Mission to the Americas

Serving Ministries and Missions in Latin America

Another One for the Kingdom of God

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It was the final outreach.

One last effort in the park to do basic contact evangelism through skits, drama, and a short preaching, followed up by conversations with interested individuals.

It almost didn’t happen.

The team tried to invite people to the area, but there was little visible results at the appointed hour.

Just before getting started, the park security forces sent Brenda on a search for a piece of paper from the close park office.

The weather was not cooperating, with the sound of thunder in the distance.

Our chosen spot was a playground area for small children, but tucked away from the main entrance – few families were around.

Discouraged, I almost called it a day.

We even talked with the team leader and were ready to quit when. . .

That nudge of the Spirit

I got that gentle nudge of the Spirit that warned me not to quit.  Rather, I can say the Spirit of God gave me an instant and fresh awareness that he was working.

Quickly, we sent the team out to invite nearby people to the drama spot in the next 5 minutes.

People came, including a mom with a child under 5, who happened to be walking by at the right time.

I invited her to stay and watch our presentation.

She did.   I saw tears in her eyes as the Spirit of God spoke to her through the drama, the mimes, and the story given by our pastor.  The whole presentation was less than 10 minutes.

The fruit of God’s advance work

She talked with our speaker afterwards.  During that conversation, she gave her life to the Lord, making that tearful prayer of surrender.

On Sunday, she joined us for church, and is making steps to connect with a small group for women.

Our presentation almost never made the light of day.  Yet in paying attention to the working of the Spirit, we went on and someone’s eternity was changed.

God loves Me But Jesus Doesn’t

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During last week’s mission outreach, we visited a local private elementary school.

We thank God the rain stopped shortly before our arrival so that we could do the program in the outdoors.

Brenda led the team who put on the assembly for kids aged pre-kinder through 6th grade.

Imagine lots of children

  • wiggling to music,
  • eager to volunteer,
  • quick to point out where the missing sheep is. . .
  • screaming the names of their classmates who are competing in minute to win it type games
  • making crafts about the lost sheep
  • laughing at the comedy skills of the mission team.

Brenda tied it all together with a short talk on

  • how Jesus loves the little children
  • how God loves us
  • how the Lord is our shepherd.

A head turning comment

A young child approached Brenda after the program and dropped this innocent statement on her (not the one pictured):

God loves me, but Jesus doesn’t, at least in my house.

We use this comment as fuel for our prayers, that this child, and others like him / her, may one day discover the grace of Christ.

What’s next.

The immediate impact is impossible to measure in terms of gospel fruit.

However, it is clear that our church built good will with the school and we received a genuine invitation to return to teach again on values.  This will give us a chance to further build relationships with the local school and its adult staff.

Engaging the Public High Schools

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For the last several weeks, Brenda and I prepared for a mission team to come and help our church serve it’s community.

Our new church development doesn’t want to be a church that stays within its walls, but rather, a congregation that loves and serves the community it is in.

Our target area of influence for this mission team was the public high schools that are in the community of Bella Vista.  Just beyond our apartment, there are 3 high schools, representing 8000 students and 600 teachers.

We secured access to two of them for this outreach, working with their English departments to setup classes on English conversation.

Plowing the ground

Serving in the community is more than just sharing the gospel with whomever will listen.  It’s also doing the good news and earning the right to be heard.  These relationships will open up doors to further community engagement.

Service is blessing the community and seeking its peace.  Service is simply plowing the ground.  It’s buildling the right to be credible, to be heard, and to be present in the future when they call upon us for a need.

Service without an overt agenda allows us to show that we truly care.

Service also will involve others on our mission as we seek to make an impact in the community as agents of transformation.

It’s hard to make transformation happen in one 2 hour visit.  But it’s a start.

At the end of each class, the English departments expressed their appreciation and a desire to come back and do more.

It is up to our church to put the next round of service in place.

 

Ministry with Dominican Republic Young Life

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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.

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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.  04 April 2011 015

Nicodemus visits

04 April 2011 030Our 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.

  • Who is the Holy Spirit?
  • I had this experience.  Was the Holy Spirit working in me?
  • When I came up out of the waters of baptism, I was so excited I started praying in tongues.  Was that the Holy Spirit?
  • Does I have to display a certain manifestation to prove that I have been filled with the Spirit?
  • This happened to me, what was it?
  • When I’m alone, I sometimes pray in tongues.  Is that normal?

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.

  • More about the Holy Spirit
  • More about how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit
  • More about how to pray in the Spirit
  • More about how to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit.

First trip might lead to second visits

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.

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Come to the Dominican Republic and help us.

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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.


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