Mission to the Americas

Come to the Dominican Republic and help us.

April 3, 2011 by ecoach Leave a Comment

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.

A kairos moment of networking

March 15, 2011 by ecoach Leave a Comment

This week, I’m attending an international missions conference here in Panama.

It brings together mission organizations, missionaries, and mission pastors from nearly every Spanish and Portuguese country in Latin and South America, as well as Spain and Portugal, for four days of networking, training, and growth.

Since part of our vision is working along side mission agencies providing evangelism training, this congress is an important networking opportunity for our ministry and for the ministry of PRMI.

Part of networking is listening to a ministry’s needs and sharing how my content that might be able to help them, or how the ministry of PRMI might be able to help as well.

Would you join me in prayer that I would build new relationships and

Serve those who are here and help their ministry in some practical way
Have kairos moments in the hallway to pray with missionaries.
Connect with decision makers who would invite our evangelism training.
Connect with decision makers who would invite PRMI

The conference is in Spanish, so I’ll need additional mental and physical strength to stay with it. If you have ever tried to function in a language not your own, you know that extra level of concentration still needed to pay attention and follow what is happening.

While I do have a level of fluency necessary to understand participate, it is still a huge drain on the level of physical energy. The language is not yet “second nature.”

Training missionaries in Evangelism

March 14, 2011 by ecoach 1 Comment

4am came really early – at least it felt that way.

The alarm went off with its obnoxious screech that repeats every second.

I’ve got to get on the public bus, headed 3.5 hours west to the province of Veraguas, to a Foursquare church where the class of missionaries will be meeting.

This is our calling, and the cost of the calling.

An answer to prayer

Not 48 hours before class, I had been praying for more teaching opportunities.

Less than 12 hours before my departure from the terminal, my phone rang with the invitation to come and teach.

Since sleeping on the bus was out of reach, I passed the three hours praying – praying for the class, thanking God for the opportunity to teach, and asking Him to fill me with the Holy Spirit once again to be empowered to teach.

Class

This was my 4th visit to this class, the second one where I had the opportunity to teach on evangelism.

We focused again on the process of evangelism, and the various means the Lord uses to draw a person to Christ over a period of time.

One hour focused on our personal testimony

What was the spiritual restlessness that caused one to seek Christ?
What were some significant conversations that moved you along?
What events were critical in helping your decision to surrender?

Each one had those “light bulb” moments.

For some, it was the first time they realized they didn’t become a Christian instantly one afternoon. Rather, their conversion was the result of a sovereign process of God.

For others, it was the realization that they need help others through that process, giving them time to discover their faith and their need for Jesus.

As we entered the second hour, we focused on the motive for sharing our faith. Each one saw how their spiritual thirst was also the root of the motive for sharing.

As we entered the third hour, we focused on prayer and three areas of prayer:

For personal evangelism – our contacts, opportunities to share
For the congregation – open to receive people who are not yet Christians
For the communities in which our churches serve.

In spite of being tired from not sleeping, I was able to compose and create the teaching in Spanish, rather than relying on my fixed notes. For me, this is a huge step forward in my language acquistion.

Testimonials

After class was over, the students expressed their appreciation for the teaching.

Repeatedly, I heard “This teaching has impacted me. . . I’ve got to be a little more patient with those who are not yet ready to receive Christ.”

Another added: “This is revolutionary teaching, and will help us do our evangelism in the community.”

Sitting on the bus on the way home, I found myself giving thanks to God for allowing me the joy of teaching, and allowing me the joy of fulfilling the calling upon my life.

This is the best place to be – doing what God has prepared in advance for me to do.

Teaching Kids How to Worship Jesus

February 25, 2011 by ecoach Leave a Comment

Brenda spent some time in January, teaching at a Bible camp for about 40 kids from the Caimitillo community. This is the fruit of an ongoing partnership with Pastora Raquel that you can read about in other places in our blog.

Listen in as she shares some of the story of what was done and what it has meant to the church.

Thanks to one of our contributing churches for the funds to help acquire the supplies, send some of these kids to camp, and transportation costs!

Thanks for praying for us

Prepping A Church for Door to Door Evangelism

February 3, 2011 by ecoach 1 Comment

A 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.