Vida Nueva (New Life) already had a great foundation, Steve and Debbie Douglas had started the church and built a tremendous foundation, then turned the church over to their Peruvian son in law, Paul. We began mentoring Vida Nueva about a year and a half ago in the Global Focus Missional Process.
We were able to teach the seminar to all of their leadership, then pastor Paul taught it to the church over an extended period of time. So the entire church had a great basis for understanding their local church’s role, and their own personal involvement in God’s Local – Global Mission. We also helped them develop their mission statement:
“Vida Nueva exists to see Jesus Christ to be known, followed, and glorified in Arequipa, and in all of the ethnic groups of Peru and the world.”
We helped them to integrate missions into every single one of their church ministries, and develop their Global Teams. What was the result of a year and a half long mentorship with Vida Nueva? On Wednesday hundreds of people came to the Missional Fair that looked like a professional exposition at a trade show in a convention center where they showcased not only their local and national missions projects, but had missionaries from Morocco, Turkey, India and Germany! They had traditional Peruvian and Indian dancing (yes they are a baptist church….) Then for the service, the church was packed and people were standing all over the back of the auditorium for the opening of their Global Celebration.
People celebrated Peruvian style as all of the 15 missionaries and missional projects entered the church with horns, confetti, balloons, and signs. The praise band led us in congregational worship that emphasized God’s hear for the nations, and the young people challenged us with a drama about Christ being taken from Peru to the nations. They asked me to bring a short missional challenge (and I almost complied with the request for “short”). God moved, and people responded.