ecoach, Author at Mission to the Americas

Pioneer Missionary opens new clubs

December 28, 2012 by ecoach Leave a Comment

Let me tell you about one particular leader you’ve influenced with your giving and praying in 2012:

Yenner Lopez was just a club member in Young Life Nicaragua when I first met him 10 years ago.

He had a certain fear about the Holy Spirit for a variety of reasons.

Yet when he first started receiving our teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, he began to discover how to cooperate with the Lord and experience the joy of ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Fast forward to 5 years ago:

Yenner was appointed as the pioneer missionary for Young Life to a new city.

He was in charge of the initial evangelism and prayer ministry for Young Life in that new city. Growing in the skills he’s learning from Young Life camp, plus the teaching that our ministry gives him, he oversees the evangelistic outreach of the first club, and then the second club in the city.

The teaching Yenner has received from us has become part of his lifestyle and he’s already helping his new leaders learn from the materials we’ve been teaching.

Fast forward to August 2012:

After 5 years of development, Yenner now oversees 2 clubs in the city.

At the August camp where our team was teaching, they received fresh vision for the evangelistic expansion of Young Life in their city. They got God’s heart to reach more kids for Christ, and in the last 4 months, Yenner has sent out missionaries to start 3 new clubs in that city.

Fast forward to December 2012:

Yenner is the camp director for Young Life Central America training camp. Gifted as a large group leader, and growing his confidence in discerning direction from the Lord, he leads a camp of nearly 500 people from 6 different nations.

He brings his entire city team to us for prayer ministry, specifically for the teams leading these evangelistic expansions.

The DNA of the teaching we’ve been pouring into Yenner has spread to these new leaders who are doing the groundwork to reach more kids for Christ in 2013.

Each evening of camp, Yenner and others lead the ministry session and prayer times. He’s grown in his ability to recognize what God is doing in settings like that.

Our team used to lead these evening ministry sessions. Now, leaders like Yenner lead them, and our new classes are the prayer teams.

A North American observer commented: “It’s like God is your free-time after a talk.”

Yenner has grown in his confidence in discerning the activity of God and how to cooperate with it. Young Life has invested heavy in his training. For 10 years, I’ve gotten to be part of that.

It’s a personal joy to see the growth of Yenner and others in Young Life Central America. You’ve played a role in that this year.

Working with churches in Matagalpa Nicaragua

November 29, 2012 by ecoach Leave a Comment

Along with teaching at churches in Jinotega, we also spent the weekend for a multi-day event with 5 churches in the nearby city of Matagalpa.

Once again, several local pastors have formed a leadership team to invite the teaching from the Dunamis Institute in a multi-year commitment.

One testimony that came out of the meeting:

We are pretty strong on the experience of the Holy Spirit, but you all have brought a solid Scriptural basse to help us make sure we are working with God.

Another pastor discovered areas of growth that he needs to work on in coming months.

We’ve been invited to return in March 2013 to teach on prayer with this same set of churches.

Growing the Church in Jinotega Nicaragua

November 28, 2012 by ecoach Leave a Comment

The Lord continues to open the doors for sharing the teaching of the Dunamis Institute in Nicaragua.

In November 2012, I taught in a small church in the city of Jinotega Nicaragua.

This is a new venue that has the possibility of opening up to a multi-year commitment.

A fellow team member and I taught on the spiritual gifts to a small gathering of church leaders from a few churches in Jintogea. We had been invited by this group to provide stronger biblical teaching to the experiences of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We had several prayer times throughout the event, allowing the Lord to personally touch the hearts of those who needed healing, wholeness, or to experience God’s power in some way.

Saying Goodbye to My Mother

October 31, 2012 by ecoach 1 Comment

From July to October 2012, our family spent most if it’s time with my mother during her final days of life.

She battled cancer for over 4 years and finally stepped into glory in the middle of October.

As a family, we were able to be at my mother’s side as she peacefully passed at home, surrounded by her loved ones.

Personally, we are doing ok as we adjust to the loss of my mom and the kid’s grandmother. They have done well walking through this as a family.

We will continue to remain in the US until January 2013 to

visit supporting churches,
conduct a few evangelism workshops, and
help my father adjust after the death of his wife.

In January, we return full time to Panama to continue with our Latin American ministry and church planting

Marking our 5th Anniversay

July 18, 2012 by ecoach 1 Comment

July 19, 2012 marks our 5th anniversary since our one-way tickets carried us to Panama, as we left our nets, stepped out in faith, and into our calling into Latin America.

Reflecting on these five years has turned into giving thanks to God for His faithfulness. God has been faithful to His promises:

Sustaining provision that keeps us here.
Open doors for teaching in 7 countries.
Ongoing teaching opportunities in the US.

There have been several times in where it seemed like we were at the end of the road, but fresh provision keeps coming in and we keep stepping into new waves of teaching ministry.

Teaching and Training

Unlike other mission organizations, we are not building schools, digging wells, or running an orphange. We can’t point to a structure and say “this is what we have built.”

Rather, our ministry is teaching and training.

Training missionaries in contact evangelism
Teaching churches about more effective evangelism
Children’s ministry training
Equipping cross cultural missionaries.
Training church planters in personal evangelism.
Helping churches rediscover a passion for evangelism.
Assisting churches in developing plans for serving in their local community.

It’s a teaching ministry that has ongoing events, conferences, and speaking engagements. I travel to various countries each year in partnership with other ministries that invite us in to provide training for their leaders.

Fruit that will last

It is fun to say

we did x number events,
spoke in front of x hundreds of people.
traveled to x countries this year, x number of times.

Those are just facts. A litany of facts would simply show that we are busy.

What is more meaningful are the testimonies that find their way back to me.

Such as these from the Dominican Republic:

“This class opened my eyes to something I didn’t know much about – spiritual gifts. I want to know more . . . . “
“This class helped me overcome my fear of the spiritual gifts. You presented them as if they were normal. . . “
“You helped me see a better way to use the spiritual gifts.”
“I’m not afraid anymore.”

One student in particular told us her story of how her ministry has changed in the past year.

She has experienced a deeper relationship with Jesus, a stronger sense of empowerment in ministry, and we bear witness to that.

She lead worship during the prayer time and it’s clear that she’s received an empowerment to do that.

She’s gained a greater confidence in particular because of some personal prayer ministry she received the prior year from our visit.

Or this one from Nicaragua:

Sunday morning was my turn to preach.

The church was packed, and the Lord had me focus particularly on relational healing:

Between spouses
Between parents and children
Between friends
Between pastors and leaders

The ministry time wound up being a time of surrender for people, inviting them to surrender their conflicts, seek forgiveness, and pledge to work towards a solution rather than destruction.