Mission to the Americas

Serving Ministries and Missions in Latin America

Growing the Church in Jinotega Nicaragua

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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.

 

Marking our 5th Anniversay

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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:

Healing Minsitry of JesusSunday 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.

More stories:

I could go on with more stories from

  • Venezuela
  • Guatemala
  • Panama
  • United States

But many of them are already told here on this website.

Brenda and I remain grateful for our supporters who faithfully pray for us and give generously to allow us to remain in Panama, serving churches in Central America.

 

Making a real difference

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Our church seeks to be a blessing for it’s community. We don’t want to create another “come-to-us-4-nights-a-week” church.  There are enough of those already.

Instead, we want to be the hands and feet of Christ in the community and surrounding areas.

Recently, our church partnered with Vida Joven Panama for a day of community service.  Vida Joven helped determine the work projects and our church provided the volunteers and materials.

We spent a few days walking the community, talking with Vida Joven leaders to learn about their community needs. Panama Viejo is a different community than where our church is being developed.  Our church is in the midst of high rises and a growing upper middle class.  But just a few miles away, Panama Viejo is an at-risk community where Young Life (Vida Joven) has been working for a few years.

Entering their community, we did not want to impose our plan upon then, but rather, partner with Vida Joven to tell us some of the needs that they see and want to meet.  At their invitation, we established work projects around needs that Vida Joven knew about.

The biggest project accomplished that day was replacing a zinc roof for a family.  The picture below show some of the holes rusted out. We took off the existing roof, welded some new beams, and then replaced the roof.  It was the monster project of the day. Other projects included painting some rooms and some some work in the local elementary school.  There were other projects that were on the table, but we didn’t have enough volunteers that day.

We also gathered up several bags of dried goods, and Vida Joven showed us where they were to be delivered.

Video

You helped me overcome my fear of the spiritual gifts

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Nearly 60 Young Life leaders from the Dominican Republic crammed into a standing room only classroom over 3 days to learn more about the person and work of the Holy Spirit from PRMI’s Dunamis team.

We were there in 2011, teaching on basic theology on the person of the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit does.

Where were we?

We were at Vida Joven’s Pico Escondido camp in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic.

The camp is tucked away up a rutted dirt road on a green mountainside, about 1 hour south of the city of Santiago.  Cool refreshing breezes were on order each camp day through it rained occasionally during the camp.

Jarabacoa is a small destination town (pictured on the plain below from the camp).  People from the city come out to this valley for their summer vacation homes.

Year round residents have motorcycles to get around. Dodging motorcycles and mopeds while navigating narrow windy streets is an art form, as they seemed more numerous than ants in a colony.

We want to learn more!

We were one class in a larger conference that had over 200 participants at the annual training camp for Young Life leaders.

Some were in our class last year and remember the visit with Sam Hale.

Class on PRMI Ignite Our ministry’s partnership with PRMI, and faithful support from our ministry partners allow a new team to once again stand before these ministry leaders.

The level of interest in our topic is much greater than the year before.  You can see eagerness to learn more and feel the excitement and expectation in the air.

In our short time together, we gave a snack-sized version of PRMI’s Ignite 2 material on the Spiritual gifts, specifically focused on

  • How we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in kairos moments.
  • How we experience guidance of the Holy Spirit
  • How manifestational gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 work in ministry moments.

Of course, there is too much material in a short little space.

Part of PRMI’s ethos is practical lab-time as well, where we break into little groups of 3 or 4 and pray one for another and see if we might experience one of these gifts.

It was this experiential element that went much further than a lecture ever could.

Here are some of the comments received

  • “This class opened my eyes to something I didn’t know much about – spiritual gifts.  I want to know more . . . . “
  • “You gotta come learn how the Holy Spirit works with us!”
  • “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 want more classes like this.”
  • “This gave me a chance to discover my spiritual gifts.”
  • “I’m not afraid anymore.”

During one class, team member Susan taught on how we receive guidance from the Lord, dwelling on various ways we experience that guidance.

We had a lab time of personal prayer ministry during class that allowed students to practice receiving guidance from the Lord.

As we debriefed with the class, there were stories of God speaking guidance and some experienced a few of the spiritual gifts.  They got to experience what was being taught.

“I really liked the prayer times in groups of 3.  I got to experience a gift.”

Prayer Clinic

One growing feature of our visits with Vida Joven is a prayer clinic.  People seek out the Dunamis team for personal prayer over very deep issues.   We hear stories of trauma, hurt, abuse, brokenness, but also hope and optimism as people seek God’s guidance for their future.

It is also a chance to bring in others who want to learn prayer ministry.  Some of the Vida Joven staff joined us in this.

While I cannot reveal personal issues, the prayer clinic was a powerful healing time for many of the people who came.  We saw some healing, prophesy, inner healing of deeply traumatic wounds, and even a deliverance.

Staff members helping us with translation got to participate in these sessions and learn some of the practical elements of the PRMI ministry style.

The Outpouring:

We believe Sunday was a significant turning point for Vida Joven.  At a general assembly of their entire leadership, Rafa, their national director,  shared the vision of reaching 540 kids for Christ in the next 3 years.

Realizing they can’t do alone nor in their own strength, all 200+ leaders spent an extended time in prayer.

It started as a small group time of personal repentance.

It moved deeply into a spirit filled moment of intercession for souls, crying out for the young people in this nation, and then a shift to a clamor for an outpouring and infilling of the Holy Spirit.

A description is beyond words for the sense of expectation that moved over that group.

You changed my ministry

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.

From the event organizer

A student said to me,

I really enjoy the Dunamis classes.

I ask why?

Because the Spirit of God was always there.

(If you want to contribute to this trip, click here for more info).

Come over here and help us!

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Because of the long term leadership development impact we have had in Nicaragua, the national Director of Young Life in the Dominican Republic has asked me to come with a small team from PRMI to provide training over there.

Last year, we participated in the Dominican Republic training camp in Jarabacoa.

Young Life’s ministry is to help share the gospel with kids.  Their leaders work in some of the toughest barrios, among the urban poor, and often in conditions that most North Americans don’t ever see.  We get to come along side these ministries to help them reach their goals.

They want to double their reach by 2015.

Listen in as Rafa give that invitation:

Again, I am not sure how to have removed the wind noise from the recording, but at least you can hear the translation

“I have seen God use them in a great manner here in Nicaragua, and I want God to use the team in the Dominican Republic as well.”

Read the prior report on the Dominican Republic trip:

Another DR Leader writes:

Our volunteers and leaders are very well trained on how to do direct ministry but have not yet been trained well in the person of the Holy Spirit.

The reality of our young people today is that they have a poor concept of who the Holy Spirit is and how He works.

We think that having Chris here will be a great blessing and the spirit of God will be with him to instruct us.  We hope to learn as much as we can from Chris and use it to expand the Kingdom of God.

Help me Fulfill this call:

We’ll definitely need your support to give this training to over these leaders of Young Life in the DR.

We will be focusing on about 40-45 of them for the teaching time.

I’ll need your support to cover the airline ticket.  Tickets are approaching $600.

Donate through Paypal, and let me know by email that it was for the DR trip.  Anything over and above will be used for ongoing ministry expenses.

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