by Ramesh Richard

Just before a quarterly board meeting that would close out 2013, Dr. Ramesh Richard wrote the RREACH board of directors to deliver news they expected and at the same time hoped against. Under the subject line “Private: Manila closed,” Dr. Richard confirmed that the city, which had for two years been locked in as the location for the 2016 Global Proclamation Congress for Pastoral Trainers, was no longer an option. Following November’s massive destruction caused by the strongest typhoon ever to make landfall, RREACH’s strategic partners in Manila needed to turn their attention to reconstruction.

“Now that I’ve exhausted known possibilities there,” he wrote in that December 18 email, “I look forward to seeing what God has in mind for this project.”

Trusting God despite discouragement over the loss of two years of relationship- building and planning, Dr. Richard and the RREACH board were guardedly hopeful when a potential new location arose almost immediately.

And, after much prayerful and careful deliberation, on May 30, the RREACH board confirmed another world-class city as the location of the GProCongress for Pastoral Trainers. The Lord willing, the eight-day Congress will take place June 15–22, 2016, near Bangkok, Thailand.

GProCongress

The GProCongress will expand and intensify pastoral training initiatives worldwide in order to build a community of healthier pastors, healthier churches and healthier societies that better fulfill God’s Great Commission.

This first-of-its-kind Congress is for all pastoral trainers involved in formal or non-formal training anywhere in the world, along with those who aspire to be pastoral trainers and those who desire to fund organizations with this strategic objective. It is one of three legs of the decade-long Global Proclamation Commission, which seeks to connect, unite and strengthen 100,000 pastoral leaders from 200 countries by 2020.

“Best” location

Despite the current political situation in Thailand, the RREACH board—with the input of a cross-section of Christian leaders worldwide as well as local and regional experts in business, government and security—sensed Bangkok to be the best location. Among its benefits are the confluence of a hospitality culture, competitive costs, and the availability of excellent volunteers and facilities.

“Of special importance was my relationship with Pastor Enoch Sirikul of Thailand Campus Crusade, who has happily and humbly extended the formal invitation to be the hands and feet for this important event in church history,”

Dr. Richard said of the decision for Bangkok.

Bangkok was revealed as the official Congress location during the June 28 graduation banquet for the 2014 Dallas GPA. The website, www.GProCongress.org, opened publicly July 1 for information and discussion and will open for registration this fall.

Next steps

With the location in place, efforts are in full swing to mobilize up to 5,000 pastoral trainers who will attend. Important negotiations toward venue, lodging, catering and transportation costs are also underway, as are efforts to find the right staff in the areas of delegate mobilization, program development, fundraising and post-Congress follow up, which will take place over four years.

Despite fears to the contrary, much of the work completed toward a Manila Congress has been quite easily transferred to a Bangkok Congress.

With the foundation laid, a flurry of work continues. More tasks and decisions await Congress leadership in the future, and as Ramesh wrote those several months ago, he and the RREACH board continue to “look forward to seeing what God has in mind for this project.” In the meantime, God continues to show Himself sovereign over all parts of the project in its possibilities and difficulties.

“We want to hold the Congress rightly, neither lightly nor tightly,” Dr. Richard recently wrote to key stakeholders, adding encouragement from the Psalms: “I cry out to God Most High who accomplishes all things for us”

(Ps. 57:2) with the confidence that “The Lord will accomplish what concerns me” (Ps. 138:8).

Please continue to pray for Ramesh Richard and the Congress team as they work toward the 2016 GProCongress.