Make a Way

2024 End-of-Year Update

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."

- Isaiah 43:19

A brief overview of Mosaic Formation

Dear Friend,

It has been three years since God called us to launch Mosaic Formation, and we never could have dreamed how much would happen in that amount of time. We are on a mission to expand access to spiritual formation care and training for leaders serving underserved communities. God is making a way, and fulfilling this vision beyond our expectations.

Access to spiritual formation care is a key determining factor in whether ministry leaders serve from a place of spiritual vitality and depth or experience burnout. Throughout two decades of intercultural work and over ten years of training spiritual directors, we have observed that there is significant disparity of access to spiritual formation care among different people groups. So many of those who need spiritual resources the most simply cannot afford them or adapt work schedules to participate in retreats or trainings. We believe that closing the disparity gap requires ministering with intercultural agility and structuring a financial model that feels hospitable to ministry leaders who are constrained by finances.

Thank you for your partnership. Below we offer some highlights and stories from this past year. Your prayers and generosity are propelling the mission of Mosaic Formation forward.

In Christ’s grace,

David Wu
Founder & Executive Director

2024 Ministry Update

In 2024 our team of three provided one-on-one spiritual direction and coaching to 80 ministry leaders, taught 34 workshops, facilitated 15 retreats, and in total served approximately 3,300 individuals. We traveled all over the U.S., as well as internationally to Sweden, Canada, and South Africa, while serving leaders from several other nations through Zoom.

While this is deeply satisfying work, we are convinced that the task of making spiritual resources more accessible to underserved people can not be measured simply by the number of one-on-ones, workshops, or retreats our staff team leads in a year. This past year, God answered our prayers to multiply our capacity through the creation of the Mosaic Network...

A couple years ago, we began entertaining the idea of expanding our reach through fiscal sponsorship of startup ministry organizations. This dream became a reality in 2024 through the launching of the Mosaic Network. We believe God is raising up a new generation of diverse ministers who can provide spiritual formation care to underserved people groups with generosity and intercultural agility. Our hope is that the Mosaic Network platform will support and empower ministers such as these.

In our first year, 9 spiritual directors joined the Mosaic Network to launch their startup ministries! Through these gifted ministers, even more people will now be able to gain access to life-transforming services such as spiritual direction and contemplative retreats. We encourage you to visit the websites of each of these beautiful ministries and find out how you can partner with what God is doing through them.

Mosaic Formation is committed to serving immigrant and refugee communities. We collaborate with other organizations involved in diasporic ministries and provide leadership to the Refugee Ministry Network of Houston, an informal collective of refugee-focused ministries who gather for prayer, equipping, and moblization.

Mosaic Formation also underwrites Ride with Refugees (RwR), an annual community bike ride in Houston, TX, raising awareness about refugee resettlement and empowering refugees through mobility. One component of RwR is the Afghan Women’s Bike Team, a women’s empowerment program directed by Cindy. We have provided 25 Afghan women with bikes and biking lessons.

Testimonials

Raquel Rogers, founder of Renew Formation, describes her experience joining the Mosaic Network in 2024.

Jonathan Abraham Kindberg, the Executive Director for the Diaspora Network, on the partnership between Mosaic Network & the Diaspora Network.

Elizabeth

Rule of Life workshop

Thank you so much for investing in so much more than simply Mosaic Formation. I am currently in a difficult spot financially, and having the opportunity to seek God and better understand how he sees and values me without feeling the stress or even the pressure of paying for that opportunity means so much more than you can understand. I am so grateful for you and your generosity.

Noeleen

Trauma & Spiritual Formation Webinar

Thank you so much for making it possible for us to engage in such helpful, life breathing workshops. Trauma seems to be of epidemic proportions on so many levels. Through this workshop I experienced hope and empathy. The resources which were shared will enable me to start equipping myself and my church community to deal with many levels of trauma.

Jaret

Retreat at Johannesburg, S. Africa

The spiritual retreat I just attended, "The Transformational Journey", is the first (prayerfully of many) retreat where South African ministry leaders across all different church traditions were able to engage with the deep well of the contemplative tradition no longer from afar as a distant friend but up close as an intimate child. This is a great gift that our brothers and sisters all around the world should have more access to. I am deeply grateful for Mosaic and organizations alike that make these resources available. Getting a visa alone to enter the US is challenging enough without talking about the amount of effort it will take for any local congregation to send their leaders to retreats like these overseas.

Amelia

Intercultural Agility & Polarization Workshop

Because I'm between jobs and wasn't previously familiar with the work of Mosaic Formation, I wouldn't have chosen to attend this workshop when my friend recommended it - but because it was free, I figured I might as well sign up. It turned out to be just what I needed. I was surprised by how much my heart softened towards some "polar opposites" in my life through the prayer exercises at the end of the workshop. It feels especially valuable to have received this training right now as the presidential election approaches. I am so grateful to have been able to attend for free - many, many thanks!

Aubri

Enneagram Workshop

I work with missionaries on all legs of their journey, before, during and after. This tool is one I have used in my coaching, debriefing and spiritual direction for years, but never have I had such a honed formational version of this tool! I'm so thankful for David and Cindy and their expertise but also humble and wise guidance in the use of a tool that builds not just self-awareness but true formation into Christlikeness and deepening trust in God. I hope to multiply what I was given! Thank you for your generosity and providing this course!

Kendall

Intro to Intercultural Agility Workshop

Thank you much for supporting Mosaic Formation! They've put helpful resources and tools in my backpack to be a better mindful leader for the Latino teens I serve.

Craig

Spiritual Direction

Over the past two years, I have been blessed by David's guidance in spiritual direction sessions. There is not a session that goes by when I am not surprised in some way by what the Lord reveals about himself or about me that speaks to deep realities in my heart. Any many ways, each session is like a spiritual workout -- hard work that yields deeper health. And like a physical workout, there are times when I don't want to show up and yet I am always glad that I did. David is a patient director that allows the Holy Spirit to speak in his time and in his ways.

Virginia

Intro to Intercultural Agility Workshop

Thank you! This workshop was so beneficial to my context of ministry in Southern California, primarily with second generation Hispanic/Latino young adults, and their families. Cindy did a great job in such a short time with helping us consider our own culture, how it has been shaped, our world view and how to approach culture with greater agility (making observations without judgment). I feel like I have some new tools to help me disciple our young adults while honoring their families' cultures and helping them be culturally agile as well, being a mix of cultures themselves.

Monica

Enneagram Workshop

thank you for your thoughtfulness in putting this workshop together! I loved the direct teaching, personal reflection and small group sharing components. Every segment is intentional and I really appreciated the weeds, seeds and fruit analogies, they are really going to stick to my memory! I loved the passion that David had when discussing the effect of weeds in our life. This is a very edifying workshop that points us back to the hope we have in Christ and how our stories ultimately bring Him glory! What a gift it is!

June

Intercultural Agility & Polarization Workshop

This workshop really helped me to see why I've felt like parts of me have always been broken, and that they weren't really broken in the first place--I was just experiencing them through a different cultural lens.

The Dogwood Digest - 2024 Year-in-Review

2024 Financial Update

2021

Mosaic Formation launched in July 2021 with a single full-time staff person (David Wu, Executive Director). We ended the year with $27,032 in expenses and $41,350 in donation income. Within just a few months of offering ministry services with our Freely Receive, Freely Give model, we were inundated with requests for ministry services from ministry leaders and organizations around the world who were hungry for spiritual formation care and training

2022

In response to this rapid growth and demand for ministry services, in mid-2022, we added a second full-time staff person (Cindy Wu, Managing Director) who brought passion, leadership gifts, and expertise about diaspora/refugee ministries. Doors flung even wider for Mosaic Formation to serve immigrant and refugee communities, as well as the ministry leaders and nonprofits who serve them. We finished 2022 with $127,307 in expenses and $144,132 in donation income.

2023

In 2023, we received our first grant of $40,000 to help kickstart an ambitious project to create and launch the Mosaic Network. With this grant, we were able to dramatically upgrade our organizational and technical infrastructure and hire a third part-time staff person (Chrissy Chang, Associate Director Mosaic Network) in anticipation of launching the Mosaic Network in 2024. We finished 2023 with $165,225 in expenses and $179,046 in income.

2024

We started 2024 with plans to add three ministers to the Mosaic Network who would launch their startup ministry organizations. However, God used a variety of factors, including an unexpected and miraculously-timed grant of $50,000 to show us that our plans were too small. Over the course of the year, the Mosaic Network onboarded not three, but NINE new spiritual formation ministry startups, exponentially expanding our capacity to serve leaders of underserved contexts! Not counting the financials for our Mosaic Network ministries, we foresee finishing 2024 with $215,000 in expenses and hope to raise a total of $240,000 in donation income to start 2025 from a position of financial health.

Help us reach our Year-End Goal of $240K!

We head into the final stretch of 2024 trusting God to provide a remaining $12,000 to reach our funding goal. Would you prayerfully consider a year-end gift in support of Mosaic Formation’s mission?

Fundraising Goal: $12,000 Remaining

$228,000 received so far...

Freely Receive, Freely Give (Our Financial Model)

The Freely Receive, Freely Give model not only echoes the language of how Jesus sent his disciples into town to do ministry (“Freely you have received, freely give“—Matt. 10:8), it is highly strategic. It is a model fueled by gratitude and generosity, which are transformative forces.

FREELY RECEIVE means that all are welcomed to partake in life-giving resources and services without cost, made possible through someone else’s generosity. We have seen firsthand that this approach removes barriers of access and closes disparity gaps. In Mosaic Formation’s brief three years of existence, we have been able to serve people across different ethnic and cultural backgrounds and socioeconomic class, from nearly every continent around the world.

The second part of the model, FREELY GIVE, takes it a step further and extends generosity. We do not treat anyone as a charity case, which robs people of their dignity. Instead we invite all who have freely received to join in the generosity movement by freely paying forward gifts of any size that will bless future others with the gift of soul care. Jesus loved the widow’s offering of two mites because it was given generously and in proportion to what she had. Even though she was materially poor, she was spiritually rich, and therefore honored above those who were materially rich, yet spiritually poor.

When you give to Mosaic Formation, you are not simply helping us to cover the costs of ministry; you are investing in a generosity movement. You are partnering with us to close disparity gaps, so that ministry leaders around the world can gain access to spiritual formation care and training.

4x Match Opportunity (Monthly Donations)

Thanks to the generosity of matching donors, the first gift of anyone who begins monthly donations to Mosaic Formation from now til the end of 2024 will be QUADRUPLED! Monthly donations contribute greatly to the financial sustainability of this ministry.

$250 per month; first gift stretched to $1,000
$100 per month stretched to $400
$50 per month stretched to $200
$25 per month stretched to $100