Borthwick Prayer Requests

November 2003
SRI LANKA & MORE

Greetings Friends,

Would you join us in prayer for our upcoming trip to Sri Lanka?

On Thursday, November 6th we'll depart for Colombo, Sri Lanka where we'll be teaching a leadership course (related to DAI, Development Associates International) through Lanka Bible College & visiting a number of ministry friends. We'll arrive Sunday, join our friends Ajith & Nelun Fernando for lunch, and prepare for an intense week of teaching (9:00 am - 4:00 pm daily, November 10-14). In addition, we'll be visiting with other staff members of ministries like Youth for Christ, YGRO, Colombo Theological Seminary, Operation Mobilization, and IFES. After finishing our Sri Lanka responsibilities, we'll go for a few days of "R & R" and then fly through Singapore, Japan, and home on November 21.

Please pray that we do our best as teachers in a cross-cultural environment - especially that we'll communicate truths about leadership that apply across cultural barriers.

Recently, we read a verse that summarizes our prayer request. In Isaiah 50:4, Isaiah writes, "The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary." We pray [and ask you to pray with us] that God will give us "instructed tongues" of wisdom so that we can encourage these faithful brothers and sisters serving in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka (population 18.8 million) is 72% Buddhist, 12% Hindu, and 8% Muslim. "Operation World" says that the evangelical population is 1.3%. The people we'll be with have been through more than 20 years of instability due to a war that has claimed over 800,000 lives (and another 700,000 have emigrated elsewhere). The persecution of Christians & churches is increasingly common and a news bulletin of November 4th revealed recent chaos in the government.

Into this context we go to serve, to encourage, & to teach. Please pray that our words and actions may be used by God to "sustain the weary."

Thank you!
Christie & Paul

PS: we'll be doing our end-of-year letter after this trip, but we did want to give you two financial updates here. First, generous gifts have enabled us to cover all of the related expenses to this trip (thank you!). Second, if you're looking to give an end-of-year gift, we'd welcome it -- either to our support or to a special project we're undertaking related to DAI staff meetings in Egypt in April 2004. These strategic meetings will cost almost $30,000 (lots of international travel, lodging, trainers, etc). A generous donor has offered a dollar-for-dollar matching grant. If we can raise $15,000, the budget needs will be met.

Tax-deductible gifts either to this project or to our support can be made payable to "Development Associates International" and sent to the address below. Project gifts should be noted "Egypt meetings-April"; support gifts should be noted "Borthwick support."

Any gifts can be sent to:

Development Associates International
P.O. Box 49278
Colorado Springs, CO 80949