So, I'm heading back to Ukraine

I'm currently in Stonypoint, NY at missionary training.

If you haven't heard, I've been hired by the General Board of Global Ministries as a standard support missionary to L'viv, Ukraine. While no exact date has been set yet, I will be returning to Ukraine in early 2012.

I'm going to spend the next few months raising support. I get to say that I'm raising "support" instead of saying that I'm raising "money" because in the General Board of Global Ministries system all of the missionaries raise money for all of the current and future missionaries.

So, I don't have a set amount of money that I need to raise before I can fly overseas. I could raise $0 between now and my departure date and that wouldn't delay my departure or hurt my work in any way. We raise money so that others can go. While many of my friends serving in other denominations spend months or even years raising financial support before they gather enough to cover their expenses; because we raise funds for the community, I will be able to go after only a very brief time of raising money.

I get to spend the next few months traveling from conference to conference and from church to church teaching and preaching about mission. Mission is the thread that connects your local congregation to God's vision for the world. It's a topic that we don't address nearly enough in our churches, and a theme that I pray will bring renewed vitality to our congregations.

Along the way, I hope to find some covenant churches - churches that wish to have an ongoing mission relationship with me and with the work that will happen in Ukraine.

This is my biography and my advance number is 3021393.

If you're in a spot to do so, you can make a donation - or you can consider forming a personal covenant relationship with me. If you're not quite at that spot - you could help connect me to your church. I'm looking for churches, UMW & UMM units, Sunday Schools, Youth Groups, Bible Study groups, or any other group looking for a speaker. There are many United Methodist congregations who haven't had a missionary come and speak to their church in years if not decades. We are a global church, and this is an opportunity to celebrate that.

Learn about what the United Methodist Church is doing in Ukraine and what God has in store for the churches there in the future. Consider beginning the conversation in your church about supporting a missionary as a long term investment in the Kingdom. But more than that, help your congregation reconnect with God's mission and plan for the world and for their church.

Thank you, Michael Airgood