Transition is Happening!
We knew it would not be quick or easy and that there would be questions with answers long in the coming. We knew there would be “bumps in the road” as have been on the 34-year journey along the Emmaus Road. BUT, transition is happening, to the glory of God!
Last year we were pleased to announce the ERI Board’s appointment of our son, Greg, to the position of Director of ERI Resources, a Division of Emmaus Road International. And to name him President Designate of Emmaus Road International.
(We were quick to add that those appointments had nothing to do with Yvonne’s or my retirement. We did not and are not retiring!)
The transition time would involve a sharing of responsibilities with the ministry with which Greg has worked the past five years. To put it in perspective, at one time he said, “It feels like I am working two, part-time full-time jobs!” Time has allowed schedules to settle down. A bit.
We were ready for the transition to begin. Initially, Greg would assume full responsibility for the promotion of and order fulfillment of ERI resources, and the finances of those transactions.
With the generous help of one Board member and people from our church—while Greg, Marci, Yvonne and I were away at a mission conference—the books were taken from our storage and loaded onto a rented truck. When we returned home, we saw the truck bed resting on the tires! Volume had been calculated correctly, but the weight had not. We had to return about a third of the books to our storage before Greg could haul them over to Nevada! Even then, Greg said that the handling of the truck was at high attention! But the transition had begun!
A new home office was set up in Nevada. QuickBooks was put into the “cloud”. Old invoices were collected. Contact lists were transferred to a new computer. A great promotional piece was created and printed. A stand up banner and printed display tablecloth were ordered. They look great and professional! Adverts in mission journals. He has displayed at several conferences and he has grappled with me on a print run of our book, I Think God Wants Me to be a Missionary, that has gone very wrong. His experience as a bookstore owner helped to convince the printer that they could not push off a sloppy job on us.
But the future of the other organization is in limbo, so when Greg will be full time with Emmaus Road is also uncertain. In the meantime, he is now more aggressively developing his Partnership Team. Yes, he and Marci are in as much need of a Partnership Team as Yvonne and me. We are dependent on scores of people who have come along side us in faithful prayer, finances and reentry support when we return from our ministry trips.
If you sense the prompting of the Lord to join them in their new venture of faith in any area of care, please contact them directly: Greg & Marci Pirolo at
