Hats!

Hello partner!

There are several different "hats" I wear as a
direct-support missionary, among them fundraiser,
public relations officer, government liaison,
bookkeeper, file clerk, project manager, and
administrator. Two of the more interesting hats (to me)
are church planter and Christian leader trainer. The
months of March and April have seen me engaging in a
routine of high-speed hat-changing, as an academic
semester has ended, taxes became due, passports needed
renewing, and special summer programs were planned.

Philippine College of Ministry (PCM) is the Bible
college I helped establish in 1992 as our team's
response to the demand for pastors from the new
churches our we were establishing in the area. This
year I made the trip to Baguio City to speak at PCM's
13th Commencement. As a Trustee of the college, I also
met with the other board members at that time. While
there are certainly many challenges facing PCM (and
there probably always will be), I was encouraged again
by the way PCM's graduates are impacting churches and
communities in that region and by the campus
development (commencement was held in our own chapel).
Nine young men and women received four-year degrees,
and two-year Associate degrees were conferred upon
seven others.



At Alliance Graduate School (AGS), the last session of
my Church Planting course met at the new church of
Korean missionary Hyeongsoo "Joshua" Kim, one of my
students. Members of his church, which meets in office
space in a commercial building in Metro Manila,
prepared a fabulous feast for our class, and then each
student gave a powerful presentation of their vision,
plan, and timeline for starting a new church. I was
thrilled that none of the presentations were
hypothetical-all of the students were already well
involved in the process of planting new churches.

AGS' chapel is too small for commencement exercises, so
graduation there was held in the ballroom of a fancy
hotel. Once again I donned my academic regalia (I guess
I really did put on a special hat for this one) as I
played my role in the ceremonies. Thirty-seven graduate
diplomas were awarded, many to former students of mine.
It was a proud moment for the graduates' families, and
a grand banquet followed.

Since then I've been organizing a pair of intensive
church planting training events. Monday begins a
four-day event to certify 15 Christian leaders to train
others to plant churches, using Dynamic Church Planting
International's (DCPI) excellent materials. Some of the
Philippines' top church planters and denominational
leaders have reserved a place in this event. Then, the
following Monday we will begin a three-day event to
train up to 100 Christian leaders in Church Planting
Essentials. As a certified DCPI trainer, I have been
working with the International Baptist College (hosting
the events) and DCPI, who is sending a representative
from the US to sign off on the newly certified
trainers. I also hope to become a DCPI Master Trainer
next week, meaning I will be able to certify DCPI
trainers myself in the future.

I hope you'll indulge me for a paragraph or two as I
sport my "proud papa" hat. Our oldest son, Cormack, has
just finished his first year in the Psy.D. program at
Azusa Pacific University, and is quite happy with his
progress. Caitlan just finished her Junior year at
Wheaton College; this summer, she's taking some classes
via Wheaton in the Holy Lands. Shortly after she
returns from Israel and the Mediterranean, she'll be
going to Washington D.C. for her oral assessment before
Foreign Service Officers of the U.S. Department of
State. Callie is graduating from high school on the
29th of this month, and has been accepted at Azusa
Pacific University where she aims to get into their
nursing program. Campbell was just elected President of
his high school for the 2009-2010 school year; this
summer he'll be working full-time at a Kampground of
America (KOA) near Santa Cruz in California, augmenting
that work with ministry-focused activities as a
SummerShiner (see http://www.summershine.us/). Believe
me, I could go on!

Our family will be visiting the US this summer, and we
hope to be able to meet with our ministry partners in
person at some point. Please contact us soon to arrange
a time for this. We hope to strengthen our
relationships with our partners, and we still need to
strengthen our monthly financial support as well.
Although we're doing much better financially on a
month-to-month basis than this time last year, we're
still struggling just now, especially with travel costs
and the private education costs of our children with us
in the Philippines.

Before putting this report down, would you please take
a few moments to pray for the upcoming DCPI church
planting training events? Join us in praying that the
seeds sown over the next two weeks will result in a
multiplication of churches being planted here in the
Philippines, and in the multiplication of trained
church planters.

Thank you for caring!

In Christ,

Chris McKinney