GSLI Winter/Spring Newsletter 2011

Gulf South Leadership Institute Winter - Spring 2011

News and Updates

THIS ISSUE A Progressive Outlook - E.D.

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New Board Member - Otto Rojas

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Developing Partnerships

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Smart Investment

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Office and Location Update

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A Progressive Outlook Wimbai Mutonono - Executive Director

GSLI Welcomes Otto Rojas

Gulf South Leadership Institute was conceived three years post Katrina, and at the time it was relevant and common for organizations to embrace the Katrina relief theme. Now, over five years post Katrina, we decided to communicate a more positive message, and like the rest of the Greater New Orleans Area reflect a more progressive outlook to ministries, communities, organizations and individuals.

Part of the process of

establishing a progressive outlook included restating our mission and vision statement as well as changing the theme on all publicity materials and on our website.

In addition to making some changes on our outlook, we have also intentionally engaged in valuable relationships to facilitate a more fruitful pursuit of our mission to train and develop leaders. This issue of the GSLI News and Updates highlights some of those partnerships. Thank you for keeping up with our work, and for your partnership with us as we participate in the building of innovative, healthy and progressive communities.

Building Communities, One Leader At A Time.

Otto is a native of Honduras and has lived in the New Orleans area since 1979. He has a Paralegal degree from Tulane University and 20 years business experience in the commercial collections industry. Otto also served honorably in the US Marine Corps and is a veteran of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. In his short time of ministry, he has been a student of GSLI and a lay leader in the Kingdom. His desire is to give hope and inspire others to walk with the Lord and see a revival in this community, in this region, this nation, and in the world.

Building Communities through partnerships: Addressing the needs of leaders and contributing to innovative and healthy communities.

City of Refuge (COR) Life Center: Slidell, LA Early this year I had the great honor and privilege to sit down and talk to a visionary, a community leader, a change agent and a great servant. Bishop Soule’ approached me about partnering with Gulf South Leadership Institute with a simple, but needed mission of ministering to individuals and families, who are hurting, lost and leading unproductive lives.

This opportunity proved consistent with an initiative that was in the works at the time, Youth Leadership Development. I am honored to say that the conversation between Bishop Soule’ and I was a very healthy and kingdom focused one, and it is our hope that together we can offer hope and a positive outlook to the young people entrusted to us.

Bishop Soule’ is the Executive Director and founder of COR Life, a ministry with the vision to foster change in the lives of individuals and their families through integrated, personal and family development. COR Life’s primary focus is youth transformation.

Bishop E. René Soulé - Executive Director, City of Refuge (COR) Life Center.

Bishop Soule’ is a Life Coach, Certified Chaplain, and principal of E. Rene’ Soule’ and Associates – an enterprise specializing in Organizational Management/Leadership Development.

Rene’ graduated from Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania with a degree in Accounting. He also attended National Bible College in Ft. Washington, Maryland graduating with a double major: Pastoral Care and Church Administration. Rene’ has an extensive background in public service.

The P.A.T.H. Slidell, LA In the process of having conversations about the Legacy Leadership Program, a leadership development initiative for the youth, another partnership developed.

Otto Rojas, one of our board members introduced me to a lady with whom he had worked in the past, and who is currently in the process of starting a transitional housing ministry.

That first conversation with Donna Coyle clearly revealed that she is a woman with a big heart for the kids who end up homeless after aging out of the foster care system.

Donna Coyle is the founder and Director of The Pursuit of Achievement Transitional Housing (P.A.T.H.) and as a partner GSLI is proud to serve by providing life skills and career development training and guidance to these young people.

Dona Coyle - The P.A.T.H. Transitional Housing Founder at a GSLI Seminar

The value of partnerships or serving as a team player: Gulf South Leadership launched from initially partnering with Kentucky Christian University and the International Alliance of Christian Colleges and Universities (IACCU). With the help of Dr. Keith Keeran, the Executive Director for the (IACCU) the Gulf South Leadership Institute was incorporated, launched, and hired the first Executive Director.

Since then we have realized that serving students, ministries, and clients in partnership with other organizations results in more significant outcomes.

We are very much honored and seek to communicate our sincere gratitude to the organizations listed below, and we envision a growing list of partners as we seek to positively impact The Great New Orleans Area and beyond. 

We are already actively engaged in this partnership through providing consulting services as The P.A.T.H. goes through the incorporation and launch process.

International Alliance Christian Colleges Universities (IACCU).

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Connect Missions New Orleans.

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City of Refuge (COR) Life.

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Pursuit of Achievement Transitional Housing. (P.A.T.H.)

Donna Coyle has a great passion to care for and minister to homeless youths within our community. She serves as a volunteer for one of the foster care homes here in Slidell.

Donna is a member of Church of the King.

Building Communities, One Leader At A Time.

of and

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”Networking creates a greater willingness of all parties to be part of a human conduit to serve as energy resources to one another.”

- Chris London. Manhattan Society.

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

- John Q. Adams (6th president of the U.S.)

Seminar Report: Hebrews: The New and Living Way. Understanding the reality and implications of the new and living way as communicated in the book of Hebrews.

Networking to build campus communities: Campus Crusade and Impact Movement, Southern LA

Smart Investment Connect Missions focuses on planting missional communities in response to the Acts 1:8 call to reach Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and even the ends of the earth. Founded and led by one of GSLI’s board members, Connect Missions is a cross-cultural missions ministry committed to supporting the Church in its missions to bring people into a closer relationship with Jesus Christ.

With one of our initiatives being to impact the future generations, we view our partnership with Connect Missions as a practical opportunity to engage in Leadership Legacy.

The GSLI team commits to invest into the lives of the student leaders of various campuses as needed.

Through this partnership with Connect Missions the Institute has facilitated workshops and taught main sessions at the student leaders’ retreats and training sessions.

There is great potential and value in this indirect approach to impact university campuses and we are honored to be contributing to the process.

Thanks to the Connect Missions Team. ___________________________________

Gulf South Leadership Institute’s progress and success depends so much on smart investment. We are grateful to those individuals, ministries and organizations who have made smart investment, through sowing into the mission of the Institute.

Early this year we were blessed by a significant grant from a partner ministry in the Great New Orleans area. This grant has been the most significant donation the Institute has received so far and we trust this to be the beginning of more to come.

To this point in the year, we are also happy to report that we have been able to secure additional partnerships, and we are pleased to include the following new partners to our list:  Crossroads Community Church, Jersey Shore PA.  First Christian Church, DeLeon TX.  Mandeville Christian Church, LA Thank you for your investment, and we assure you that this is a smart investment and we will serve as good and faithful stewards. May you be blessed as you continue to be a blessing to others.

Building Communities, One Leader At A Time.

We thank Dr. Stanley Helton and Heath Vogel (Minister at Mandeville Christian Church) who both teamed up as our presenters at the last GSLI seminar. The seminar was held on the 20th and 21st of May and was hosted by Tammany Oaks Church of Christ where Dr. Helton is the senior minister.

The response and attendance for this particular seminar was not what we anticipated, but I can confidently speak for those who attended and say that it was a very encouraging and educational seminar. Both Dr. Helton and Keith Vogel engaged the participants in a rather unique and thought provoking discussion on the text of Hebrews.

It was quite a blessing to have as participants two new people to the Gulf South Leadership Institute network. We had, attending for the first time Quintin Smith and Donna Coyle. Quintin is church planting in the Slidell area and working with a community called Light of the Lord Ministries. Donna is in the process of starting a non-profit organization to help alleviate homelessness and provide transitional housing for kids aging out of the foster cares system.

GSLI is proud to be partnering with both Quintin and Donna in and their ministries.

We are thankful to Dr. Helton and Tammany Oaks Church of Christ for letting us use their space to host this seminar.

Office and Location Update Gulf South Leadership Institute launched its operation out of The Christian Church of Slidell in 2008, and since then some radical changes have taken place with the property that was owned by Christian Church of Slidell. In December of 2010, after trying to keep up with mortgage payments, the small group of core members decided to surrender the building back to the mortgage company.

The Christian Church of Slidell was at the time donating some of the building space for the offices of the Institute.

The Institute was still blessed after that to have access to the building for office space and hosting of workshops, classes and seminars as a continuation of the donation.

This usage of space was authorized by the mortgage company (Christian Development Fund) for as long as the property was on the market.

As of the second week of July, the property has now been sold, and the Institute still continues to pursue its mission, but we are actively engaging in conversations to identify space that can be donated to house our offices and to host our classes, workshops and seminars. With the way Gulf South Leadership Institute is set up, we are able to rotate between locations where classes, seminars and workshops are hosted.

In response to the changes, we would also like to inform you that our mailing address has now been changed. We are now using a post office box and our new address is: GULF SOUTH LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE P.O. BOX 3352 SLIDELL, LA 70459-3352 We express our sincere gratitude to Christian Church of Slidell and to Christian Development Fund for donating office and class space to allow us to effectively impact ministries and the lives of leaders with the community to this point and trust the Lord to lead us to the next post.

Gulf South Leadership Institute still seeks financial partners at any level. We invite individuals, ministries and business organizations to help us in our pursuit of “building communities, one leader at a time.”

Corporate Partnerships: Due to budget constraints and limited resources, nonprofit organizations usually find it difficult to reach their constituents and target audience. In order to facilitate easy and cost effective ways of establishing nonprofit presence, a number of organizations are creating network platforms to offer certain services free of charge to nonprofits. Gulf South Leadership Institute has been blessed by some great corporate partnerships.

The Following are some of the partnerships that are now in place to help us better pursue our mission of “Building Communities, One Leader At A Time.”

Grassroots.org provides nonprofit organizations with free valuable technologies and resources to increase their efficiency and productivity.

UCommunity Program helps charities, nonprofits churches and schools by donating printed materials for fundraising and promotional needs.

Kintu Designs is a graphics and website design company based in India. Our partnership with Kintu Designs materialized through sparked.com - a networking service for nonprofits and volunteers with various skills willing to give back to communities by helping non-profits.

48HourPrint.com’s Giving Across America program partners with nonprofit organizations, schools, churches and volunteer efforts in offsetting the printing costs of fundraising and promotional materials.

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