Mission to the Americas

Serving Ministries and Missions in Latin America

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.

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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)

A visit to Manglarito

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Our son is now connecting with Boy Scouts of America, and one of the values here is community service.

We left the city for a day trip to a remote village.   How remote?

  • At least 1 hour off roading in a sedan.
  • Driving across a wet river bed.
  • Town center had 1 school, 1 medical building, 1 church, 1 phone booth.
  • Electricity service is not generally present.

School only goes to the 6th grade.  Education functionally stops because of the lack of teachers, and the nearest next level school is about 1 hour away.

The kids served in painting the interior of the building, and I got to dig a ditch to help start the foundation work for a new kitchen outbuilding.

Giving ourselves away in such a community is part of our calling here.

We are not only about helping churches preach the word, but serving the poor as the Lord opens the doors.

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.

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