Seth Bouchelle Update
My teammate Becca and I just arrived today in Singapore where we will be working for the rest of the month. Our first 10 days will be split between doing spiritual direction with the leadership teams of a couple of Churches of Christ here - which will include some session on grief and healing with one church that was planted out of a church split, as well as working with these leaders to help prepare them to facilitate most the retreat which will begin on July 24th. The retreat is the main purpose of our trip. We will be joined by 92 adults who will be coming in from 11 different countries (Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Mongolia, Nepal, and the Philippines), for a 5 day retreat centered around contemplative prayer and rest. About half of these leaders, in addition to being evangelistic disciple-makers, are also workers with Agape Asia - a ministry through which they focus on orphan and at-risk-Child care.
Because of a very generous donation, I was able to bring Becca with me - who is our Director of Spiritual Formation and Care - as well as another partner/teammate of ours Jaimie Park, who runs her own non-profit specializing in educational initiatives and social work in SE Asia. Our prayer is first and foremost that this time is a blessing to all of our friends coming into the retreat. That they will find rest and renewed connection with God, and might leave with some new prayer practices to help them stay rooted and form others well. Secondarily, we are hoping to identify the right group of 6-8 leaders to narrow our focus within this region. We are praying for discernment in seeing who the relationships are that we can build deep partnership with, but our hope is to largely transition Exponent's work to a more supportive and catalytic role in building local leaders up to take over our efforts here in the region. Below is both the link to Agape Asia's website, if you would like more context on the type of workers we'll be serving this next few weeks. I've also attached our retreat guide below. Thank you for interceding on our behalf, and for the support and partnership that make it possible for us to do the ministry we do.
Agape Asia: https://www.agapeasia.org/