So during the month of March this is what God did: Argentines, Bolivians, Venezuelans and Hispanics from the U.S. were able to minister in Central Asia; Salvadorians and Brazilians in another Central Asian country; Bolivians and Venezuelans in a totally closed Central Asian country, a Salvadorian and Mexican couple in the Middle East with refuge’s; Salvadorians in the Amazon Jungle of Peru; and Guatemalans in Cambodia.
So what are the 2 things that all of these teams have in common?
1. They are all from a Latin America, proving that the mission field is becoming the missions force.
2. They are all from churches that are being mentored or have been mentored by Global Focus in Latin America.
God is doing something unique in Latin America, and Global Focus is one of the tools that He is using to engage Latin American churches and christians to personally participate in His mission.
We started mentoring the Amigos Denomination a year ago, and have seen dramatic changes in their churches. The Global Focus process does not just teach missions lessons, but it literally helps mobilize the entire church to missions. That is what is happening in the Amigos churches we are mentoring.
Not only are they learning about missions but they are developing missional projects reaching marginalized areas in their own city and country, and now they are personally participating in Global Missions. This last week I was in Guatemala mentoring their churches, part of the leadership team we are mentoring presented their report from their first ever global missions trip.
This team of 9 Guatemalans where able to go to Cambodia and help establish a medical/dental clinic and also a bakery. These Guatemalan believers raised their funds in their local churches, they were commissioned, and participated in a 2 week missions project. Part of the team will remain until August to work in the newly established clinic. As they gave their reports, they all said how that this trip had forever changed their lives. They also said how grateful they were to be part of a missional process that not only helped them learn of God’s mission, but helped them develop relevant strategies to personally engage in what God is doing.
The same week our teams were in Central Asia and the Middle East, Luis Marti was mentoring churches in Mexico. He was able to start the process with 2 new churches, one in Mexico City and the other in Irapuato. He started the process with pastor Ramiro Martinez, who is one of the best missions mobilizers in Mexico. The leaders of his church were very excited as Luis took them through the first and second module. We are so excited to have Luis Marti on our team, he is already proving to be invaluable.
This past week I was able to preach the opening service of the Global Impact Celebration for Highland Park B.C. in Muscle Shoals, AL with pastor Brett Pitman. We praise God for churches that have implemented many of the principals of GF and are engaging their church members to the nations. Pastor John Russel is the missions pastor (former VP of Global Focus) and at the end of the week, we saw hundreds respond to engage in missions, and several surrender their lives to full time missions!
La Gran Comision B.C. is not a large church, they are a church of about 100 members. We have been mentoring them for nearly a year now, and have helped them to make several paradigm shifts. Not only are they now engaging locally in mission but they are now participating globally in missions. They are now preparing for their first every Global Celebration this fall, in which they will bring missionaries from around the world to help mobilize their church even more.
Pastor Luis Marti is now mentoring several churches in Latin America. This past week he was able to continue mentoring Maranatha Church of San Salvador.
This is a church that is learning that the reason they exist is not just to have weekend services, and build buildings, but to fulfill Christ’s mission to the nations.
Luis helped them develop their missional purpose statement, integrate missions into every ministry of the church, and develop a prayer strategy of praying every week for missionaries and unreached people groups.
Josue Villanueva another GF Latin American facilitator is mentoring Nueva Vida B.C. in El Salvador. This is a smaller congregation, but they are developing their Global Teams, and missional projects, locally and globally.
They are learning that the Great Commission is not just for larger churches, but Jesus even expects that smaller churches participate in His Mission.
Two thousand years have passed since Jesus told us what He wanted us to do; “Make disciples in every nation (people groups). Even after 2,000 years, there are still over 6,000 unreached people groups. So what is the answer; how do we get from where were are to where we should be?
We have to go back to the beginning; the Great Commission was given to the Church, and the way to reach the nations is when local churches intentionally send workers to these people groups. That is why mobilizing local churches is fulfilling the need among the nations. In Enfoque Global (Global Focus Latin America), we mobilize local churches in Latin America (now nearly 375 different churches, and 8 different evangelical denominations).
These churches are not only engaging locally in missions, but they are engaging globally in missions, and sending their own people to the nations. So the way to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ, is by mobilizing more churches. That is why I am excited that we now have several Latin American Global Focus facilitators, and seeing how they are mobilizing other local churches in the same missional process that helped to engage their churches in mission. It is my joy every week to write about our mobilization efforts in different countries in Latin America, but also write about the missionaries that we are helping these churches to send to the unreached, and new candidates we are on their way.
So more mobilizers, = more churches on mission = more candidates and missionaries to the field = more unreached able to hear the Gospel and worship God!
Pastor Yovanny Alvarez is mentoring about 15 churches in Venezuela in the Global Focus process. He just started with a new church, FBC Barquisimeto. He was able to teach the leadership of this church the initial GF seminar. When you think of Venezuela, you immediately think of the economic crisis and the total collapse of their government, which is all true.
Pastor Yovanny Alvarez is mentoring about 15 churches in Venezuela in the Global Focus process. He just started with a new church, FBC Barquisimeto. He was able to teach the leadership of this church the initial GF seminar. When you think of Venezuela, you immediately think of the economic crisis and the total collapse of their government, which is all true.But the parallel reality is that God is raising up missional churches, and sending out missionaries from Venezuela to the nations! We have now sent our 8 families from Venezuela to the unreached, and this next week will take another family on a vision trip to the Middle East. Pray for Venezuela, pray for Pastor Yovanny, and all that God is doing in this country through the churches raising up even more missionaries.
Last week, pastors Pablo Carhuachin and Oscar Loyola (both have implemented GF in their own churches, and are now mentoring other congregations), were able to teach the initial GF seminar to a new church in Lima, Peru at Manantial de Vida B.C.
They were both able to teach the leadership of this church our initial GF seminar. The church is very excited about participating in this missional process. Praise God for Latin American Global Focus facilitators that are multiplying the impact that Global Focus is having on the churches of Latin America.
If I had to do this alone, I could not reach very many churches, but together we are reaching hundreds of churches throughout Latin America.
