Please Consider Partnering With CVM in Helping Tobi

Dear friends,

I’d like to ask you to join Shelley and myself in raising prayer and financial support to help a remarkable young woman, Tobi Olatoye, to attend a YWAM (Youth With a Mission) Discipleship Training School beginning this fall. Please allow me to first share a little bit about Tobi and her family and then a little bit about YWAM .

Tobi and her family were forced to flee Nigeria and come to America seven years ago to escape tribal persecution after her father tragically passed away. When I first met this dear family, they’d been living in homeless shelters for several months. God used Christus Victor Ministries (CVM), a non-profit ministry that I founded, together with some very generous friends, to get the Olatoye’s into an apartment and eventually their own town home. Displaying a faith and a work ethic that is simply amazing, the mother (Toke) and Tobi’s two siblings (Dare and Ronke) have now all graduated from college! All who have been part of this God-glorifying adventure would agree its been one of the greatest blessings of their life.

As the youngest of the children, Tobi was understandably hit the hardest by the tragic and traumatic upheaval she and her family had to endure when her father died. It hasn’t been easy, but Tobi is a woman of faith and a fighter if ever there was one! This young woman has an extraordinary passion for God and love for people, which is why she is so excited to have been accepted to attend the YWAM Discipleship Training School in Rockford, Minnesota this fall. You now have the opportunity to join CVM in continuing to bless this family by helping Tobi fulfill God’s calling on her life.

YWAM is an inter-denomination Christian missions agency that has been in existence for over 45 years and now has bases in 145 different countries. Over the years I’ve been very involved as a teacher with YWAM, and in my opinion its one of the most “kingdom” organizations on the planet. I wish every young person took a year off to do what Tobi is doing! The Discipleship Training Schools are designed to help students cultivate a vibrant relationship with God and a radical kingdom lifestyle as well as give students a solid foundation in Scripture. Students are also given the opportunity to go on an eight-week-long missions trip to another country to further grow in their faith and share the love of Christ through drama, service work and one-on-one evangelism. It is a wonderful, life changing experience!

The Discipleship Training School in Rockford begins September 27th, 2009 and runs through February 25th, 2010. Would you join Shelley and I in praying for Tobi during this time as well as helping her with her financial needs? The course, including a missions trip to India or the Amazon region of Peru, will cost approximately $6000. Shelley and I have pledged $1,000, and we’d like to invite you to join us and become part of what God is doing in Tobi’s life by helping us raise the remaining $5000. Any amount you could give would be greatly appreciated! All donations are tax deductible if checks are made out to Christus Victor Ministries and sent to Christus Victor Ministries, P.O. Box 40541, St. Paul, MN 55104. Please do not write anything in the memo, but include in your envelop a note designating what the donation is for.

Thank you so much for your prayerful consideration.