Workshops Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Mission to the Americas

Ingite Conference at La Fuente Church Matagalpa

January 19, 2009 by ecoach 1 Comment

A team of 4 from PRMI met up in Matagalpa Nicaragua to work with La Fuente church over the first weekend in January 2009. 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.

Pastor Raul of La Fuente (pictured with me) was our host, and founding Pastor Orlando Rutledge served as our translator during the entire event. Since we were in town for an event with Vida Joven, we were invited to have an additional conference in the city with La Fuente church. A big thanks to Pastor Orlando for arranging this.

Forty to sixty people met with us at La Fuente, which meets in a former warehouse that stored and distributed farm fertilizer: Concrete floors, terraced concrete slabs and a slight slope to lower a slab to a level appropriate for a truck loading dock. The steel plated entrance door is right at the street and slides to the left to allow cargo trucks to back in and be enclosed. Sounds echoed off the concrete wall, and wall mounted fans keep the place relatively cool even in the hot Managua sun.

This conference was the first of its kind for La Fuente, so attendance results were a surprise: More people than expected.

While the charismatic leaning congregation is familiar with experiencing the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the Ignite conference from PRMI was the first systematic teaching they have received in a while and many folks found it personally refreshing. For many, the theology sections on world view and the review on the Holy Spirit as the 3rd person of the Trinity were most helpful.

I taught on issues about worldview and the person of the Holy Spirit, and other team members taught on the 4 works of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and receiving the fullness or baptism of the Holy Spirit (Sam Hale pictured above). Saturday night, during the worship service, we had lab time and prayer time for the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Sunday, I preached through Matthew 9 about getting the Father’s heart for the harvest field. We had lab time and prayer time for the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

After lunch on Sunday, we visited with Raul and Pastor Orlando to discuss the event, hear testimony from them, and to discuss future plans.

During the event, a woman who heard us during our 2007 trip drove up from Managua and shared some updates from our ministry visit there.

Caimito Children’s Congress

December 15, 2008 by ecoach 1 Comment

Brenda and I finished our workshop at the 1st Children’s Ministry congress for the area of La Camima.

This congress was an outgrowth of the Teaching Children’s Workers in Arraijan in July of this year.

Because of common issues lack of finances and accessible transportation not every one can come to a leadership conference like the one in January which was about 2 hours outside of the city, or the one in July that was about 30 minutes away from the city.

As Brenda and I were praying this morning, it dawned on us that nearly all the attended arrived by foot, or by taxi. In the very small parking lot (which is plot of land), it was just our car, and the car for the other speaker.

Meet Raquel

One of those attendees, however, Raquel, was inspired to organize one for her local area. She managed to gather about 40-50 men and women from approximately 10-15 different churches. I am unaware of the final count.

Raquel is the children’s pastor of this little church. She’s been investing in that church for 12 years, and now some of her students from 12 years ago are now sending their children to Raquel to participate in the Children’s ministry.

In spite of the lack of resources and difficult access to training, se has perserved and their church of about 50 members is currently ministering to about 200 kids on a weekly basis. The church has already added a children’s classroom building, but already it is overflowing (see the video).

When we first met Raquel and Christian to plan this meeting, we heard their heart for this area. We heard stories of at-risk kids, and then we heard about the hardships and challenges of ministering in that environment. We heard their heart about training other children’s workers who couldn’t get to these conferences so far away. She approached Brenda and I about doing something for them in their little area.

Getting to the Congress

Though we rented a car, at times we felt like a 4×4 was more suitable for the road conditions. Heavy construction equipment from a local mine has destroyed what may have been a road. Potholes, washouts, missing pavement marked this road once we left the developed area.

The area would be considered rural. Google maps doesn’t do well out there. I tried embeding one, but the embed didn’t work.

The Children’s Leadership Workshop

Brenda did a 2 hour workshop on creativity for creating crafts and object lessons.

In this country where more than 1/3 live on under $100 a month, money to buy craft ideas is not easy to spend. It’s not as if you can go to Wal-Mart or a Michael’s.

Instead, Brenda helps children’s workers use stuff that is already in a house: toilet roll tubes, styrofoam trays, egg cartons. This particular lesson was on creativity — how to find the ideas and how to brainstorm. Almost as close to costing $0.00 as you can get.

For example: Brenda made this scene out of paper towel tubes, paper towels, a cut up toilet roll tube, some rubber bands and some shredded paper. I think the total cost may hae been under $1.00 for the yellow paper.

I gave a 1 hour lecture in “heavy” Spanish on getting and maintaining a vision for Children’s ministry. It was a challenge to prepare that in Spanish, and I was grateful to have gotten it done. This makes the 5th workshop I have given entirely in Spanish. I’m growing in confidence and I’m told growing in fluency.

How do you keep a vision for ministry even when kids rebel, when there are no resources?

How do you perservere in your vision when the going gets tough?

I focused on getting filled again with the Holy Spirit, praying for your vision, and recruiting others to pray for you and serve with you. It may seem basic to some of us, but these things always serve as a good reminder to refresh the weary.

Our video

Finally, I’ve put together a brief video that I hope will give you a feel for what we did.

To do a workshop like this, we have to rent a car for the weekend. Continue to pray that we’ll receive more workshop opportunities as well as funds to pay for our expenses. To advance our work in Latin America, see directions at Donate Online to Support our Work

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.

Ministry Workshops at Casa De Luz

July 29, 2008 by ecoach 2 Comments

While in Volcán at the Operation Mobilization Panama Mission Base, I also had the opportunity to do evangelism workshops at a bi-lingual new church development called Iglesia Casa De Luz (Lighthouse Church).

The church has experienced an explosion of adult conversion growth in recent months. I met many people who had become a Christian within the last 6 months. Some as recent as two weeks prior to these workshops.

I attribute this growth to the dedicated prayer of the leaders. Four mornings a week, the leadership team meets for prayer at 4.30am to pray for the church. Those who make that prayer time reported to me what a blessing it was to be awake at that hour doing the work of the church and seeing its fruit. This is in contrast to other 12 churches in the town that are not experiencing such growth.

It’s not the intensity of the prayer, or the hour of their prayer. Rather, it is the disciplined and commitment to prayer that I think has fueled the growth of this church.

First Evening: Small Group in David.

David is a major town about 45 minutes away (down the mountain) from the church. The church has small groups in that area because of the distance that hinders regular large group meetings. Pastor drives out to meet with them on a regular basis.

We met with some of the small group on the back patio of a house. Most of those pictured to the right are new believers in the Lord who have come to faith in recent months. Many had little to no bible knowledge when they came to faith, and are at the stage of faith where they are drinking in all they can get of the teachings about Jesus.

They have a passion for sharing their faith because of the tremendous impact that the Grace of God has had upon their life. I taught on how the Holy Spirit directs evangelism.

After about 90 minutes of teaching time, we moved into a time of prayer ministry. We felt that God was leading us to pray for those who do not know Him, and to rejoice in the fact that God has saved us.

A surprise

I was surprised once again by the fact that a pre-Christian would come to a workshop on Evangelism.

However, here again, one lady came to the workshop on the invitation of a friend. During the workshop, I had explained the gospel message, had explained how the Holy Spirit prepares our heart.

During the ministry time, she came forward to invite Jesus to come into her life. God had been already working in her heart, creating a spiritual thirst for Him, to bring her to a place where she knew her need and only Jesus could satisfy it.

We continued to minister in prayer to people for various prayer needs, such as a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, a passion for those who don’t yet know Christ, and some for physical healing.

2nd evening: Small group in Volcán

The second night, we repeated the same workshop on the role of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism. This time, was for the small group in Volcán. A different set of people came from the local area, including an American lady who had retired and moved to Panama from the US with her husband only 4 months ago.

Again, after about 90 minutes of teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism, we moved into another powerful ministry time. I was sick and fighting a cold, so I let the pastor lead the ministry time. We were led to pray for those who do not yet know Christ, for infilling of the Spirit again to be his witnesses, and particularly felt that God was giving prayer burdens for specific people groups.

3rd evening: Whole group in Volcán

The third evening, both groups from the first and second night gathered in Volcán for part two of the workshop series. I had recovered from being ill the day before and was much more sensitive to God’s working.

This evening, the teaching focused on paying attention to the Holy Spirit’s promptings to guide you in your evangelism efforts. It is a variation on the “Fear Free Evangelism” workshop that I offer via www.EvangelismCoach.org to churches in the United States. It uses Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch as a model of listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit to position yourself in the right place at the right time.

Afterwards we moved into another moving and important time of prayer ministry. Four or five more people came forward to ask Christ into their life, including the two children of the woman who invited Christ into her life in David, two nights before. We felt led again to be praying for all sorts of things under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

One lady, who had only been a Christian for two weeks, came forward for prayer.

I felt led to pray for physical healing, and physically felt God was working. I’ve have learned to recognize when God is using me to do a healing work and those signs were present. I initially was praying for healing, not knowing what for. After a while, I asked her specifically what for and she reported having some tumors. As I continued to pray, she reported the physical sensation of her tumors being pulverized, and felt God’s healing upon her. Of course, we’ll wait for medical verification, but we are confident in God’s healing work.

Saturday: Youth Group meeting

Saturday night, we participated in a Youth Group meeting, together with OM Mission Extreme Team that I had been training during these days.

We had a program that focused on a call to missions, to get beyond the mediocrity of casual Christianity and into giving yourself fully to God’s service no matter where that may take you. For some, it involves a short term trip in a foreign country. For others, like us, perhaps moving to a foreign country. For still others, it might be in your local neighborhood. The greatest joy in life is accomplishing God’s purposes for your life.

Sunday morning: Worship service

The final day of ministry wrapped up with preaching at Casa de Luz, using a message on Psalm 51. It’s a bi-lingual church so much of the service is translated. As mentioned, many of these people are new believers in Christ and God is doing a wonderful work there.

It was a beautiful morning. The punishing breezes of Volcan had calmed.

The message focused on the punishing burden of sin, and the freedom that is found in Christ’s forgiveness.

It is a message that naturally led into a time of repentance and rededication. The time of prayer ministry after the preaching lasted about 30 minutes and had several highlights.

People came forward for prayer about personal repentance, to give or rededicate their life to the Lord.

Others came forward for prayer as well, and several families spent time seeking forgiveness from each other for the broken ways they had been behaving.

A son sought forgiveness from his father and mom, praying for them as well.

A mom sought forgiveness from her daughter for how she had been behaving.

Brothers and sisters asked to be reconciled to each other.

One family, after being away from the Lord for two years, visited church for the first time and rededicated their life to the Lord.

Others, including one lady from the local indigenous tribe, came forward to give her life to the Lord. She also sought prayer for her sick child.

God is doing amazing work with this church. I am humbled to have been a part of it. I don’t claim any special power, but am simply a vessel in God’s purposes. I may have the gift of evangelism, but am humbled every time God chooses to use me in leading someone to faith in Christ.

I don’t claim to have any special ability. But rather I’m an available tool that God has chosen to use, and one that has been positioned at the right place at the right time.

I wasn’t in Volcán on my own doing, but in the sovereignty of God, the door opened and I was there to participate in a work that God was already doing.

What a privilege to see more souls come into the kingdom, to see people experience the power of God, and to ignite the church in the power of the Holy Spirit for missions.

Teaching Children’s Workers in Arraijan

July 29, 2008 by ecoach 1 Comment

While I was in Volcán at the Operation Mobilization Panama Mission Base, Brenda and our kids were at a workshop for Children’s Workers in Arraijan Panama.

Arraijan is about 30 minutes west of Panama City and is a booming suburb with new subdivisions springing up. Life is still affordable there of Panamanians, in contrast to the outrageous rental and retail housing prices in the city.

A church planter and his wife have been in Panama for several years and were connected with the church we attend until just recently when they felt called of God to plant a church in Arraijan. They moved their family to the neighborhood and opened the church a few months ago.

During their many years in Panama, they have been involved on a national level in teaching children’s workers. In fact, they organized the Children’s Leadership Conference in January that we taught at. As part of their continued influence and growing the church, they arranged another conference particularly for the churches in this town. Liz VonSeggen of www.daleandliz.com returned to provide training in Puppetry.

Brenda was invited to come and do a workshop on crafts. Using the information gathered at www.mismanualidades.org (Brenda’s website) and some more that will be posted, she gave another presentation to about 70 more workers.

The photo is from a different camp, but shows the idea.

During our road trip in the US, several more people have offered to help Brenda develop that website and contribute to it.

Once again, we saw the tremendous demand and need for Spanish language instructional material. People were asking Brenda if she had written a book to sell that had this stuff in it. Perhaps that will become a future revenue source.