Partnership of Pastors International

Encouraging, training and resourcing church leaders

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A Walk and an Unexpected Gift!

August 14, 2021 by Ken MacGillivray

I have to tell you about this! Esau and I got back to Michigan late last night after a week of meeting with potential PPI supporters in the Mid-South. A good week. During breakfast, Rena asked Esau if his family and friends in Haiti could use other items. He mentioned backpacks for families.

After breakfast, Rena took Esau to our garden at my parents’ house – Esau is very interested in gardening – while I finished a presentation of PPI for a church we’ll be at tomorrow. Before diving into slides, I took a walk around our neighborhood to listen to worship music and pray. I trekked my usual route, around White Pine Middle School and past the dental and medical offices on Colony Drive. I noticed a pop-up tent and some people in the parking lot of one dental office, MI Smile Journey. 

“Need a backpack?” two young women called to me as I was walking by. “Wow! Cool, Lord!” I thought. I said, “No. But I know some people who do.” I told them about Esau, Haiti and PPI. Ten minutes later I was back with my truck, and Dr. Michael Thomas and his staff loaded 16 backpacks filled with school supplies into my truck.

A great big THANKS and shout out to Dr. Thomas and his enthusiastic staff for their care for our community and also for families in Haiti!

And a great big THANKS to our good, good Father who knows the needs of His children and answers our prayers even before we ask. Wow! Cool, Lord!

Filed Under: Ken's Thoughts

We Hit the Ground . . . Driving

August 9, 2021 by Ken MacGillivray

We landed in Detroit last Friday from Haiti and hit the ground . . . driving! Today Pastor Esau Paulema and I drove to Atlanta, Georgia. We talked about life, wedding anniversaries and all things PPI. We sang songs, napped a little (Esau), learned more Creole (me), and navigated I-75 traffic for 13 hours.

We will meet this week with a number of pastors and Christian leaders in the Mid-South to present PPI and invite them to partner with us in encouraging, training and resourcing Haitian church leaders. Here’s our schedule for the week:

  • Monday – Drive to Atlanta, GA (check!)
  • Tues-Weds – Meet with Haitian pastors in Atlanta
  • Thursday – Meet with pastors and Christian leaders in Chattanooga, TN
  • Friday – Meet with pastor in Glasgow, KY
  • Friday pm – Drive back to Michigan

Will you pray that we will be an encouragement to all those we meet with? We’re excited to learn more about their ministries and how God is leading them right now. Will you also pray for open hearts as we talk about our recent training conferences and future opportunities? I woke up this morning thinking about the prayer of Abraham’s servant, Eliezer, in Genesis 24. As Eliezer traveled back to Abraham’s homeland, he asked the Lord to grant him favor with those he met with and success in his task. That’s what Esau and I prayed this morning as we set off for the Mid-South.

Today begins 127 days of full-time focus on inviting churches and individual believers to regularly support PPI’s investment in Haitian church leaders. From now ‘til mid-December, it’s pedal to the metal on meeting with potential support partners and inviting them to commit to supporting this vision financially and prayfully. We are trusting the Lord to grant us favor and success in this task! Please pray with us!

Filed Under: Ken's Thoughts

We’re Back!

July 30, 2021 by Ken MacGillivray

We crossed the Caribbean and landed in Fort Pierce, Florida, yesterday afternoon. Our U.S. team is back in the United States after two weeks in Haiti.

We thought we may need to leave early because of the unrest in Cap Haitien after President Jovenel’s funeral there. Mourners set up roadblocks, burned cars and fired guns. You all prayed, and we stayed in close touch with friends in Cap Haitien to get up-to-date information.

We decided to stay in Ouanaminthe one more day and drive up to Cap Haitien early Sunday morning before too many people were in the streets. Besides our driver picking us up late, we arrived in Cap with no problems. Praise the Lord!

We were able to lead our second training conference at Eglise Bethleem Baptiste (Bethlehem Baptist Church) with around 90 church leaders. They worked hard on Course 2 – Our Powerful Gospel, a study of Romans chapters 1-5. So many said they were so grateful that we had come to Haiti despite the recent problems of COVID-19 and especially their president’s assassination. They asked when we would offer the NEXT courses in Cap Haitien. A number of pastors from Gonaives – the city we had tried to go to last February – called Pastor Michel (a member of our coordination team) to ask him to remind us to come to Gonaives in February 2022. (That’s our plan, Lord willing.)

The doors are wide open to encourage, train and resource pastors in Haiti!!

I’m reading a book called The God Ask right now. On the flight back from Haiti yesterday, I read this passage that brought me to tears of joy. It reminded me again that PPI’s work in Haiti is about ALL of us partnering together to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ in places like Haiti – and strengthen the churches there. What a privilege!

I’m sure . . . you have no intention of showing up at the Revelation 7:9 throne all by your lonesome. Those you have led to Christ or discipled will be with you – along with those they have led to Christ and discipled. In addition, all those believers who have prayed for you and invested financially in you and your ministry will accompany you. [That’s all of you!] They will be with you around the throne, too. . . . It’s truly a team effort – a ministry partnership. (Steve Shadrach in The God Ask, page 41)

We live, we serve, we give, we risk for that day! More on the conferences to come, but for now THANK YOU FOR PARTNERING WITH US and enjoy the pictures.

Filed Under: Ken's Thoughts

What a Week in Haiti!

July 23, 2021 by Ken MacGillivray

Today marks the end of our first of two weeks in Haiti – and what a week it’s been for our mission team! Here are some highlights (enjoy the pics below):

  • We greeted and prayed with our partner pastors.
  • Along with our Haitian team, we prepared all materials for the pastors training.
  • Jerry shared the gospel and Brian shared his testimony in an English language class for young adults.
  • Tony, Ken and Jerry taught classes in a Bible college, founded last year by one of our partner pastors.
  • We visited and spoke in two Haitian churches.
  • We led 18 hours of ministry training for 107 Haitian church leaders over three days.
  • We ate a lot of rice!

We plan to leave on Saturday for our next pastors training in Cap Haitien. Pray that the city remains calm after President Jovenel’s funeral there today. Pray that we are able to start our training conference as scheduled on Monday morning. Pray that the Lord will keep us safe so that we can fulfill His will for our two weeks here.

Thank you for your prayers and support for our trip to Haiti for such a time as this!

Filed Under: Ken's Thoughts

Give Like a Child – and an Adult

July 23, 2021 by Ken MacGillivray

God wants us to give like a child – and an adult. I had two reminders of that recently. One of our faithful supporters contacted me a couple weeks ago to ask if they could stop by our house. Their son wanted to give something to Partnership of Pastors. Later that afternoon their son quietly handed me a small paper box he had made and colored. It was filled with change and bills – $63.45 in total. I was so moved! His mom told me later that he had saved birthday and allowance money to give to PPI. 

He gave like a CHILD – humbly, generously, freely. God wants all of us – whatever our age – to give like that. Jesus often points to the simple faith and self-forgetful worship of children as examples to all of us (Luke 18:16-17; Matthew 21:15-16). I was reminded to give like a child. 

That same week a potential supporter emailed me to ask, “How can I see where moneys/donations are distributed? How much is designated for salaries, overhead and actual support to those being ministered to?” He apologized for the “crudeness” of his question. Here’s how I responded:

That’s a great question, not a crude one. And it’s a question we need to ask – especially these days – of every mission ministry like PPI, every charity, and every church.

PPI financial statements are open for anyone to look over. I’m attaching our most recent statements. It may also help you to see our budget categories (attached), where you can see that we invest 90% of contributions into our main work of pastors training conferences. We call that ETR – encouraging, training and resourcing. The remaining 10% of our budget supports our main work through partner development/contact and administration.

Once you’ve had a chance to look these over, let us know if you have more questions. And thanks for asking! I encourage you to avoid supporting any ministry or organization that won’t show you this information and more – except for donor information, of course, which must remain confidential.

God wants us to give like ADULTS – with discernment, wisdom and strategy. We are so grateful for your faithful, generous support of Partnership of Pastors International. And we want you to be completely confident that every penny you give is invested with integrity and strategy in our mission of encouraging, training and resourcing Haitian pastors. We want you to be free to give like a child and an adult!

Donate to PPI HERE

Filed Under: Ken's Thoughts

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Meet Our Team

Esau Paulema, Co-Founder and Haiti Liaison We consider Pastor Esau the founder of Thompson Bible pastoral training in Haiti. In 2010, he asked us to return to Haiti to train pastors. Since then Esau has prayed and worked tirelessly to make every conference happen. He is a humble, … Read More

ABOUT KEN

“In so many ways the Lord has prepared me all my life for this season of Kingdom work . . .”  Read More »

About Us

Partnership of Pastors International​, a nonprofit organization  to dedicated to encouraging, equipping, and resourcing pastors and churches in developing countries.

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