In early 2006 Mart Gray asked me to preach in his absence.  That fall I had entered a PhD program in Contextual Missiology with an emphasis on maternal health and theology of the body.  Mart asked that I preach on maternal health globally and my belief that local congregations have the ability to save lives.  What followed was numerous trips to Elba and building relationships with a congregation that is ready to offer the resources they have to contribute to the Millennium Development Goals with a special emphasis on number five:  Improve Maternal Health. 

Yesterday marked the official beginning of my relationship with Covenant Community Church as their Global Minister in Residence.  Today I write from the  church office.  Next month I hope to write from Tanzania and Kenya where I will go to research partnership opportunities with locals.  We will begin a maternal health initiative that involves supplying birthing kits and helping to train birthing attendants.

It is my goal that other churches will join us in this partnership.  With all of our faith based connections globally, surely we have more than enough networks to ensure at least two trained birthing attendants in every village in the world.