Ministry Archives - Page 23 of 26 - Mission to the Americas

Children’s Evangelism Workshop December

December 3, 2008 by ecoach 1 Comment

: Training Childrens Workers

December 13, we will be conducting a Children’s Evangelism Workshop in Panama, in the Las Cumbres area north of the city.

Brenda will be doing work on more crafts, which will be put up on her website, and I will be giving a lecture on Child Evangelism.

UPDATE:

Brenda will be doing a training for Sunday school workers who work among high–risk kids — defined as abandoned, abused, or parents who are addicted.

I will be doing a workshop in Spanish about the vision for evangelism and missions for kids. 90 minutes in Spanish is still intimidating to me, but I’ve got about 15 days to prepare.

As we listened to stories of the social problems that plague this neighborhood from crime, poverty, and broken family systems, our hearts break, in the same way Paul was distressed walking the streets of Athens. “We don’t have resources” and “We don’t have enough training” is what we kept hearing during our meeting this week.

We hear (as well as see in our own experience) that the greatest hindrance to ministry to children is leaders who don’t or can’t prepare. Brenda’s workshop is to cast a vision — you prepare because you want to reach children — not babysit. It is also to provide a practical skill — how to create crafts from household recyclables.

We heard of pastors who don’t have a vision for reaching children because they can’t give an offering, and one desired result of our training will be pastors catch the vision for evangelizing children.

Brenda and I have worked in some housing projects in Richmond. Those are good places compared to what we are likely walking into. Those places have pastors who lead churches that care about children. Those places have children’s workers who want to reach kids. Those are places where churches have resources to invest.

We’ve been given a giant task, as well as responsibility, to cast vision and call people to evangelize and disciple children, to call the church to a higher level of calling and commitment. 14 churches are sending their pastors and children’s workers to this event. Please pray.

It is also our hope that Brenda and I will be able to prepare a DVD of teaching ahead of time that we can sell as a take away. Pray that we can get the filming and editing done next week.

Pray for:

Preparation Time.
We’d be obedient to the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
Anointing to teach and cast that vision
Provision to cover the rental car we need to get there.
Personal Safety in the area.
Anointing in Spanish for me and Brenda.

November Newsletter

November 18, 2008 by ecoach Leave a Comment

Our November newsletter has been emailed out. If you did not receive it please sign up for the Walker Family news (subscription box in the right panel).

As we approach Thanksgiving, we want to express our thanks to many of you who have called us, emailed us, and even visited us here in Panama. Many of you have given generously to our support and we consider ourselves privileged to serve in this country and seek to fulfill God’s call on our life.

We need this!

“This is relevant”
“We need this here.”
“Where can I buy your book?”
“You have some awesome ideas.”
“Wow those are cool. I can use that idea.”

This is what Brenda often hears as she teaches workshops for Sunday School Teachers and Children’s Ministers in Panama.

She’s been given the joy of training workers at a couple of denominational conferences, and her workshops have been well received. The gratitude that overflows at such moments affirms our calling here in Latin America.

Panama is not a country with vast resources, or a Michael’s at the local corner.

Individuals or churches can‘t easily spend $200 on the latest curriculum.

In fact, 1/3 of the country lives below the poverty line; some surviving under $36 a month, so there has to be some creative way to communicate the gospel on a budget smaller than a shoe string.

Brenda has designed particular crafts that can be made out of egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, and Styrofoam trays.

These are recyclable materials found through out the house and often take $0 to complete the craft.

Can we turn this into a book? Perhaps we can.
Can we create a DVD of “how to”? Sure.
Can we post video’s on YouTube? Working on it.

Upcoming Teaching Events

We have two upcoming events where Brenda will teach.

One is Mid December at a local church to the North of Panama City. Chris will be doing a seminar on Child Evangelism. Be in prayer for us that Chris can communicate in spite of his “heavy” Spanish.

The second one in is in the works for the Volcan / David area of Western Panama this coming January, right after Chris gets back from Nicaragua, helping Young Life.

Brenda is busy creating new crafts using food items like uncooked rice or pasta.

Pray for her creativity these next few weeks as she prepares the crafts, writes up the how-to sheets, and if time allows, we’ll even put the YouTube videos together.

Pray for Chris’s prep time for the work in Nicaragua, and for this conference here.

Pray that our kids will have fun while we make a mess on our dining room table during testing and creation of these crafts. They enjoy painting, cutting, and gluing, but we use our dining room table as our work table.

We are grateful for your ongoing support and appreciate you allowing us to communicate with you on a regular basis this way. It is our hope that you feel connected and perhaps involved in our ministry, even if you cannot be here.

Consumed by the call,

Chris
Brenda
Brandon
Anakarina

How can you partner with us?
Our ministry in Latin Americas relies on financial partnering from friends, churches, and foundations as well as consulting fees generated through EvangelismCoach.org.Please consider partnering with us to sustain Brenda’s outreach. Donate online or by mail.

A Unique Training Niche for Brenda

November 18, 2008 by ecoach Leave a Comment

Brenda has always loved creating craft ideas to help communicate parts of God’s story to others.

As part of our ministry, she is often asked to teach Children’s ministry leaders about craft ideas for use in their Sunday school or outreach programs.

Brenda has lots of creativity, and the focus of her work is on using ordinary household items, such as cardboard, Styrofoam trays, egg cartons and roll tubes from paper towels or toilet paper.

She hears comments like:

This is relevant for today.
We need these ideas.
Can we buy your book?

The demand for what she teaches produces large audiences at National Training conferences, and as word gets out that we are here, the phone is beginning to ring on a local level to come and give workshops locally. It’s a labor of love and fueled by a desire to help others reach the next generation for Christ.

2008 Leadership Conference

At a camp in early 2008 for the National Children’s Leadership conference, Brenda had nearly 100 children’s workers gather around. When she repeated that workshop in July, the crowd was even larger. Our family helps at workshops like this. For example, Brandon is helping her get supplies out of the box.

More and more people kept crowding around as she produced craft ideas to help communicate.

Children’s Drama Props

She recently provided props for a children’s ministry skit at our church. Check these out:

The scale of the scissors is hard to comprehend, but these are about as long as an adult’s arm. Total Cost: $0

Using cardboard and a bolt/nut from my tool box, she created the scissors.

Total cost: $0. Using cardboard packaging, toilet paper, and borrowing a toilet paper spindle, she created a tape dispenser. Even has little teeth on this to break the tape. These props were used in a skit at the Palacio de los Niños (Brenda is not pictured).

In December and into January of 2009 in Volcan, Panama, she will continue to give workshops teaching others how to make such crafts from ordinary household items.

To continue giving these workshops around the country, we need your help, particularly because we have to rent a car to get the teaching supplies to places. Consider supporting Brenda’s work on a monthly basis so that we can continue to train children’s workers in this region.

Helping Others Forgive

November 15, 2008 by ecoach Leave a Comment

DSCF1444, nikon — Martha Tinoco - Vida Joven Staff

Vida Joven Leader Martha Tinoco (pictured standing right) wrote in a note to us after the event with them last year:

Thanks for sharing with us. You are an example for my life. I can see how [your team] works in unity, love, and respect. I saw the presence of God in your lives, as great servants of God, with great gifts. I don’t have enough words to express our thanks! – M Tinoco, Vida Joven, Matagalpa, Nicaragua, December 2007.

Leave Your Weapons at the Door:

Imagine proclaiming Christ among:

Some of the poorest social conditions in Latin America.
Poverty, gangs, crime, and lack of available food.
Helping those victimized by wars, crime and abuse find faith in Christ.
Sexual, physical, and verbal abuse.
Broken family systems where one might have 18 – 25 half siblings.
Living on a garbage landfill recycling scrap metals.

One club leader has a policy:

If you come to our bible study, leave your weapons at the door.

Other leaders have already served time in jail for crimes they committed before finding Christ and now want to go back to their gangs and proclaim the gospel.

Vida Joven

Vida Joven has been ministering in this context for over 15 years in Nicaragua, proclaiming and demonstrating the love of Jesus.

Each year in the mountains outside of Matagalpa Nicaragua, their leadership gathers for an intense week of training, encouragement, and refreshment. Proclaiming the love of Jesus in such areas can be dangerous work: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The camp gives the leadership opportunity to heal, forgive, and grow.

We have been on two trips to provide leadership training. Two issues routinely come up:

How do the leaders find healing for the personal junk in their lives?
How can they minister to the broken who are coming to faith in Christ and want to find the healing of their own wounds?

Last Year’s Nicaragua Team

Last year, a leader said to me:

“It’s good to have a cry fest here and get things solved, but some of these healings have to go much deeper. We simply don’t have the trained staff here to do it.”

I was with a team from PRMI (Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International) who went to Nicaragua. You can read about that trip at Reflections from Nicaragua.

At both locations last year, we presented on worldview, who is the Holy Spirit, the four works of the Holy Spirit, how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then how to listen to the voice of God. This material is the basis of Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International’s Ignite Project. We had the teaching slides translated into Spanish, and had more material than we could cover in our limited time.

A New Team

This January, another team from PRMI will be going to the Vida Joven Camp outside of Matagalpa to help address this need.

I will be part of this team.

We will use the basic material found in the healing Dunamis from PRMI that has made a countless impact around the world.

I look forward to meeting the leaders again and sharing with them tools that can help their evangelism. It is our family’s desire to help these leaders grow more effective in their evangelistic calling by equipping them with some skills in trusting the Holy Spirit to bring the healing of Jesus.

Evangelism can be messy!

Ministering in a context like this can be really messy —

abuse victims suddenly dealing with their issues,
hearing stories of being gang raped,
infected with veneral diseases,
wounding from assaults,
or filled with hatred because a sibling was killed in a gang.

Very different ministry context than suburban north American culture where I have ministered for 11 years where people stress about their 401(k)s and the economy.

We’d like to offer help and training to the advanced leadership team so that they can be equipped in the power of the Holy Spirit to help in the healing work of Jesus in this local context.

How can you help?

1. Prayer. This is spiritually challenging work and we need significant prayer covering. I’d like you to contact me to be put on the intercessors list for this event.

2. Finances. Our team’s budget is $6000 and our team is raising the funds collectively through PRMI. Most of this is for airfare, materials translation, and some in country expenses. We need to raise it and count on the generosity of God’s people who believe our dream.

You can donate online to PRMI for this project specifically (which is different than our own support).

: Mark Latin America Misisons

Click – Donate Online Now.

Mark Contributions to Latin American Missions. You will have to create an account with PRMI before donating, or use the one you have.

Donate Via Check?

Mark Latin American Missions, payable to PRMI,

Mail to PRMI

P.O.Box 429
Black Mountain NC 28711

Note: This project is different than our monthly support for our ministry. Funds for will be used for team expenses which includes my airfare. Any overages will be used for PRMI’s other Latin American callings and as seed money for future PRMI teams to Latin America.

Ministry in Venezuela

October 7, 2008 by ecoach 1 Comment

We have returned from our trip to Barquisimeto VZ.

It was a great mission in many ways, and a personally refreshing break for us. The travel was perhaps the more exhausting part.

Flying from Panama City, Panama, to Bogota Columbia, to Caracas VZ, and then a 6 hour taxi ride to Barquisimeto VZ. Total distance was approximately 1300 miles one way. Normally, we are told the taxi ride is about 3-4 hours, but with Caracas traffic, both coming and going, we were stuck in traffic jams that lasted over an hour, at least 2x in each direction.

View Larger Map

Friday’s Evangelism Workshop

I conducted a workshop at Buenas Nuevas Shekina, a church located in the area of Las Sabila in the north of Barquisimeto.

I had visited Shekina before when I was in Barquisimeto before, a few years ago. It was a good experience to reconnect with the pastor.

The Friday night workshop was focused on our motive for evangelism, based on a workshop I give as Evangelism Coach. About 65 people attended.

After the time of teaching, we had a time of prayer ministry, praying for those who do not know Christ and praying for a new infilling of the Holy Spirit.

One thing I have started doing in my evangelism workshops in Latin America is giving invitations to start following Jesus. Once again, there were 2 or 3 more people in this workshop who prayed to receive Christ into their life and start following the Lord. Praise God for those new believers.

Preaching on Sunday

On Sunday, I returned to preach two services at Shekinah Sabila. About 600 people attend two morning services. The church is in the middle of a field, and is the process of doubling it’s sanctuary.

Our missionary friend, Argenis Mena served as my translator. We ministered together for two years in Richmond, and then multiple mission trips to serve him and his family since the year 2000.

The message focused on Psalm 51 and the effects of sin and the desire for forgiveness. It was a naturally evangelistic service and in both services, more people responded to the invitation to receive Christ and find that forgiveness of sin.

Praise God for the new believers here over the weekend. I get excited when I see people respond to the preaching of the gospel and continue to be humbled that God would use such an imperfect vessel like me. It’s not for our glory, but for God’s glory.