Mission to the Americas

Serving Ministries and Missions in Latin America

Come to the Dominican Republic 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 start providing training over there.

Young Life has been present in the Dominican Republic for over 25 years.  They have 6 developed areas and 2 others areas that are newer but growing quickly. They are also have Young Life and Wyld Life in 3 international schools throughout the country.

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.

Our partnership with Young Life in Nicaragua has helped to develop theological and spiritual maturity in their leaders, and now other regions of Young Life Latin America are opening their doors for us.

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.”

Camp dates are just prior to Easter, in April of 2010, and as of this writing, about 180 Young Life Leaders are expected to attend.

They currently have 120 volunteers, 12 student staff, 6 full time national staff, 3 international staff, plus a team that is developing our camp property.

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.

That’s why we are very excited to have Chris and Sam here with us so that he can help us to develop this area where our leaders still need to keep growing.

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.  At this point, I’ve set a budget for airfare and time at $1500. Tickets are approaching $700 alone.

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.


Growing Leaders for their own Ministry

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100_1873For 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

Growing La Fuente Church in Matagapla

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Matagalpa is a city about 2 hours to the interior of the country from Managua, the capital, and is tucked in a mountainous valley in central Nicaragua.

In January 2011, I’ll be joining a team from PRMI to give a conference the weekend of the 7-10, focused on Praying in the Power of the Holy Spirit.  Pastor Raul will be our host.

DSCN0139

Since we are in town for an event with Vida Joven (see Developing Leaders in Latin America), we were invited to have an additional conference in the city with La Fuente church.

La Fuente church has hosted our team for the last two years when we come to town to work with Vida Joven.  I can’t wait to hear how the church has grown and how they have been practicing cooperating with the Holy Spirit to do the work of the ministry there in Matagalpa.

While the charismatic leaning congregation is familiar with experiencing the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the Ignite conference series we are doing with PRMI give them great systematic teaching.  In our past visits many folks found it personally refreshing.

We’ll focus specifically on prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit, looking at topics like healing and intercession, learning to listen to God, revival, and praying with vision and power.

Help us get there.

Your gifts to our ministry enable us to do this kind of work.

Gifts given through this website will provide for our support for this and other projects.

Click the Paypal donate button below to help us provide ministry for leaders throughout Latin America.





To give a restricted gift specifically for the Nica Project (towards team support, not us directly), give via PRMI’s blog)

Developing Leaders for Ministry in Latin America

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Imagine being part of a team that trains evangelism ministry leaders from 6 different countries in just one setting?

One expression of our calling as a ministry is to come along side other ministries and help them increase their evangelistic effectiveness.

Other international ministries have a presence and are doing great work, and we get to partner with them in making disciples.

We are but one family.

We can only reach so far.

But through multiplication of training other leaders, we can have an exponential reach.

Raising up local leadership

Raising up leaders from within their own countries is part of the work that we get to participate in.

As cross-cultural missionaries, it is imperative we help raise up leaders who can

  • go to places we can’t go.
  • think like the culture thinks.
  • understand the subtexts of issues and meanings.

Assisting other local leaders to be more effective dramatically multiplies our reach.

Those ministry leaders oversee other leaders.

With their new knowledge, they are able to do the basic work of evangelism in the power of the Holy Spirit in their own countries.

Coming alongside Young Life

Part of our joy in ministry is coming along side others who are doing the work of evangelism in Latin America.

One such ministry is Vida Joven (Young Life).

The joy of giving ourselves away in training

Many of the those leaders featured in this video are friends of ours. We’ve been with them for many years, watching them grow into the leaders they have become.  We’ve heard their stories, their struggles, and their growth in Christ as as result of our work.

In January 2011, we need your help to get a 6th team to Nicaragua to continue training Vida Joven leaders.

We’ll be training their national level leaders as well as some of the up and coming leaders.

I want you to hear what Holman had to say about the ongoing multi-year investment.  He is now one of the national directors of Vida Joven in Nicaragua.

http://www.PRMI.org sends a team to provide Dunamis Training for Vida Joven Nicaragua. Here, one of the National leaders gives testimony to the fruit of PRMI 5 years of teaching in Nicaragua

“Many of the things I have learned have become part of my life, impacting my life, and the life of others.  You might be here for just a week, but we use what you teach all year long with our youth, and we’ve taught our youth to pray in a similar manner.”

Every time we go, we see growth and development of the leaders in their understanding of the Holy Spirit as well as deep experiences of the healing and liberating work of the Holy Spirit.

Young Life is doing awesome transforming work in Latin America, and we get to come along side them to help them reach the 150 million teenagers in Latin America: helping caring adults build relationships with kids, helping them to find Christ.

While it’s always to good to share about

  • the content we taught,
  • how many hours we taught,
  • The number of students in our classes
  • the number of countries that sent young adult leaders, and
  • the ongoing effectiveness of our work,

there is an indescribable impact that people kept telling us about last year:

The ministry of presence.

Our team has made a repeated investment in training these leaders over many years since PRMI started going in 2002 to come along side Vida Joven.

The peak experience

Up till now, this ministry is the peak experience of our ministry every year.  We give ourselves away to provide training to what seems like 250-300 young people who are wanting to reach their friends for Christ.

We teach

  • a class of about 40-50 senior leaders (those in ministry with Young Life more than 6 years)
  • a class of 10-20 younger leaders (those in ministry for their 2nd year).
  • plenary sessions of upwards of 250.

Help us get there.

Your gifts to our ministry enable us to do this kind of work.

Gifts given through this website will provide for our support for this and other projects.

Click the Paypal donate button below to help us provide ministry for leaders throughout Latin America.


To give a restricted gift specifically for the Nica Project (towards team support, not us directly), give via PRMI’s blog)

Coming Along Side Young Life Panama

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While in Nicaragua in January 2010 working with Vida Joven (Hear their stories), I got to meet the new leaders for Young Life Panama.

As I heard their stories of how God is opening the door for Vida Joven Panama, His miraculous provision, and the blessing of others to launch this group, I’m convinced that God is inviting us along side the pioneer leaders to encourage them, help them and pray for them.

Leaders Vida Joven Panama

Working in Panama Viejo

The three Leaders (center of the photo, with Brenda and our friend Stephanie) are working together in the neighborhoods surrounding Panama Viejo.

They’ve been involved in leadership training with Young Life to learn its methods and have started their contact work.

We listened to their dreams of organizing the first Young Life club, and how they are serving the community surrounding Panama Viejo.  It’s all in the launch phase at the moment.

Called to Work Along Side.

Part of our calling here is to come along side and encourage ministries.  These three leaders are pioneering a brand new work, and we get to participate by praying for them and as God opens the doors, providing evangelism training when needed.

Each one is a volunteer, and trying to do this on top of full time jobs or full time university studies.  They are offering their Saturday’s to spend time with kids at the soccer field, introducing themselves, organizing soccer matches, and inviting people to serve the community.  One project they hope to organize is the renovation (painting) of the walls that surround a school soccer field.

This is missional outreach.  Along the way, these leaders look for opportunities to hear people’s spiritual thirst and talk with them as the Lord leads.  It’s not agressive evangelism, but simple contact work and buildling relationships with the community within which they serve.

It was a joy to have them at our home for dinner and hear their stories of individuals they contact, and how that will hopefully lead to a club.   It’s a joy to come along side and encourage them.

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