Strength in Shyness

Bharat was shy. Sometimes it was hard for him to strike up a conversation with someone new. But that did not keep God from using him. He became involved in student ministry as a key leader in the training department of his national movement. It was challenging for him to work in a group sometimes, especially in a culture that valued being expressive and friendly to others.

His perspective on leadership changed when he joined IFES’ Global Leadership Initiative. This program took his cohort through a deep journey to understand the ethos and calling of leadership within IFES, training up the next generation of leaders so that national movements would have people ready to take on increased responsibilities in regional or global projects and positions.

Being in an international cohort exposed him to different people from around the world with different personalities, cultures, and leadership styles. He says this experience helped him recognize and develop the gifts he already had.

“GLI helped me to discover my different strengths related to my spiritual gifts. By understanding those aspects, it also gave insight into my ways of leadership. It helped me develop those areas to best work in the team and use my gifts and strengths to develop staff team and students. For me, learning from GLI was not only an opportunity to be trained, but was also an opportunity to apply what I learned in my day-to-day involvement with the movement.”

Bharat began implementing what he was learning, encouraging his students to take ownership of their spiritual formation, and creating a learning environment that encouraged active participation, rather than lectures. Being in a culturally diverse cohort also helped him relate better to the students in his own culturally diverse country of Nepal.

Bharat is part of the first cohort of promising young leaders who are being mentored through the Global Leadership Initiative. Previous participants have been appointed to regional leadership roles, have contributed to regional projects, and have been invited into the program planning team for World Assembly. Pray with us for this program that is developing the next generation of IFES leaders.

Pray for this cohort, which is still on their journey, delayed by the pandemic. Pray that they would be encouraged to keep going.

Pray for the individual ministries of each cohort member. Pray that they can practically implement what they learn.

Pray for the future leaders of IFES, that they would be the right people, full of passion and wisdom.