Springs, CO

Glen & Shelly Volkhardt
Shelly –
Oct 8-10 - Women’s Retreat, Trail West, Buena Vista, CO
Oct 15-17 - Women’s Retreat, Quaker Ridge, Woodland Park, CO
Nov. 5-6 - City-wide Women's Conference, Roseburg, OR
Jan 21-23 - Women's Retreat, Sequim, WA

Glen –
Nov 13-20 - Paraclete Office in Gilbert, AZ
Dec 8-11 - Paraclete board meetings, Gilbert, AZ
Jan 22 - Palm Ministries Board meetings, Lakeland, FL
Feb 24 - COICOM board meetings, Miami, FL

Dick & Pat Worden
Oct - Seminar Retreat – Vienna, Austria
Nov - “Revealing God’s Glory” Seminar, Bulgaria
Late Nov - Beginning of a six-month home assignment in the USA

Stating Our Case

One of the things that I've been working on over the last few months is a "case statement" for Paraclete. It's a four page brochure that makes the case for the importance of our mission. It lays out the tremendous growth of the church around the world and the simultaneous availability of a large number of seasoned missionaries who can mentor, train and counsel. It is a unique window of opportunity. The case statement lays this out in more detail with pictures, examples and statistics. You can download a copy (1.7M) to see the full document. We will produce the case statement in multiple versions. The first one is designed for foundations and folks who could contribute significantly to a project to expand Paraclete's team of associates. With God's blessing, we think we can grow Paraclete quickly to take advantage of the window of opportunity. If you would like printed copies to share just let us know. If you have contact with a foundation that you think would allow us to submit a proposal please contact us.

New Home Office

Paraclete's main office is in Gilbert, Arizona (Phoenix area). We hope to move the office in November, but it will stay in Gilbert. This is a cost-saving measure. We like where we have been, but good stewardship calls for less space and lower cost. We are one year into a three-year lease, so we have found subtenants, and we plan to lease a new single office that shares kitchen, bathrooms and conference rooms with other tenants. The Gilbert team has done most of the preparation for the move already. The picture is a shot of downtown Gilbert and the office we have our eye on is in the light blue building with the triangle on the top.

This means a new address. We've switched to a PO box in case we need to move again. The old address will forward for six months, but you can begin using the new address immediately.  Please make note of it:

Paraclete Mission Group
PO Box 1970
Gilbert, AZ 85299-1970

Coming alongside HCJB Global and the Latin American Mission Movement

BY LES AND PRISCILLA HIRST

Sometimes a vision calls for quick action and a short-term investment. Other times it requires a long-term approach. Paraclete associates often come to help for the short-term, but this time God presented us with a ministry opportunity that was crying out for a longer investment that would see the vision of a ministry become a reality. And the project HCJB Global presented to us was no small vision to be sure. Our job was to come alongside HCJB Global’s historic mission work in Latin America to launch a bi-vocational, cross-cultural training program for Latino missionaries.

An on-site visit to Quito, Ecuador in 2007 confirmed our sense of God’s leading. We began to see that God had prepared HCJB Global, with their substantial communication and medical ministries, to have a unique roll in training Latinos to reach the least-reached. We immediately saw why this did not fit into the short-term ministry category.

We began to spend time with the people and learned about the history of God’s work in Quito. We listened intensely and broadly as scores of people expressed opinions, shared feelings and identified issues. While most people could pinpoint the roadblocks, few had ideas about how to move from the past to the preferred future. Yet one step at a time, from their observations and commentaries, the path forward began to emerge. A series of seminars helped people grow in commitment and identify with the project, while receiving valuable training. We decided to call the project “Corrientes,” the Spanish word for “currents.”

Uniting church and agency in continent-wide cooperation was a significant
challenge in itself. While mentoring people in Quito, we were also being mentored. Since Corrientes is a bi-vocational, cross-cultural educational program, we looked to mentors in non-formal education, organizational change, cross-cultural communication and mentoring to help us define and guide the project.

Working with expanded freedom and bringing in globally-recognized experts also helped reduce defensiveness, nurturing greater creativity among the group, while mitigating some of the normal resistance to change.

HCJB Global celebrated the official launch of the training program in October 2009. An international, bi-vocational Corrientes team and a team of partners led by Dr. Carlos Pinto coordinate a dedicated corps of mentors, who are experts in their own professions, and ready to come alongside others. An important part of the launch was the celebration of the first trainees completing their three-month course. The graduation of this young Costa Rican couple was another clear confirmation of God’s hand in this project. Their ministry today in one of the poorest and least-reached West African countries powerfully demonstrates the vision of Corrientes.

Do longer term projects involved greater risk and require a greater investment? Without a doubt! Yet when outcomes are exponentially multiplied, the impact far outweighs the cost in time and resources. Coming alongside HCJB Global and the Latin American mission movement has been, and is, deeply satisfying and rewarding. We were thrilled to see God multiply Kingdom resources as He extends His Kingdom. We sense we have glorified God by coming alongside the global mission community to enhance Kingdom effectiveness. As Paraclete associates, that is our mission.

How Long is Long Enough?

BY LARRY AND JEAN RUS

In the “missions world” a person’s time of involvement can be measured by different terms…short-term, long-term, interim, consultant, trainer…and perhaps other terms we have yet to hear.
Such is the case with our assignments with Paraclete. Since our goal is to “come alongside” organizations to help with their needs, the time to accomplish the task can vary, so the length of commitment needs to be flexible.

Our longest assignment was three years with Wycliffe Bible Translators in New Zealand working on a millennium-oriented project and materials or the director’s seminars. Our second longest term was for two years with the St. Paul Cultural Center in Turkey, where Larry developed a governance structure and financial accounting system while Jean helped administer a camp for Third Culture kids. For a year we served in Kyrgyzstan to establish an administrative position and accounting system for an organization that was in its early stages of development. Jean helped with personnel needs and produced orientation materials for short-term workers. Our shortest assignment was three months in Russia to help in team conflict resolutions.

Over a ten-year period we served the Baptist Haiti Mission several times for 6-7 month periods reviewing their organizational structure, helping to implement statistical gathering systems and assist with their medical records systems. Jean wrote an Operational Procedures Manual for their child sponsorship office and coordinated material for their website.


Currently, we are working with The Well, a member care center in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Both of us are involved in administrative areas. Larry is working on organizational development and financing projects and Jean is involved in the work of the director helping to set up an administrative assistant position.

Since our involvement is primarily in the administrative and financial areas, it is difficult to project initially how much time is needed for an assignment. We have found that when we are developing new systems or recommending changes, it is important to see how our suggestions are working and to make adjustments as necessary before leaving.

Because our stay is usually longer than just a few weeks, we have to find accommodations, set up housekeeping and make an effort to integrate into the community. We submit to the authority of the host organization and attempt to fit into their organizational culture and procedures. By doing so we try to become “one of them” to better understand their challenges. The language barrier can also be an issue. Our stay is not long enough for formal language learning, but some basic vocabulary and phrases are necessary in order to survive on our own. Fortunately, the offices of many host organizations use English as their business language.

One of our greatest rewards is the opportunity to build relationships with teammates and local people of the country and it is difficult to say goodbye when our work is completed. Some of these friendships have continued long after our departure. We are privileged to see what God is doing throughout the world through our service with Paraclete, and how He uses His people to carry out the Great Commission.