A letter from Dr. Paul DeNeui ::

To Supporting Partners of Chris and Jenny Hoskins,

Greetings from Serve Globally of the Evangelical Covenant Church. We want to thank you for your continued support for the Hoskins as they take on this new role in mission. As the director of the Center for World Christian Studies I am very excited about the possibilities opening up with Chris as a scholar practitioner serving globally in his role as a missionary while also taking time for studies. Jenny has also shifted her role to help serve our entire Global Personnel team and will continue to support work throughout Latin America. Serving in mission today requires new creative ways of participating with what God is initiating and the Hoskins are a good example of that. We want you to know that your continued support for the Hoskins is vitally important during this time. Here is how this is working:

As you may know Chris is now a PhD student in Religion, Psychology and Culture at Vanderbilt University. This program focuses on spiritual care and mission, seeking ways of human flourishing in God’s creation by using scripture, the social sciences, and theology to examine what spiritual, political, cultural, and social realities either create or confront barriers to a wholistic living-out of the kin-dom of God. Chris is being trained in ethnographic research to develop theological reflection and Christian practice based in daily lived experience, in particular, life in Latin America and the migration corridors throughout our hemisphere. His scholarship particularly looks at the radical hospitality of congregations in Ecuador that expand our ways of being in and knowing God’s creation; how listening to and voicing pain in a myriad of ways can lead to healing encounter with God and one another with our cultural differences and commonalities. Chris was also awarded a Theology and Practice Fellowship which provides additional training on writing and teaching for ministry as an intentional, mutual bridge between academic research and pastoral or congregational practice.

Ultimately, Chris is pursuing this degree to further the facilitation of leaders, congregations, and communities in developing, engaging, and strengthening their communal practices of care and creative resilience as witness to God’s presence amid suffering and the building of community. His recent research on Ecuadorian pastors’ adaptation and use of virtual and digital space to provide care and witness through the ongoing pandemic will be shared this summer with the church in Ecuador to help better equip pastors for digital ministry.

In addition to his research, coursework, and classroom assisting at Vanderbilt University, Chris remains committed to teaching responsibilities and invitations within the Confraternidad de Iglesias del Pacto Evangélico (CIPE – Fellowship of Evangelical Covenant Churches) in the Americas, connecting and supporting sister institutions throughout the region. For example, this coming Fall semester Chris has been invited to virtually teach Old Testament Theology for Mission and Ministry at the Seminary of the Evangelical Mission Covenant Church of México (SIEMPM), a course he has previously facilitated in the United States at Centro Hispano de Estudios Teológicos (CHET, Chicago) and later at the seminary in Ecuador. He will also assist in local and regional initiatives facilitated by CWCS, Serve Globally regional coordinators Eugenio and Pia Restrepo, and CIPE.

While living in the United States, both Chris and Jenny through CWCS will connect with local congregations in growing cultural competencies and humility as well as providing input
on partnerships that better inhabit practices and attitudes of the kingdom of God in an interconnected world. Chris will be co-editing a book on art in mission with me (Paul) as well.

Jenny as well is vitally important to what is happening in Serve Globally as she was invited to join the Global Personnel Team to help support our missionaries serving all over the world and will also be working with the Admin Core team as needed. In addition, she will continue to work closely with regional coordinators Pia and Eugenio Restrepo as opportunities arise to support the entire Latin American region, as well as continuing to fundraise and communicate with supporters. The entire Serve Globally team is grateful to broaden the impact of her creativity, organizational skills, hospitality and encouragement.

Your continued financial support is important. Thank you for continuing to include the Hoskins in your regular giving. Please continue to pray for this family whom God is using in strategic ways. Your prayers for them are equally strategic.

Blessings in Christ,

Paul H. de Neui

Rev. Dr. Paul H. de Neui
Director of the Center for World Christian Studies A Ministry of Serve Globally of the ECC Paul.deneui@covchurch.org