ecoach, Author at Mission to the Americas

Growing Leaders for their own Ministry

February 3, 2011 by ecoach Leave a Comment

For the last several years, I’ve been going to Nicaragua under the PRMI banner to provide leadership training for Young Life Latin America.

The work of Young Life Latin America has risen up several indigenous leaders to national level positions. We have come along side them to give theological and practical training in cooperating with the Holy Spirit.

The 2010 camp brought together national and regional directors from the 6 Latin American countries.

Omar Picado, one of the National Nicaragua Directors for Young Life, had this to say (compiled from conversations I’ve had with him):

“I remember the first year I experienced the Dunamis project and felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. Then every year that the group has come, I’ve learned some ways to pray for the youth with whom we work. You’ve taught us how our ministry can be centered in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Your annual investment in us help us fulfill our mission: every kid should hear about Christ in their own environment.

We are able to see the life changes that happen as a result of the Lord working through us. We are grateful for your work.”

Check out these videos (I haven’t figured out yet how to minimize the background noise):

Video1: Leader Marta Valle shares about events during the camp, and how that has helped her lead her groups.

Video 2: Vida Joven leader Rosa shares about the impact the Dunamis teaching has had on their ministry.

For background, see these posts

Giving Ourselves Away

January 31, 2011 by ecoach Leave a Comment

Giving Ourselves Away We believe that God’s calling upon our life is to give ourselves away in Latin America, coming alongside

mission organizations,
parachurch ministries,
congregations,
pastors, and
individuals

to help them become more effective evangelists and make a difference in their communities.

We provide specialized training for pastors and churches that cannot access higher education nor have the resources to obtain it. Mission organizations use our expertise in evangelism to provide training for their students.

Since we first came to Panama in 2007, we have held ministry events in 6 different countries, come along side several different mission organizations in the region to help their missions, help plant a church in our home city, and reached an untold number of people through our online presence.

As a family, we are very grateful to our donors, supporters, intercessors and our families who help make this work possible. We would not be able to do this work without their support and gifts.

To become part of our team, we need regular gifts and your prayers.

To donate: visit our support page.
To join our team of intercessors: Let us know via email.
To join our newsletter list: Signup on the box in the side bar.

Learned more in 1 hour than in year

December 16, 2010 by ecoach 1 Comment

Several months ago, I led a discussion for a house church on the topic of personal evangelism.

I heard 8 different stories of how people came to faith in Jesus.

An invitation to church
A message at a camp / conference center.
A mystical encounter with God
Restless in the soul that prompted more discussion.

Key events came through contact with family members, with friends, and with random strangers.

For many, the initial encounter then led to a series of events over a year that helped each one surrender their life to the Lord.

I was impressed with the

Diversity of stories.
Diversity of means.
Diversity of gospel explanations.
Diversity of responses.

Evangelism is participating in a journey

After hearing all the stories, the group members saw the uniqueness of their journeys to Christ.

I went on to share about the process of evangelism, some of the most foundational teaching in our ministry.

It helps people see that we can’t rush or compact the conversion process down to a fixed 3 minute script over John 3:16, 3 questions and prayer.

In fact, no one in the group that night came to faith because of a fixed gospel presentation.

I learned more in that 1 hour

That was June. Here in December, I ran into one of those church members and he shared with me what that 1 hour had meant to him.

Prior to the workshop, he had been feeling guilty that his scripted presentations were not working. As a result, there was much personal condemnation.

However, that discussion that night over the process of evangelism brought him personal liberty from condemnation.

The clarity he got from the teaching that night helped him to see how he can play a role in the process of evangelism and that freed him from that sense of personal guilt that he was ineffective.

“I want to thank you for sharing that night. I can’t tell you how much it has helped me and brought back the joy to sharing my faith. I learned more in that 1 hour than I had in previous years of learning in evangelism. Your teaching was a huge blessing to me.”

I received a lot of encouragement from his words. He sought me out in a crowded room to share with me the impact of that night that happened 6 months ago.

As a teacher / trainer, measuring the fruit of workshops is hard until someone comes back to say thanks.

A Weekend of Childrens Ministry

December 14, 2010 by ecoach Leave a Comment

A few Saturday’s ago, our family was richly blessed to serve in partnership with a local church in the community of Camitillo, a collection of 7 smaller communities tucked back in the mountains and near a cement manufacturing plant.

We had been invited by the church, Casa de Oracion por Todas Las Naciones (house of prayer for all nations) to give a Christmas themed arts and crafts workshop for up to 50 kids.

Gathering Supplies

The work for this labor of love begins with gathering the supplies.

There are no Michael’s stores, and ordering stuff from warehouses like Oriental Trading company is not practical or cost effective.

Brenda will spend a few weeks researching crafts online, looking for materials, shopping in the city one store at a time looking for just the right material or substitute to accomplish the craft.

Right now, it’s the peak of rainy season, so walking from store to store can be easy and dry, or difficult and wet depending on the weather. I have joined her shopping a few times for stuff, and declare to you, this is a labor of love.

Assembling Supplies

For the week or so leading up to the workshop, our house becomes craft central.

Our kids get involved, stuff is spread out over tables and furniture and floor as we seek to cut out all the little items, glue stuff in advance, and prepare pre-packaged crafts that we can give to kids.

As crunch time approaches, the hours run out and we make our way to the community of Caimitillo.

The community

Getting to Camitillo not easy to get there. We went out a few weeks early, and due to a landslide, we had to take the long way around, off-roading for about 1 hour in our little 4 door sedan. Going this time, the road was opened, but the going was just as rough.

It’s ripped full of potholes thanks to the heavy equipment like dumptrucks from the mine. At times we felt like we felt like we needed a 4×4 that would have been more suitable for the road conditions. Potholes, washouts, missing pavement all made the journey a little slower than usual.

The neighborhoods are a mix of block homes and shacks made out of whatever is found. Every home is in process of repair, or in need of repair.

As we drove around the neighborhoods, we heard Pastor Raquel describe her love for this harvest field. She knows nearly every family that has a child and has personally visited in nearly every one.

The Workshop

Brenda led a workshop on Christmas crafts for about 50 handpicked kids, ranging in age from 3 to 13.

Some of the adult helpers used to be children in this ministry and have been won to Christ by Pastora Raquel’s ministry. The children made these crafts as part of a Christmas outreach for their parents. The crafts made today will be part of a year end presentation that the church is using to reach into the neighborhood and surrounding communities.

Raquel once told me of one young girl, now 13, who has brought 6 other families into the church through her evangelism. This is hard work for Raquel and her family. Yet she dreams of these kids knowing Christ so that they will be active church members and transformative agents in the neighborhood.

Thanks for your support

God has called our family to ministry in Latin America in partnership with local churches and missions. We are pleased to partner with Raquel and your support of this work enables us to help Raquel’s church reach out in love of Christ.

Narciso takes more steps to the mission field

December 14, 2010 by ecoach Leave a Comment

Several months ago, I introduced you to Narciso, one of the students who went to Peru to continue his missions study.

He visited with me last night to update me on his continued growth and progress towards the mission field.

He’s graduating from the missions school in January and moving on to Costa Rica for further study and preparation for full time mission in one of the ***stan countries in Asia.

He is a street vendor who has been preparing for the mission field for nearly 4 years. The stories he tells me of his ministry adventures in this country are amazing, though I cannot share them here.

The Lord has been preparing him, and recently I got to talk with him about how the teaching we do here in Panama has impacted his ministry.

As he has been working among a people were overt evangelism is impossible, he’s been able to see the process of evangelism more clearly. Even more so, he has to depend on the person and work of the Holy Spirit to make things plain, clear, and to create the spiritual thirst a person needs.

God is speaking to these seekers Narciso connects with. God speaks through dreams, self-revelations, and Narciso has many conversations to help point these seekers to Christ as a result of these dreams.

He told me this weekend how one of his new friends recently surrendered his life to Christ after having encountered God in a dream several months ago.

That led to conversations with Narciso about seeking truth in the Bible, discovering who is Jesus as revealed in Scripture, and ultimately how to surrender his life to Christ and start the dangerous path of following Christ.

The teaching on evangelism as a process has helped Narciso patiently wait and cooperate with God’s activity. It has brought him the freedom of trusting in the sovereignty of God. He’s learned not to rush the process, but to fervently pray for God to draw people to faith.

Now, Narciso is off to Costa Rica to prepare the next phase of cross cultural studies. I’m thrilled to be part of what God is doing in Narciso’s life and glad to be able to see the fruit of our training ministry.