Welcome to Overseas Council: “The Power of One”

Dear “Power of One” friends,

Susan and Mark Wheeler

Daniel, Mark Wheeler and Wagneu in Ethiopia

As an Overseas Council (OC) staff member, I often share stories of what God is doing in the ministry with my wife, Susan, and she reads our newsletters and other media pieces. The stories that she had heard all became very real for Susan last March when we had the opportunity to cash in a few of my frequent flyer miles and travel together to Ethiopia. I have included below what Susan wrote about her Ethiopia experience, and I trust that in reading her words, you will catch a fresh glimpse of what it means to be a “Power of One” scholarship donor:

Mark was in Ethiopia to participate in an OC convened conference on Islam in North Africa and how to best address the issue from a seminary curriculum perspective. I expected to be mildly interested in the three day conference, and then we would be able to take a few days vacation to explore this wonderful country. One afternoon, we went to one of OC’s partner schools, the Evangelical Theological College (ETC), to meet with a couple of your OC scholarship recipients. What I thought would be a fun little visit turned out to be a paradigm changing experience.

As I listened to the stories of Wagneu and Daniel, two of OC’s scholarship recipients, I believe the Lord changed my heart. Wagneu, a 36 year old married father of two, told of his conversion in 1992 and his subsequent call to ministry. He served in a number of lay positions, and when called to full time service in 2006, he was made the pastor of a small church. As he told of the Lord's blessing on his ministry and the way his small church was reaching out to their Orthodox Christian and Muslim neighbors, I kept wondering what he meant by “small church.” I finally mustered the courage to just ask, “Wagneu, how many people are in your small, four year old church?” "Oh, we are small," he replied, "but the Lord is blessing us, and we hope to plant three or four more churches in the area when I finish my schooling. But today, we have about a 1,000 attending every Sunday." Small church, four years old, 1,000 in attendance? "Without your OC scholarship, I would not be able to attend seminary," he said, "but more importantly, your OC scholarship helps to preserve my family while I am away attending seminary."

Daniel is a soft spoken 28 year old who was engaged when we met him in March and was married this past June. He was raised in a Christian home and accepted Christ as his Savior at the age of seven. Feeling called to full-time ministry in 2007, he continued his lay involvement in children’s ministry. Daniel's gifting and call to children’s ministry resulted in a rapidly growing program under his leadership. Before he came to seminary, he was overseeing the children’s ministry programs for 250 churches, but he had quickly exceeded his training and capacity. As he shared with us the economic challenges of attending seminary and the blessings of his OC scholarship, I again saw the strategic importance of the ministry and the profound impact of one scholarship in the lives of the hundreds and perhaps thousands of children that will be touched by Daniel’s ministry during his life of service to the Church.

Are you interested in partnering with the next generation of church leaders from around the world that build “small churches” and then help plant others? We are! Are you interested in helping “preserve” a family while the one who is following God’s call to full time ministry is away at school? We are! Are you interested in supporting the ongoing training of a young man or woman who is shaping and leading the children’s ministry outreach of 250 churches? We are! I invite you to join Susan and me and become “The Power of One” for students like Wagneu and Daniel and the thousands they will impact in a life of ministry.

For $100 a month, you can provide a "Power of One" scholarship for a called church leader around the world. One donor providing one scholarship, so one student can be trained and equipped for service who then goes into their world and impacts hundreds and thousands during a lifetime of ministry. Please click here to become “The Power of One.”

Thank you,

Mark Wheeler
Vice President of Advancement
Overseas Council