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“Our love has been restored:“ Marriage retreat in Kenya, June 12-17 COSIM conference brings partnership practioners together to learn Mission ONE 15th Anniversary Banquet October 27 in Arizona Interview with Pastor Severino Church planting and equipping to serve persecuted believers in southeast Asia Persecuted bishop returns home Pray for persecuted church in Laos Report from India: One year after the tsunami of December 26, 2004 Operation WorldView is video training for 750 “short-termers”
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Marriage retreat in Kenya serves African key leaders and their spouses, June 12–17 
St. Julian’s Conference Center in Limuru, Kenya will be the setting for a marriage retreat for ten African key leaders and their spouses from Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan. The retreat offers a week of rest, recreation, fellowship and counseling for Christian leaders who, along with their wives, have virtually no means of getting away from the stress of ministry. Several American couples in Christian leadership are participating. Bob and Linda Schindler are serving as facilitators.
Even if their marriages are, for the most part, healthy, the growth and success of their ministries often contributes to other factors which put serious stress on their relationships. For example: 1) Increased success leads to more “busy-ness,” 2) their ministries among unevangelized or unreached peoples draw the attacks of the devil and increased spiritual warfare, 3) with ministry growth sometimes comes alienation from peers, and, 4) in their cultures, there sometimes is magnified pressure to refrain from openness and vulnerability, which further exacerbates the stress on their marriages. Mission ONE leadership identifies deeply with these challenges. However, while many Christian leaders in the West have the resources to get away, get some rest, receive counseling, or even go on sabbatical, these key leaders in Africa simply do not have the ability or resources to do so. Therefore, Mission ONE has a deep burden to develop a marriage retreat ministry to these leaders — to invest in their relationships and ministries now in order to prevent crises later on. For many of these couples it will be the first time they have ever had the chance as a couple to “get away.” This marriage retreat is being planned according to the following guidelines:
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Over several years of experience in cross-cultural partnerships with indigenous ministries in Africa and Asia, Mission ONE has often seen great stress and harm come to the marriages of key Christian leaders, sometimes resulting in significant damage to their ministries. One partner has been divorced, another has gone through a separation, a third confided to us that his wife told him, “You are so busy in the ministry, you never spend time with me.”