A Progressive Outlook

Wimbai Mutonono - Executive Director

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.

THIS ISSUE

A Progressive Outlook - E.D. P.1

New Board Member - Otto Rojas P.1

Developing Partnerships P.2

Smart Investment P.3

Office and Location Update P.4

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.

GSLI Welcomes Otto Rojas

Gulf South Leadership Institute

Winter - Spring 2011 News and Updates

Building Communities, One Leader At A Time.

Building Communities through partnerships:

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.

International Alliance of

Christian Colleges and

Universities (IACCU).

Connect Missions New Orleans.

City of Refuge (COR) Life.

Pursuit of Achievement

Transitional Housing. (P.A.T.H.)

__________________________________________________________________________

”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.

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.

Addressing the needs of leaders and contributing to innovative

and healthy communities.

The value of partnerships

or serving as a team player:

Dona Coyle - The P.A.T.H. Transitional

Housing Founder at a GSLI Seminar

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.

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.

____________________________________

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.

"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.)

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.

___________________________________

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.

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.

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.

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

Building Communities, One Leader At A Time.

Smart Investment

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.

GULF SOUTH LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

P.O. BOX 3352

SLIDELL, LA 70459

985.641.8427 Office gsli@gulfsouthleadership.org 888.988.8309 Toll Free admin@gulfsouthleadership.org

www.gulfsouthleadership.org www.gulfsouthleadership.com

www.gulfsouthleadership.bbnow.org

Twitter: GSLINOLA Facebook: Gulf South Leadership Institute (NOLA)

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:

Printing Courtesy of