Elliott Stotler

Venezuela Now is very pleased to introduce our first “Executive Director” for US operations, Elliott Stotler. Below is a recent interview with Elliott giving insight as to why we believe he is a perfect fit for this new position.

By Dr. Warren Lathem, President, VNI

Welcome, Elliott!
– Why do you want to work with Venezuela Now Inc?

This is an exciting time for VNI. After 20 years of faithfully responding to God’s call to walk alongside the Venezuelan people a strong foundation has been set. And now, the ministry is at a point of inflection with the crisis in Venezuela bringing the land and its people to a point of deepest need. We have a Kingdom opportunity to continue to strengthen the Church in Venezuela to provide the necessary spiritual food of hope and increase supporting the immediate needs for essential physical food and essential medical care and medicine. That makes it a compelling time to join God in His plan for a Christ – healed Venezuela.

The addition of the Executive Director role builds on the fruitful efforts of the volunteer leadership to respond to God’s call in this crucial time. The Executive Director will focus on enhancing the capacity of the organizations’ volunteer leadership and cultivating deeper engagement and commitments from Americans called to invest in God’s work among our brothers and sisters in Venezuela.

When we returned from South Africa our hearts desire was to leverage our time in cross cultural ministry there with a ministry here. Venezuela Now is that place where we are called to invest that passion and international understanding along with a variety of life skills and relational capacity.

– While living in Peachtree City, GA you were involved with the Methodist church there. How did this impact your life?

We arrived in Peachtree City as a young family and immediately engaged in a wide variety of fellowship and Christian education opportunities. The faith community there nurtured us as a family and as individuals. One day I got a surprise phone call with an invitation to accept my first leadership role in the Church. While I had studied the Word, that new responsibility and numerous positions that followed, opened my eyes to a different form of leadership than I had known in the corporate world.

Concurrently, Katherine and I had attended the Walk to Emmaus and joined with other like – minded Christian leaders in a broader community beyond our local church. The Emmaus experience heightened our understanding of grace and the call to respond. That led us to be more intentional in our response to God’s grace through mission ministry.

Our initial involvement was local but very quickly God placed people in our path that would encourage us to experience new cultures and challenging environments. A number of divine appointments placed us in position to lead numerous short-term mission teams to Liberia, Mozambique and South Africa.

– You spent your first working years in real estate development. Tell us about that.

Having travelled widely in my early days I became interested in the many ways I noticed that the natural and built environments impacted cultures and the development of communities. Real estate development and homebuilding were at the core of that and represent a wide range of responses to the need for community.

Much of my career involved visioning and marketing large scale master planned communities in Houston, TX and Atlanta, GA where residential neighborhoods are blended with commercial and institutional uses and employment centers.

As time progressed, I began to see beyond the impact of the built environment to understand that life-giving community focused on the development of healthy relationships.

– Why did you leave real estate development and get into missions, first local, then foreign?

That new understanding of healthy relationships deepened as God began revealing to me the power of Kingdom community and Spirit led relationships. While I was working as a real estate consultant, a pastor friend was appointed to an urban church in decline. With great need in the surrounding community, the Spirit led to a reimagining of the church centered around outreach ministry. They needed a mission leader and knowing my interest in the intersection between developing healthy relationships and sense of community and experience in urban ministry, my friend invited me to join them as Mission Pastor.

The vision of Atlanta First was creating intentional community focused on mission. While the majority of the outreach was local, focusing on homelessness, substance abuse and education we also engaged cross culturally in Honduras.

Numerous short-term mission experiences overseas in Africa and Central America became fertile ground for a new season of calling. One day I heard a clear, yet curious message that while I was used to having a ‘round trip’ ticket for overseas engagement a day would come soon that I would receive a ‘one way’ ticket. After I spent a bit of time ‘unpacking’ that I realized what I had suspected for some time – that God was calling us to full time, long term incarnational living in a culture far, far away!

– What was your experience of mission in South Africa?

Our eight years of service in Africa were spent in the rural homeland of the Xhosa people in the Eastern Cape Province which is one of the most impoverished and under resourced in South Africa. Our ministries focused on three areas of empowerment – educational, economic and spiritual. Katherine served in a variety of schools using a Creation story-based literacy program incorporating stories, science, song and art to instill a love of God, curiosity and improved English skills. We shared leadership of a Youth Group and Youth Camp which brought together five ethnic/ racial groups. My work centered on small business and entrepreneurship training with a focus on biblical life skills. In addition, we started a training center for Pastors and Lay Leaders focusing on biblical leadership and theology which continues today.

Our goal was to ‘go as learners’ and live incarnationally among the people there. In almost a decade there we experienced the fullness of a beautiful yet tragically challenged land with its variety of indigenous people, European settlers and tribal migrants from around the African continent. We witnessed the transformative power of Christ-centered relationships across cultural boundaries as well as the mutual transformation that occurs when inviting others to join in the work that God has called us to as our financial supporters.

It’s such a blessing to not only experience and receive that understanding while living overseas but also to see how God is using that in this next season of ministry with Venezuela Now.

– Why did you leave Africa?

God’s plan in my life can be seen as a series of seasons. I believe it is imperative that as we pursue that plan across the arc of our time on earth, that we are in tune with the ebb and flow of our calling so that we are open to a healthy transition to the next season.

I always wondered what would come next but I knew that life experiences are additive and that in God’s economy nothing is wasted. So, as I stand at this point of transition, I am certain that God will use the life experiences of our time in Africa and the revealing of certain gifts and graces to point the way.

Sometimes we move from a season of growth and fruitfulness into a ‘winter’ of uncertainty and emptying as we await the renewal of Spring. The Wesleyan Covenant Prayer captures this nicely with the plea, ‘Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee’. There are times when we await a new call to serve.

Before coming to VNI we took a time of sabbatical seeking renewal and guidance for the future. It became clear in that time that the ministries that were developed in South Africa were sustainable and that local leaders that we had poured into would best accept their leadership role in our absence. We also found a desire to refocus on our family responsibilities now that we all live in the same city for the first time in 15 years.

– You are married and have three children. Tell us about your family.

Katherine and I have been married for 36 years and have three adult children. We have lived in 6 US cities and most recently in South Africa. The youngest, our son was the only one with us full time for the 8 years in Africa. Both of our daughters lived in another city in South Africa for a portion of that time. One served in a different ministry and the other completed a Masters Degree there.

Both girls met and married South Africans and lived there together before returning to Atlanta. Our son completed high school in South Africa and now attends Georgia State University studying history and economics. When we returned to the US, we chose to live in Marietta to be closer to our children.

– What do you hope to accomplish with Venezuela Now?

I see my role as joining God in the work of a Christ – healed Venezuela. It is my desire to come alongside supporters of VNI, assisting them in increasing their engagement in God’s story in Venezuela. We do that in three ways – by learning, praying and sharing.

My role is to be an ambassador and story teller for the ministry. The more we learn about how Venezuelans are impacted by their situation and how God has gifted them, pray for them and our response to the situation, we allow God to speak to us about how we can best share the resources that God has blessed us with.

– As you are effective in this work, how will this impact the ministry of Venezuela Now?

I believe we will see an enhanced capacity of the VNI volunteer leadership and deeper, life-giving engagement from Americans called to invest in God’s work among our brothers and sisters in Venezuela. There are many ministries in Venezuela which will benefit from increased financial support through VNI. The net result will be transformed lives in Venezuela as well as transformation right here in the U.S.

– What verse of scripture best describes your call and mission in life?

John 15:1-8 – Jesus’ Parable of The Vine has spoken to me at various points of my faith journey. The more I have experienced God’s Grace, the more my heart desires a life in pursuit of a joy that can only come from bearing more perfect and abundant fruit so that the vinedresser might be glorified.

While serving in South Africa, we began to understand more deeply that as our hearts were broken for those whose suffering breaks Gods heart, our capacity to love only increases. Serving others as a response to Grace helps one experience the sustenance received from being connected to the Vine. We become vessels for God’s love- pouring out as we are poured into.

I do not see mission as simply a desire to change the world and hasten the arrival of the Kingdom but also as an opportunity to deepen our engagement with Christ by intentionally placing ourselves in those places where Christ is actively at work mending the brokenness of Creation – meeting those in need, right where they are. That is where Christ is and where I desire to be. We believe Venezuela Now, Inc. is the place we are called to serve during this season of our lives.