A Letter from the Director

Mandate has been many places. You've been following our journey the past few weeks. Mandate currently is many places. You'll be hearing more real life stories, experiences, photos, and updates from these overseas partners in the weeks and months to come. This week, however, I'm not here to talk about either of those topics. I'm here to talk about where Mandate is going.

Hi! I'm Mandate's new Executive Director. The thing I love most about Mandate is also the thing that will never change about Mandate: the mission. All of Christian evangelism is entrenched in a war. One side fights for Jesus to be shared while the other fights against it. Just like a natural war, the battle lines change. In places like India and China, the push back is getting so great that ministries that used to operate successfully have now been banned. Mandate's role is to be on these battle lines, pressing them ever forward. It's not done by force or by deception. It is done by service and love. Every nation in the world has needs. Mandate finds out what those needs are, and our team hits our knees. We pray for individuals with a heart for Jesus who are qualified and trained to fill the gaps in the business or education sectors. By placing them in partner organizations, the way for the gospel is paved by their valuable service to the community.

Our future, much like our past, is not mapped out an organized progression or documented in a five year plan. It's a combination of preparedness to go where we are sent and an ear turned to Heaven to hear where the next door will open. For example, our retiring Executive Director had received a promise from the Lord that he would see Mandate get into Myanmar before his retirement. In God's sweet faithfulness, without any warning or indication it was coming, Mandate's first Myanmar connection was solidified at the close of last year just months before his retirement.

My vision is two-fold. First, I have felt much on God's heart for China, India, and North Korea. These nations are ones that have been a one-step-forward-two-steps-back dance with missions. Mandate has even had connections in the past that have been stamped out or blocked from coming to fruition. I can see God setting the stage for these nations. I listened to one of Mandate's overseas partner muse about a dream he had had about North Korean government asking him to replicate his business in North Korea. Imagine if that dream was more than a dream. A member of Mandate's team is able to legitimately travel in China even during this harrowing time. Imagine touching a nation during the heat of so much religious tension. Contact is underway with personnel still on the ground and awaiting their next steps in India. Imagine setting up shop anew in this nation that is rapidly inculcating its people and government with Hinduism. It is for God alone to say when the timing will be right, but I am hopeful we will see Mandate partners in all three of these places.

Second, I would love to see Mandate continue to move eastward, eventually into the Middle East. Again, God's timing and provision of open doors would be crucial. Moving into Muslim territory from Buddhist or Animist territory is a whole different experience. One that would take the backing of the Lord Almighty to execute safely and successfully.

Mandate has always provided skilled personnel for the areas with whom we have partnered. I would love to expand the ways our personnel can assist. While I intend to keep and primarily focus on long term employment placements, I would love to see God open opportunities for professionals to go on shorter term assignments, specifically to train local personnel. There is a great need for personnel, but there is an even greater need for training in some of these areas. Those with education and training who could carry out career training programs or continue education in these areas would be game changing.

Going forward, I encourage you to follow our journey with great curiosity. I feel an expectancy in my spirit for the Lord to move. Expect to hear more updates from those whose shoes are touching these foreign grounds. Expect to see more doors opened in new nations for Mandate. Expect to follow the journeys of our personnel and partners. We ask for you to join with us in praying for God's will to be done with and through Mandate so that His Kingdom can come in it's fullness as it says it will in Scripture. We pray for every nation to hear, every knee to bow, every tongue to confess, and every heart to know the overwhelming love and peace that passes understanding that comes with knowing Jesus. Interested? Me too! Keep following our new blog series. “Like” us on facebook for photos, livesteams, and event updates. Subscribe to our newsletter (by using the website pop up or the link in the lefthand menu on Facebook) for insider information on where in the world Mandate will be during any given month. It is your prayers and support that make this possible. Pray for this organization, brothers and sisters. Ask the Lord if you're being called to sow in financially. You will never regret saying “yes” to the Lord. Saying “yes” to this position is just the beginning for me. It's going to be quite a journey, full of foreign faces, heartbreaks, victories, and many, many salvations. Why don't you join this journey with me?

Blessings,

Sara