ecoach, Author at Mission to the Americas

Would you say Grace?

November 1, 2008 by ecoach Leave a Comment

Earlier this fall, we had a chance to meet up with our Sunday School class for dinner at a local restaurant.

Our church, though very large, does not have an active small group ministry. The Sunday school class is attempting to fill that void and felt need. What a joy to visit with people and to share a little time of fellowship.

We attended the married couples class. We break down into smaller groups based on the seasons of marriage (1-5 years, 6-10 years, 11-20 years, 20+) when we meet on Sundays but this was the first attempt at gathering many of us together.

PICT0365 — Celebrating the Waiter's Birthday

As it turned out, it was also our waiter’s birthday, so the class took a moment to honor him, then pray for him a blessing. It was our chance to minister to him.

Saying Grace in Public

The biggest surprise of the night for me was being called on to say grace for our food.

Praying an impromptu prayer, in Spanish, before a crowd of listeners (and God, of course) turned on the anxiety faucet pretty quickly. However, I stumbled through it.

Spanish for me still is a little clumsy, but conversationally I do OK. I’m told it’s still a little “heavy” meaning the grammar is not always right, the prepositions might be in the wrong direction.

Fellowship Photos

Growing A Small Group

November 1, 2008 by ecoach Leave a Comment

We’ve recently gotten connected with a local small group. It meets in a living room home, about a 15 minute walk from our house. Most of the attendees are from Panama or Venezuela. It is in Spanish.

Our host is the Vargas/Sifontes Family, church planters from Venezuela pictured.

The blessing to us after the first year here is that it is a place where we are connecting with people, slowly.

It’s still a little chaotic with the people coming only 1 time to check it out, but those that remain are beginning to connect.

Each week thus far has been on self-care, using excellent Bible passages. It is an honest and accurate mix of psychology and Scripture and each group ends with a practical application.

I also like that each ending is focused on who will I be inviting next week?

So, who am I iniviting?

I’m inviting the security guard who works in front of our building. We’ve been talking in recent days and he seems to be awakening in his faith. When he first started working here he was self-described as far from God.

However, he’s recently asked me for devotional books in Spanish.

I shared with him a monthly devotional that I use, which he has been reading in his own time. It has Bible verses, a meditation, and questions about the text. It also has directions for prayer.

He wants more, so I invited him to join our Bible Study.

Pray for our security guard. He has already invited his teenage daughter to come with him to the study.

Shopping for Halloween Items

October 31, 2008 by ecoach Leave a Comment

Today is Halloween.

To give you a glimpse of celebrating US Holidays in a foreign country, here were some of the challenges.

Finding candy corn.

In the US, the holiday of Halloween is a big commercial enterprise. Most big-box type stores anywhere have loads of candy near the entrance and a section of the store dedicated to all things for the holiday — costumes, decorations, candy, and supplies to run it all like bags, batteries, and other goodies.

What’s candy corn? Didn’t find it. Not even in the candy section. Needed to visit a store that caters to expats with imported items.

Want yarn? Find the store where they sell yarn and ribbons.

Need sugar cookie mix? Supply issues in one store meant none for that day.

Without a car to help us get from store to store, whatever was missing from the store that day didn’t get bought. On top of it, yesterday was payday before a three day holiday weekend so traffic was hosed, as it is today as people are trying to get out of town.

Brenda found the yarn in a specialty shop that sells only yarn and ribbon tapes, because it was a block from our house.

Since Halloween is a US Holiday, there is no retail madness to have all the baking supplies or candy near the front door or in any kind of simply 1 stop location in a store.

No complaints, just inconveniences.

The scarf you see pictured — hand made from yard using straws as a loom.

Brenda spent hours last night hand making it. What a labor of love.

Donate Miles and Help Us Visit Home

October 15, 2008 by ecoach Leave a Comment

One way to support our ministry is to donate airline miles to help our family visit supporters and family in the US.

A family of 4 tickets run between $2400 and $3000. Occasionally, fare specials will run at just $800 for the whole family, but those are short lived buy now type programs that don’t always fit.

We would use miles to make family trips to the US, or if needed, any emergency trips for things like funerals or health needs.

Our summer road trip last year was funded on miles, but they are not accumulating as fast as they used to . . .

We use Delta through Atlanta and American through Miami almost exclusively.

Right now, Delta is running a bonus program for donating miles. You can make your miles donation to us go further with bonus miles. I’ve seen adds on Delta and in their newsletters for 25% 50% and even 100% mileage bonus to both you and us. I’ve seen various percentages.

If you would like to help our travel and donate miles, please contact me directly to make arrangements. I don’t want to put our numbers up on this site. . . .

Ministry in Venezuela

October 7, 2008 by ecoach 1 Comment

We have returned from our trip to Barquisimeto VZ.

It was a great mission in many ways, and a personally refreshing break for us. The travel was perhaps the more exhausting part.

Flying from Panama City, Panama, to Bogota Columbia, to Caracas VZ, and then a 6 hour taxi ride to Barquisimeto VZ. Total distance was approximately 1300 miles one way. Normally, we are told the taxi ride is about 3-4 hours, but with Caracas traffic, both coming and going, we were stuck in traffic jams that lasted over an hour, at least 2x in each direction.

View Larger Map

Friday’s Evangelism Workshop

I conducted a workshop at Buenas Nuevas Shekina, a church located in the area of Las Sabila in the north of Barquisimeto.

I had visited Shekina before when I was in Barquisimeto before, a few years ago. It was a good experience to reconnect with the pastor.

The Friday night workshop was focused on our motive for evangelism, based on a workshop I give as Evangelism Coach. About 65 people attended.

After the time of teaching, we had a time of prayer ministry, praying for those who do not know Christ and praying for a new infilling of the Holy Spirit.

One thing I have started doing in my evangelism workshops in Latin America is giving invitations to start following Jesus. Once again, there were 2 or 3 more people in this workshop who prayed to receive Christ into their life and start following the Lord. Praise God for those new believers.

Preaching on Sunday

On Sunday, I returned to preach two services at Shekinah Sabila. About 600 people attend two morning services. The church is in the middle of a field, and is the process of doubling it’s sanctuary.

Our missionary friend, Argenis Mena served as my translator. We ministered together for two years in Richmond, and then multiple mission trips to serve him and his family since the year 2000.

The message focused on Psalm 51 and the effects of sin and the desire for forgiveness. It was a naturally evangelistic service and in both services, more people responded to the invitation to receive Christ and find that forgiveness of sin.

Praise God for the new believers here over the weekend. I get excited when I see people respond to the preaching of the gospel and continue to be humbled that God would use such an imperfect vessel like me. It’s not for our glory, but for God’s glory.