This article originally appeared in the January 2012 edition of ITMI Monthly.
Dear Team,
It is my prayer that my journey as ITMI Director has thus far benefitted many by empowering and advocating the work of our partners. It is my passion and great joy to help them, serve them, champion them and see God do great things through them.
I live and breathe to be a part of God’s mission in this role.
Praise God - He has been providing me with so many opportunities to help and serve these precious and dear partners that one person really can’t handle all of them.
It breaks my heart to pass up any opportunities, so I am so jazzed that God has brought Chad Kritenbrink and Gary Howell to the ITMI staff to multiply our ability to seize those opportunities.
This Southern India trip was Chad’s first official ITMI trip. It’s so valuable to travel together, sharing highs and lows. Having an extra set of eyes and ears as another perspective is extremely helpful, and we doubled our impact because there were two of us.
We had so many opportunities to encourage the believers there!
Because there were two of us, we doubled our impact.
Thanks to his time in the military, Chad is an experienced traveler who can adjust to any situation, so he is an ideal travel partner.
A big part of Chad’s job will be traveling to empower and equip ITMI projects and partners, then tell their stories back home.
Discipling others is Chad’s passion. His heart is so passionate to pour what he's been blessed with into others. But even when he’s asked to do a task that isn’t necessarily his strength or within his comfort zone, he tackles it with determination.
He doesn’t shy away from anything, and it is already benefitting our partners’ ministry and helping us better communicate with you.
There is one story about Chad from our trip to India I would like to share with you.
Chad doesn’t shy away from anything, and it is already benefitting our partners’ ministries.
It was election time while we were there, and the seminar scheduled for election day had a much lower attendance than we had anticipated, but it ended up being one of the best seminars. Because of the low numbers it was an intimate setting and we were really able to go deep and encourage the group with lots of specifics.
The pastors at the seminar greatly respected Chad for his grace and integrity.
After one of Chad’s sessions, one of the pastors raised his hand and asked, “Is there ever a situation where it would be OK to lie?”
It turns out that this pastor didn’t really want to know the answer to the question, he was testing Chad’s integrity. These pastors are used to people backing down from truth when the truth becomes inconvenient.
Chad embraced this potentially awkward situation with boldness, grace and integrity, even when it meant possibly losing the approval of his audience, and the pastors at the seminar greatly respected him for it.
Jesus was very powerful in His warning against leading believers astray.
He said, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.” (Mark 41:43)
The pastors at the conference were so incredibly hungry and thankful for the guidance and help.
Because of your support of Paul and Molly, Chad, myself and ITMI’s General Fund, together we helped those dear brothers to avoid this offense and protected “little ones” from being led astray at the same time. They were so incredibly hungry and thankful for the guidance and help.
In order to continue doing this ministry, Chad is in need of increased financial support. Financially speaking, he would be better off to stay home and save the cost of childcare for his two children than to work for the amount of support he is currently receiving.
He is taking a net loss in order to serve our partners.
He hasn’t complained, in fact, he’s done it cheerfully. It’s been neat to watch the Kritenbrink family trust God to provide the support they need.
Would you pray that God would enable Chad to support the ministry of ITMI nationals by providing for his support?
In His Service,
Steve Evers has advocated for and served the ITMI partners as ITMI Director since 2001. Approximately once a year, Steve visits with ITMI partners in their countries and brings stories back to encourage supporters. Steve enjoys photography and mechanics, (both hobbies that have greatly benefited ITMI partners!) Prior to becoming ITMI's Director, Steve served on the Board of Directors for 12 years. Steve lives in Arizona with his wife, Darlene.
