PROGRESS REPORT INNOVATION EXEMPLIFIED

Pastor Elfino Elmo

With additional funding through Versacare, TEAM has been able to reach out to areas where anticonversion laws exist, girls complete eighth grade and must leave school, cultural attitudes do not recognize women as leaders or called by God to serve in ministry, and where financial assistance really makes a difference!

TEAM representatives are working with different language groups in a variety of geographical areas. There is an ongoing effort to develop relationships with pastors, conference representatives, and even presidents of universities in order to assist women called to ministry.

The following is an example of how TEAM is following innovative approaches to assisting women called to ministry:

A student from Southern Asia, Elfino Elmo, completed the course work for the master’s degree in religion at AIIAS and must now engage in a service period as part of her academic program. The North East University in India has offered her a position as an Associate Pastor, but she need funds.

Pastor Elmo would be the third female pastor to serve in India. This would be an opportunity to invest in an area we have not invested in until

just recently.

Cooperation between TEAM Board Member Kay Rosburg and the Sligo Church Pastor, Pranitha Fielder, representing the Indian community at Sligo and the Southern Asia Church in Silver Spring, MD, and working with Narida Bates of the Association of Adventist Women and the Scholarship Committee representative Dr. Selma Chaij Mastrapa, and our contact with Dr. Ginger Ketting-Waller, PhD the President of AIIAS, a trained woman pastor can be placed in an area where TEAM has not entered. TEAM appreciates the creative involvement of so many woman leaders and the support of Versacare to sponsor the student, Pastor Elfino Elmo.