Mission to the Americas

Serving Ministries and Missions in Latin America

Prepping A Church for Door to Door Evangelism

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01 January 2011 027A Foursquare church on invited me out last weekend to prepare their team to go door to door.  Because of some miscommunication, I didn’t realize that this was my expected purpose.  I was invited to give my workshop on personal evangelism.

I taught the entire 3 hours in Spanish, and promptly took a 3 hour nap when it was all done!

Coming alongside ministries

After the workshop was over, they took to the streets into a new residential subdivision that has come up near their church.

Door to door campaigns are common for this church, it is one of their most effective evangelism styles and I learned that part of my purpose was to come alongside and motivate them for the adventure.

If I could do this over again, I’d gear my workshop more in that direction.  I focused a little too much on evangelism as a life style.

But, in spite of the misplaced focus, the Lord can and did use the workshop.  The organizer mentioned that 53 people attended the workshop.  Here is what she said after the event.

“We often want evangelism reduced to a formula we can put into a book and follow it like a recipe.  But what you’ve helped us to see is that evangelism is a process, and that it’s a process that each one of worked through ourselves in coming to faith.

This helps us to realize that when we go door to door, we need to be patient with people who are not yet ready to receive, and be receptive to noticing those who are.  We need to be listening to the Spiritual Thirst.”

Now I wasn’t able to actually go along with them to do the campaign and help them debrief the experience, but I hope that I’ll be able to return in a few weeks and hear how it went.

Giving Ourselves Away

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Giving Ourselves AwayWe 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.

Spiritual Gifts Class in Santiago

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This past weekend, I completed teaching a spiritual gifts class in Santiago Panama.

I got up at 3.45 am, to leave by 4.30am to get there in time to teach.  When class was over, we came back home.  It made for a long day, and I thank God for the safety I had while traveling.

This particular class meets in the main church for the Foursquare Church in this province.

I’m working with HIMF, a missions organization, that is preparing people to discover a missionary calling on their life.  When this class is over, those who want to go further will be taking a 3 month residential class in Costa Rica.

In this particular class, I listened to stories of callings, and we talked about how spiritual gifts play into fulfilling those callings.

We ran out of time, but I hope to be back.

Two of the gentleman who traveled out with me from the city, stayed for the rest of the weekend to work with Muslims seeking Christ.

Praying for the city

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Just recently, Anakarina participated in a Girl Scout hike up Ancon hill, the hill just to the west of the city that gives you a great panoramic vista of the city skyline.

I love going up the hill, not only to see the city, but to pray for it.

Praying for the city

When Jesus saw the crowds, his heart broke. Matthew 9:36 reads

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

He had compassion on them.

To put it another way, he felt compassion for them.

I can imagine the heart of Christ that day on that hillside – pondering the injustice, the poverty, the lostness, the brokenness, the misery of human need, and their separation from God.

But also seeing not just a plural collective “them” but individuals with names, dreams, and families.

I can imagine the compassionate emotions swirling like in His heart like the foamy rapids of a river .

He felt it.

What happens when you pray for where you live and minister?

Sometimes my heart breaks with the compassion that might have been similar to what Jesus felt.

I imagine the crowds that steel skyscrapers and slum shacks on a muddy hillside represent – individuals who need Christ.

My heart breaks at times.

I imagine

  • the poor who try to make a living in a gang infested neighborhood where they might be killed by accident,
  • the laborers who work for minimum wage in dangerous unsafe occupations,
  • the injustices committed underhandedly,
  • the extortion and bribery that gets things done,
  • the pickpockets who steal just to get some food.

Not just for the collective crowd, but individuals.

I think of the toothless amputee, with swollen knobby fingers on his remaining hand.  He stopped me at a traffic intersection.  He used his teeth to hold the clean styrofoam cup while he maneuvered his one-legged body on crutches next to my car.  His swollen hand stuck that cup in my car window, begging for a donation of some kind.

I give him what I have, but drive away in tears.  I wish I could do more to help.

I remember the orphan who’s parents were murdered, and who had been a victim of human trafficking.

I remember the 7 year old who murdered a shop keeper.

I remember the first hand stories of gang rape and sexual abuse.

I remember seeing people eat with bare hands out of dumpsters and torn trash bags behind restaurants.

Feel the heart of God

I weep over my city.  I feel for my city.  I’ve seen brokenness that I wish I had never seen.

I sometimes spontaneously pray in desperation, “Lord send me to reach them.  Send me.”

I touch the heart of God.

The heart of evangelism is to connect with the heart of God.

Ask the Lord to share His heart for the city / town / rural area in which you live.

Ask the Lord to grow your sensitivity to His compassion.

Latest Minute for Mission Video

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Here is the latest video that we are using for our minute for missions this summer.

If you’d like us to do a minute for mission at your church, we can record a video one for you, or even do a live one via skype if you have skype capabilities in your sanctuary.

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