Faithwalking in 2020 – Executive Director’s Update

By Marcos Leon

 

 

Faithwalking Foundations Module 1 Retreat at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Houston

 

We are off to a great start in 2020. Our mission is making wholeness possible in individuals, communities and the world. We provide people with tools that help them repair broken places in their lives, and ultimately in their world. Currently there are 285 participants engaged in the Faithwalking process, in at least 16 different locations.

Our vision is to make Faithwalking accessible to every person in the world, and our vision is that participants will become agents of wholeness in their own context. We are far from that being a reality, but we are moving in that direction. Currently we have 15 Faithwalking Circles around the U.S. that are using the tools of Faithwalking. (A Faithwalking Circle is a group like a church or a group of churches that we have trained to use the Faithwalking process within their local context, and they are aligned with us here in Houston.) Each of these Faithwalking Circles contributes $50.00 per participant to Faithwalking Houston to help us sustain this ministry. We are extremely grateful for their partnership and friendship.  Eight of the Circles are using the new Foundations curriculum, and 7 of them are using the Core Four curriculum. We have 4 more Circles that should begin to offer Faithwalking before the end of 2020. All of these groups are English speaking.

In addition, we have 10 Spanish-speaking individuals who are being trained as Faithwalking facilitators. Five are in the US and 5 are in Central America. They have already begun to lead Faithwalking Foundations groups in Spanish. We are equally excited about this emerging ministry among Spanish speakers.

The Faithwalking board worked diligently in 2019 to establish a strategic plan for our work. We are implementing that plan now. In 2020 we’ve added two new members to the Faithwalking board. Currently our board consists of Gail Edmonson from Katy, Texas, who is our chairperson. Jeff McGee from Cypress, Texas is our treasurer. Linda Powell from Katy, Texas is our secretary. Our other board members are Sherri Meyer-Veen from New York, Tim McGee from Houston, Chris Godfredsen from Iowa, and Terri Pilarski from Michigan. I hope that you will pray for each of them as they oversee our work.

We want to evaluate the impact and success of Faithwalking in a more clear and scientific way. To help us do this, we have recently enlisted the Social Research Lab at the University of Northern Colorado to help us evaluate our current data and to develop new tools for evaluation. The executive director of the research lab is Dr. Josh Packard, who is a professor in the department of sociology at the University of Northern Colorado located in Greeley. We are very excited about partnering with this excellent group.

Thank you for your prayers, your encouragement, and your financial support. We couldn’t do what we do without you.

Ken Shuman,                                                                                                                                                  Faithwalking Executive Director

 

 

 

 

 

 

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