Three more Bennetts now grace the face of the planet! If you prayed for our adoption hearing last week, thank you very much. God heard and answered your prayers. After a clerical error threatened to scuttle the entire affair, and slash 18 months off Anna’s and my life expectancy, the adoption proceeded without a further hitch. Praise God. We are deeply grateful.
That’s the beginning. Here’s the ending: My good friend, missions colleague and Jesus-following hero Mike Latsko is retiring. Mike has invested half a century in ministry, inviting his parishioners to follow Jesus, challenging Perspectives students to take the Good News to the most challenging places and lately calling leaders around the globe to pay proper attention to the people groups still waiting for the first witness to move in among them.
Mike has been the sort of mobilizer the world could use more of.
Laser focused
If you’ve spoken with Mike in the past few years, even fixing his car or giving him a colonoscopy, you’ve heard about the unengaged!
Humble, but gutsy
Mike cries over the reality of the unengaged. His heart breaks when relationships go sideways. And in my experience, when he gets cynical, and this work often threatens to make us so, he’s apologetic in the next breath or two.
But I’ve also seen him ask a foundation for hundreds of thousands of dollars and challenge mission agency CEOs to radically redirect their efforts!
Organizationally wise
Concurrent with his retirement, Mike negotiated the transition of The Engage Network and those working with it. The ministry lives on in symbiotic collaboration with Joshua Project and even after the debits, credits and commitments were all tallied up, a few dollars remained in the coffers.
Persistently encouraging
I honestly believe Mike is the best encourager I have ever known. My soul has benefited from his words and presence.
The hole Mike leaves is huge. No ten of us together could fill it. Rather, may God raise up 400 like him; intrepid women and men who will call the attention of Christ’s body to the “sheep of another flock,” even to the one that still must be found.
Pray for Mike and Sally as they navigate this transition. Wish them well here. And let’s keep praying for the remaining unengaged Muslim groups. The number is falling, but at 350, still much too high.
