Dear friend,
This week Five Talents board members and staff from around the world met in London, complete with a chance to worship with the Queen at her small chapel outside Windsor.
Leaders from Kenya, England and the US met for two days. We worked on ways to expand our ministry and make it more effective. We celebrated the accomplishments of the last 20 years, but mostly we focused on how much more there is to do.
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:4-5)
We talked a lot about how our partners around the world are the key to effective programs, and we looked at ways to strengthen those partnerships. We gave thanks for the solid foundation of the Anglican and Episcopal churches in each country where we work, remarking at how they are often more stable than the governments around them.
And we returned repeatedly to the theme for the weekend (from Romans 12), that we are one family. Like any family we have our challenges, but we make each other stronger, in part, through our differences. And because we share the mission of working with some of the poorest communities in the world, we are grateful to be united in one family.
Until next Monday morning,
Dale Stanton-Hoyle