Prayer Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Mission to the Americas

Incoming Mission Team

June 18, 2009 by ecoach Leave a Comment

This week, we’ll be working with a mission team from Richmond Virginia. They come from Crestwood Presbyterian Church. The leaders, Rob and Janice Burns are long time friends of ours, and they are bringing a team of around 25 people to serve.

Youth With A Mission Panama is providing all the logistics of the trip. We are grateful for their cooperation and organization. That enables our family to give our selves to the team and serve them as needed.

Pray for good weather for the team outreaches.

Pray for Saturday’s park outreach with the church we are planting.

Pray for other outreaches that are on the schedule.

As with most teams, this is the first time out of the country for many of them. Pray they will be able to enjoy their experience and that some will begin to discern a full time calling into missions. Some will experience culture shock, so pray for the grace for the leaders to help them process it.

Teaching Events in May

May 8, 2009 by ecoach Leave a Comment

The season of networking in Panama is producing fruit. I’ve been doing some teaching and preaching in April and upcoming, here is the mix for May.

Schedule

May 9-10
Cross Cultural Missions Conference – Colón

May 18
IPET in Colón, Verbena Church – Evangelism

May 23
Celebration of Baptism

May 25
IPET in Colón – Worldview and Cross Cultural Missions

May 30/31
IPET in the Darién Province, Sermon on Sunday

Missions Congress

The Cross Cultural Missions Congress will be in the city of Colón, the place where the gospel had it’s beginnings in Panama and an area that has had a special blessing from God for spread of the gospel.

Immigrants from all over the world are have settled in Colón and many have risen to positions of influence and power. There is a growing Muslim presence and economic influence in the city, and one of the best schools in the eyes of many in Colón is the privately funded Arab College. Other people groups from India and China, as well as the West Indies and the Caribbean have settled there.

In the last four months, HIMF (Hermandad Iberoamericana de Misiones Fronterizas) has opened up four mission training schools in the province of Colón, with approximately 70 students in that province, made up of

Pastors
Cross Cultural Missionaries
Teachers
Support Workers

The missions academy is named “Panamanian Institute for Crosscultural Studies.“ The acronym in Spanish is IPET. HIMF is a Latin American sending agency who’s goal is to raise up missionaries from Latin America to other parts of the world.

The missions Congress is geared towards casting a vision for international missions – both abroad and at home – and recruiting another 80 students to join its classes and grow in its missions calling.

Gathered around the theme of Acts 1:8, we desire to cast a vision

For Global Missions as seen in Scripture
Help the people of God fulfill the Great Commission in their calling
Awaken, guide, and give God’s people tools to reach into other cultures
Recruit future students for further training in cross cultural missions at home and abroad.

I will be sharing the teaching responsibilities with pastors from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Panama. On Sunday, I will be preaching in a local church, with one of the outreach teams from IPET, casting a vision for missions and for the Global day of Prayer (May 31).

My particular theme is on the “Reaching my City for Christ.” I’ll be sharing some of the strategies I’ve learned while church planting in Richmond VA and here in the city of Panama.

Prayer

Here is how you can pray:

Safety in transportation. A new highway has opened up.
Provision – we will rent a car for the weekend. With fuel and food, our costs to participate will run about $150-$200. Pray that provision will come.
Clear Communication
That people would grasp the vision for missions.

Women’s Day Event

March 26, 2009 by ecoach 2 Comments

Saturday March 28, Brenda is helping to organize a women’s day event at a local hotel.

As part of our ministry’s outreach efforts to build relationships with unchurched people, she and a team are planning a morning of fellowship, breakfast, games, and even some door prizes (which is customary at events like this here).

The main goal is to connect with people and introduce them to a new church that is in the pre-launch stage.

Tickets are $10 to help share the cost of the event and will be held at the Four Points Sheraton about a block away from our residence.

How to pray for this event:

Pray for new and genuine relationships with unchurched people.

Pray for our ability to follow up and continue to connect.

Pray for ongoing relationships out of that group.

Church planting in Our Context

March 17, 2009 by ecoach 1 Comment

Calle 50 Panama City Panama I live in a city of nearly 1 million people.

I prayerwalk the 3 neighborhoods regularly and have discovered a few observations:

Less than 5 churches in the entire area.
Condominium towers from 4 stories to over 50 stories.
Very popular night clubs and restaurants.
Streets known for hookers at night.
A smattering of single family houses.
Lots of office buildings
Lots of pedestrian traffic during the weekdays.
Very empty on the weekends.
Residents generally middle to upper middle class.

Housing

Apartment towers have 24 hour security and access to them is by being buzzed in by a resident.

High density housing even among single family houses means that your next door neighbor’s wall is likely less than 3 feet away if not directly attached as row houses.

Single family houses are hidden behind walls and gates. Windows and doors are covered with iron bars painted to match the color scheme of the house. Border walls have razor wire or broken glass in the cement to keep people from walking on them. Some families have their own private security guard that sits at the entrance.

Privacy and fortress like security is a key description of housing in our neighborhoods.

People

As we people watch in some three or four parks, we see families, lots of children, and nannies. The parks begin to fill up with people as the afternoon wears on, and the sun starts to set.

Live-in nannies are common in our part of town who are likely receiving salaries of about $300-400 a month.

Some parks seem to attract more children with their parents. One park seems only to attract the nannies and children. It’s an observation to keep watching.

Questions in our mind

How do we build relationships with our neighborhood?
How can we discover the community needs as we are in the parks?
What kinds of park-based outreaches can we do to start ministering to the need?

Would you join us in prayer as we seek to discern this? We are participating in Launching a New Church in the city and this is part of our prayerful discernment about our neighborhoods.

Launching a New Church

January 29, 2009 by ecoach 1 Comment

Last night, we had our first leadership team meeting for Family Center International, a new church plant we are helping to launch in Panama City. It’s vision: Influencing Lives, Transforming Nations.

After a brief study on 2 Corinthians 9, we went over the business plan launch strategy, discussed evangelism goals, and spent time praying for this new infant of a church.

About the Church

From it’s foundational documents

Family Center International is a church of influence, power, and relationships that will carry the gospel to the families of the earth and teach them to be and make disciples that love God and love their neighbors as themselves. . . . inspiring people to live an abundant life (John 10:10b)

A church of INFLUENCE: We believe that God has called us to be salt of the earth and light to the world. We want to be an influence in families, businesses, government, arts, education, and culture.

A church of POWER: We believe that God’s power is great and is manifested through those who believe in Him. Our power is not with wisdom or strategies of this world, but is the message of Christ and him crucified. We will work in the wisdom of the Father, the work of Christ on the Cross, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

A church of RELATIONSHIPS: We believe that Jesus came to restore our relationship with the Father and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. We seek to bring people into a relationship with God first and then in right relationship with themselves and with their neighbor.

We dream of a church:

Passionate for God, full of faith and life.
Passionate for Worship and Intercession.
Passionate for people
Passionate for evangelism
Passionate to influence the culture.
Passionate to grow in Small Groups
Passionate to grow and develop a strong leadership to impact our culture.
Passionate to mobilize leadership to plant churches for people without church.

Reflecting on our role

Though we had originally planned not to plant a church here, it appears that part of God’s plan for us is to come along side the lead pastor and his family and help this church get started.

We found ourselves listening to the plan, setting dates for fasting and intercession, growth targets and discussing evangelism strategy. We both found an awakening in our hearts about serving here.

Join us in prayer for this little infant church . . .