Serving Ministries and Missions in Latin America
This was the 4th country I’ve taught in this year.
Read the prior report on the Dominican Republic trip:
As of this writing, I have raised about half of the $1500 needed to cover the time and travel for this trip.
If you want to make a project gift on line, use the PayPal button and send me your receipt by email with a note that it was for the Dominican Republic trip.
While in the Dominican Republic to give training for Young Life, I sat across the wooden picnic table from a young student leader from a poor barrio of the city. We shared a meal together and I listened to his story.
He was eager to practice his English with me. His accent was weak (not too noticeable), and his grammar was excellent. He had a job in a call center for English speaking customers of an American telephone company. In this part of the world, bi-lingual people are in demand.
Given his roots in a poor neighborhood, he proudly told me how he studied English on his own, and with God’s help and his own determination, he “got it” in a few years. This young man is smart and has a will to succeed and improve his lot in life.
Mastering English was part of his ticket out.
He had been hungry to learn English. He was also hungry to learn more about God. He told me about his studies in theology – picking up what books were accessible in either language. He had read theology articles on the Internet and read his Bible.
His insatiable thirst led to a deep conversation over dinner in with me about God’s calling on his life. He wants to grow spiritually, he wants to live out his purpose for God.
The conversation took a deeply personal turn. With some felt conflict in his heart, he shared with me how he feels like he’s outgrown his pastor.
His pastor labors in that poor community, without the resources to study or improve professionally. His pastor never completed high school, and this young man thinks most of his pastor’s professional training was acquired mostly from Christian cable television exported from the United States.
Being an independent church, there is no access to supervisors who can help a pastor grow, nor access to ongoing regular training. There is little access to denominational conferences for personal growth.
As such, the pastor gives a steady diet of motivational sermons along the same general theme: God is bigger than your problems and He will see you through.
This young man is loyal to his pastor. He realizes the limitations of his pastor’s education and training and scope of preaching.
These two ingredients — loyalty and desire to grow — create a conflict in his heart about wanting to leave his pastor and church to continue his own personal growth.
Much of the conferences that I’ve seen promoted by churches in the years I have been in Panama, plus the years of mission work in 10 different Latin American countries, show a steady diet of motivational preaching.
We attended a church for 1 year that preached some variant of the same theme week after week: God is powerful and he will bring you through your problems.
The sermons “pump you up” to face the challenges of the week, and give you the strength to survive another day. In a poor barrio, where life is survival, this is a powerful message. It is a true message.
But to a growing middle class – where survival is no longer an issue – this message gets stale. It becomes a lopsided diet of the same basic ingredient.
Self-determined people who improve their lot in life, like the young man sitting at dinner with me, can quickly outgrow their pastor.
What can I do?
Lack of pastoral training and development is a problem that propels me to the mission field. I saw it when I was in Costa Rica in 1997.
I have met many Latin American pastors that
There are exceptions of course. Stellar pastors with education and access to resources to make their professional development happen.
While my main teaching focus on evangelism training, part of what propels me to Latin America is to give ourselves away in training pastors.
I want to be part of the solution to this problem.
As I sat across the table from a teary-eyed Young Life leader as he poured out his internal conflict with me, I saw the impact this problem creates.
This young wants to be more effective in reaching lost kids. He wants to grow his skills and theological understanding. His feels his pastor can’t lead him anymore.
This shouldn’t be.
On the final day of the Leadership Camp for 159 Young Life leaders in the Dominican Republic, we heard quotes liked these.
“Your visit was a huge blessing. Your teaching has helped me to understand more about the Holy Spirit.”
“Thank you, that teaching was awesome and gave me some clarity to some things I have experienced.”
Young Life Leaders give themselves away in ministry. Once a year, they get to be fed and trained in at their annual leadership camp at Pico Escondido, Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic.
The camp is tucked away up a rutted dirt road on a green mountainside, about 1 hour outside the city of Santiago. Cool refreshing breezes were on order each camp day and the lack of rainstorms meant lots of outdoor time. The camp itself is under development with more dormitory buildings coming online later this summer.
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. 
Our particular class had close to 50 students, those who had been in leadership with Young Life for more than 3 years.
In John 3, Nicodemus visits Jesus at night for 1-1 conversation away from the peering eyes of his leadership team.
He had deeply personal questions for Jesus.
Away from other people, he visits Jesus aside for personal Q&A.
After the second class on Who is the Holy Spirit, many Young Life leaders started seeking us out 1-1 for their Nicodemus visits.
I’m convinced that more personal ministry happened as a result of these 1-1 conversations rather than in class time. Some of these led to personal prayer times and personal ministry as we poured ourselves into these leaders.
What is clear among these leaders is a thirst to know more.
What is normally a 20 hour course was condensed into 5 hours spread over 4 days. While that gave our team a lot of down time, that down time began to fill up with the Nicodemus visits and conversations.
The thirst to know more, and follow up conversations indicate a desire to keep learning more. Next month, we’ll have those kinds of conversations that may lead to future team visits.
As of this writing, I have raised about half of the $1500 needed to cover the time and travel for this trip.
If you want to make a project gift on line, use the PayPal button and send me your receipt by email with a note that it was for the Dominican Republic trip.
Three potatoes or two?
Minimum wage is $416 a month for those who work in the capital, $357 for those who live in Colon.
The end result according to statistics, is that 46% of the country lives below the poverty line.
The Panama equivalent to the consumer price index is called the “basic basket,” a fixed list of food staples for the most basic of diets for a small family.
The Feb 11, 2011 price for this basic basket is $285, leaving only $72-$131 for necessities like rent, light bill, transportation, etc.
That is a 15% increase in 12 months.
These are approximate numbers from observations and a recent article in the press.
For those on the margins, this inflation will magnify the margin and potentially increase the ranks of the poor.
But even moreso, inflation will increase the visible level of worry, preoccupation, and stress. People will adjust eventually, but with such dramatic price increases, particularly visible to those on the margins, conversations about such worries will happen.
A few months ago, Brenda shopped at the street market.
Brenda overheard a man, presumably poor from his attire and demeanor, asking about the price of potatoes.
Shocked by the increase, Brenda heard him bemoan that the week before, he could buy 3 potatoes for .80c for his weekly food.
Now he can only buy 2 for his .80c and have a little change leftover.
Brenda heard his worry about food. He lives on the margins, and one potato makes a difference to his diet.
In our church plant, most of those we are reaching will be earning more than minimum wage. Business owners and entrepenuers who are successful will earn more.
Many will have cars, nannys, and pimped out Blackberries.
However, inflation will provoke some worries, which are an insight into the soul and spiritual restlessness.
In other places of the ministry, we minister alongside those who live on the margins. Churches that lack sufficient resources (read Not Enough Chickens). Pastors receive minimal offerings and often have to be tentmakers.
I’ve met pastors who are bus drivers, doctors, auto mechanics, etc, who are making ends meet by working a full time job tent making. They see the impact of inflationary pressures first hand.
For us, this creates an opportunity to speak to spiritual restlessness that inflationary pressures create. We can point people to
Pray that we’ll have many of these conversations in the next few months and that the Lord will use us to share His peace with people.
Driving to the Panama Viejo neighborhood is easy on a late Saturday afternoon.
Once I found the right spot (not an easy task since I wasn’t familiar with the area), I met with the Panama Viejo Young Life team to join them in a prayer walk for their neighborhood.
We spent about 2 hours walking their community, praying for the various areas on our journey. Each spot they shared with me had some significance, some call to prayer, some reminder of events that will happen or have happened.
We began at the soccer field, an artificial turf surface where some kids were practicing their skills. The team is working to build relationships with kids at this field.
From there, we meandered on to a church that is working with the community. We spent some time praying with the pastor and asking God to bless their work. The worship team was practicing and the pastor was there praying for the Sunday services.
As we walked to the next place, I listened in to the dreams of these Young Life leaders – dreams of reaching kids for Christ and bringing hope to a community infested by gangs and other poverty related problems.
Poverty is visible at every corner. But the neighborhood is alive with birthday parties and celebrations. The music is loud, the adults are gathering to drink, and others are getting their hair done by neighbors who might know what they are doing. Some are grilling their dinner out of tire-irons that hold the charcoal.
Right now, the neighborhood is “at peace,” I’m told, very unlike January when Vida Joven’s work had to stop because of violence in the community. We prayed at one corner that was a hot-spot of gang conflict, asking God to bring His peace to that area.
Next to the church is the gym where Vida Joven will have its meetings.
The first meeting was coming up the following weekend, so we spent time interceeding for the Young Life Club meeting
As I walked the neighborhood with eyes wide open, it didn’t take much to hear and see the community need.
As I listened to the heart of these Young Life leaders, it’s clear they have gotten God’s compassionate heart for the area. As I regularly teach other churches to get a heart for the community, these leaders get it. They are spending themselves in that community, looking to reach kids for Christ.
It’s a privilege to walk along side of them and encourage them in their ministry.
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