A new chapter......
Dear Friends,
Many of you who read this Newsletter have known us for
years, so I feel I should be my normal forthright self in communicating news
that may come as a surprise for some of you.
As many of you know the past few years have been difficult, with
many challenges in our own life and that of our family. Added to these
challenges was the continuous stress that came from being away from home so
much, of the heavy responsibility of fundraising both my salary and the
ministry’s budget and the isolation of missionary life. Twelve years of living
as a missionary had begun to take a higher toll on my health and my strength.
As we sought God’s provision to meet these challenges I felt God begin to
direct us towards a new chapter in our life.
This afternoon I gave my Young Life supervisors my formal
resignation as the College Director of Young Life College St. Louis. It will
take effect on the 17th of this month.
I have formally accepted the position as Pastor of
Discipleship at the local church we have been attending for the past year. The
church is called The Journey and it has a wonderful record of missional living
in St. Louis. The Journey is one church
with six locations and is part of the Acts 29 network. Bethany and I are very
excited about this new chapter in our life and the new opportunities and
relationships it will offer us.
The next three months
I have told YL that I am willing to volunteer my time to
lead the ministry team until the end of the school year; I’ll keep leading Core
at our home and I’ll continue to mentor our leaders and be with our students. Much
of my professional life revolved around fundraising and ministry development so
with some grace on the part of our leaders and students I feel I can volunteer
in a much reduced role that will still care for the essentials until YL can
find a replacement or until the school year comes to an end in mid-May.
My resignation will drastically reduce the cost of ministry,
but the ministry will still need to meet the needs of our direct ministry costs
and the salary for our part-time Admin. So I would like those of you who pray, pay and
play on our team to continue in those essential roles until the end of the
school year. By that point YL will have communicated with you how they intend to
proceed.
Some of you have walked with us for 12 years, from our early
days as singles doing mission separately, to our marriage and union in life and
ministry, and so Bethany and I wanted to personally say thank you for all of
the faithfulness, care and compassion that you have shown us in those long
years of ministry.
For those of you who support the ministry financially we
will be posting you a personal letter to explain the next few months and how
you can help us end this chapter of our life well.
If you have questions, concerns or comments about this
transition please feel free to contact me and I’d be glad to discuss this with
you in more detail.
Thank you. Thank you
for your prayers, for your support, for your excitement, for your joy. Thank you for walking alongside us in this
ministry. It is deeply felt and
appreciated.
Your brother in Christ,
Robert Millar
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