Ready and Equipped

Our TUMI (The Urban Ministry Institute) class is a perfect example of the diverse field of leaders wanting to be trained. Iridessa is an ex-offender; April is an urban pastor in training; Shi is just auditing the TUMI class as his handicap makes it hard for him to do the coursework. Two other students are middle-class women who have a desire for theological training and a heart for the urban poor. One of them teaches the class (mentors the class, as TUMI calls it) when I’m gone and the other has sponsored another urban TUMI site in Denver.

Mary has her class with two Latino ladies at one of their homes. Iris is from Puerto Rico and Dina is from Mexico. They have hearts for their home country and hope to start a TUMI class in their hometown.

We were privileged to attend a volunteers banquet at both the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility and the Federal Men’s Prison in Englewood, Colorado. Both events were very encouraging. We are grateful for how God has used us to train leaders for the harvest. The harvest is indeed plentiful but the laborers are few (Luke 10:2).

Mary and I will be meeting with a Nigerian couple who have become friends of ours. She is a physician and he has a daycare business for the handicapped in Denver. We will be meeting with them to plan our next trip, which will be to Nigeria if the Lord continues to lead. This couple wants us to start a TUMI site in their Nigerian hometown. I have talked to their church to be the USA church sponsor but they have no interest in the project so we are looking for a church to sponsor the Nigerian site. Join us in prayer for open doors there.

Thank you for supporting all these urban leaders! Your partnership makes their training possible—then they will be able to go out into the urban harvest field, ready and equipped.

Read more from Mike Dicke.