From the Inside Out 

Dear Family and Friends,

Thanks for praying for our Cerny Smith Stress Assessment (CSA) certification seminar. It was a full day of lectures and interaction with our trainer and fellow trainees. 

One of the enduring principles we learned: stress builds up on the inside and needs to be brought 'outside'. An effective way to get a look at our internal stress is through self reporting; answering questions that will create a picture of how current life pressures are impacting us. Though the assessment has 78 questions in 5 different categories, they are designed to answer the basic questions - how are you doing, what can you learn and what can you do? The key to the CSA's success hinges on a person's discovery of  their internal stress and their willingness to come up with steps to dial down their stress level. We need to take personal responsibility for our stress. 

We look forward to using this new tool to help Christian workers we work with in Asia identify and manage the stresses they are coping with in challenging physical, emotional, spiritual and cultural environments. 

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for Christian workers to be open to using the CernySmith Assessment to see where they are and how they can reduce stress in their lives. 
2. Pray for our travel to Taiwan Aug. 30 - Sept. 2. that the Lord would empower us to speak about the value of pastoral care for Christian workers to Asian ministry area leaders. 

Serving Christ With You, Steve and Alberta