We also helped them develop a strategy where they are praying for missions and missionaries; Every Service, Every Small Group, Every Week. Their purpose statement that we helped them to develop is: “Centro de Fe y Esperanza exists to glorify God, by making disciples that are in the image of Christ, equipping them for His Mission from where we are all the way to the Ends of the Earth.”This past week Xochitl and I were able to continue mentoring Getsemani Baptist Church of Puebla. We are half way through the Global Focus process with this wonderful church. Not only are they aligning their church around God’s Global Mission, now we are teaching them how to develop missional projects in their local area (Puebla) and all the way to the ends of the earth. I wish you could have felt the electric enthusiasm as they nearly 120 leaders of the church presented different missional projects of which they are going to be personally involved in.
One of the projects was to help woman and young girls that have been victims of sex-trafficking; another project had identified a Pakistani community of more than 250 families in Puebla! They are developing a missional project to build bridges of connection in order to take the Gospel to and unreached people group living in their won community!
There were many other projects presented, but I want to mention 2 more; Last year Xochitl and I were able to take a doctor from the church to work with Syrian refugee’s in the Middle East, a country where we are sending Latin American workers. This year, that same doctor is taking another 8 doctors and dentists with us to continue to work with the refugee’s in Sept! Another “Ends of the Earth” project is that now Getsemani is financially supporting one of our families serving in one of the most closed countries in Central Asia. A group of 5 -6 university students from the church are planning on visiting them in Central Asia this Nov. to do a special project.
The churches that we mentor in Global Focus are not only sending their own missionaries to the field and financially supporting them, but church members are getting personally involved developing their own missional projects and participating with missionaries on their special projects! They are reaching the nations locally, and they are reaching the nations globally; they are on the move with God and what He is doing. These churches are truly becoming missional communities.
Also I was able to be with Pastors Luis Marti (from El Salvador) and Pastor Victor Velazquez (from Mexico City), both Global Focus facilitators in Latin America. The three of us were able to attend and participate in the annual meeting of COMIMEX (which is a large yearly missions congress in Mexico). Not only did we have a stand at the congress, we were able to teach some of the principals of Global Focus and show how our process is mobilizing churches all over Latin America.
Each one of our facilitators is a pastor that has implemented Global Focus in their own church, and they have mobilized their own people to the nations. It was wonderful to see both Luis and Victor teach pastors in our breakout session, but also interact with them personally and share how Global Focus helped them to mobilize their own people to the nations.
Because of their testimonies we are now going to start the GF process with several new churches in Mexico, and participate teaching on the OM ship! Please pray for both of them as they mentor other churches in Latin America in the same process that mobilized their churches. Also pray that God continues to multiply our number of facilitators to mentor even more churches.
Xochitl just returned from Cuba where she was with our pastor’s wife, Suzie Hawkins, and several other ladies able to teach pastors wives from the Eastern Baptist Convention of Cuba. I was able to do the simultaneous translation of our pastor’s Men’s Conference with nearly 6,000 men present and tens of thousands watching the simulcast. It is my privilege to do the simultaneous translation every year for this great conference. Last week I was able to attend the Full Sail Leaders Support Raising Conference, where missional leaders from 110 different missions agencies and organizations came together to explore funding modules in order to send even more labores to the fields. This weekend Xochitl and I are in Puebla, Mexico and next week in Toluca, Mexico at the national COMIMEX missions conference with Luis Marti. Both of us will be representing Global Focus at this event.
These are just a few stories that we receive on a weekly basis of how God is using missionaries that we were able to help send to the nations. Global Focus is making an indelible impact on the churches that we are mentoring, helping them to focus that the main purposes of being a church is not to just have Sunday services, but to be God’s instrument to extend His Kingdom to all nations. Praise God that the Sovereign work that God has done in Latin America over the last 100 years, is having fruit among the unreached people groups on the other side of the world. Please continue to pray for the 10 facilitators that Global Focus has in Latin America and the work that we are doing in mobilizing the local churches all over Latin America to the nations.
This past month about 30 young people from Vida Nueva Church have given up their summer vacation (in South America Jan. and Feb are the summer months) in order to participate in mission projects in their own country of Peru. They have put on dramas, puppet shows, worked in evangelism and discipleship in some of the least reached remote areas of Peru.They have seen many people come to faith in Christ as a result of their missions efforts. Last week I told you about how 3 of their pastors are now mentoring other churches in the same process that has transformed their church, and that their church has sent it’s first cross cultural missionary family to Southeast Asia.
Miramonte was one of the first churches we mentored in the Global Focus missional project and has done an excellent job at implementing and modeling these paradigm shifts and missional strategies. Just this past year they were able to launch another missionary to the unreached, but this week a team of 6 members of their church in in Niger helping their missionary with needed projects. Who would have ever thought that Salvadorians would travel to Niger, but in churches are are mentoring, this is becoming the norm as they personally engage in God’s Mission.
On Monday and Tuesday of this week I flew to Guatemala City to continue to mentor the “Amigos” Church (Quakers). The “Amigos” denomination is a small, conservative denotation in Guatemala, but God is doing a great work among their churches as well. They have now sent 2 families to Cambodia as a denotation, and this past week sent another missionary to work with this team. I was able to take about 70 of their leaders through our third module as well, I wish you could have seen their enthusiasm, and heard their creativity as they began to develop missional projects not only in Guatemala, but around the world. In March they are sending a team of 5 medical doctors and others to help establish a permanent medical clinic in Cambodia. They are also establishing a small micro business model for the local believers that their missionaries have been able to reach.
Getsemani Baptist Church has been very involved in supporting missionaries financially. This past weekend I was able to take about 90 of their leaders through our 3rd module of developing their Global Teams and strategies, and preach in the Sunday services. Through the Global Focus process they are now not only supporting missionaries, but personally participating in missions. This past year we were able to take 2 of their members for the first time on a cross cultural missions trip to work with Syrian refugee’s in the Middle East.
They also sent one young man to work in Haiti, and another is in Germany is working with refugee’s there. God is doing something unusual in this great church, not only are they financially supporting missionaries, now every week they are praying for them, and sending their own people to help in missions projects around the world. We believe that very soon, God will call people from Getsemani as well to plant their lives among the nations.
Betania is an Assembly of God church that has gone through the Global Focus missional process. In November we had their first Global Celebrations with over 30 missionaries and missional projects. This past week I was able to teach our last module, which is our personalization module, in which we teach the leaders how to leverage the momentous impact caused by the Global Celebration to engage their entire congregation to be involved in missions. This module is a separate book Global Focus wrote called; “Where do I fit in?”.
We had about 80 of the leaders go through almost 8 hours of training, so that they can lead the entire congregations through small groups through the same training. The goal of this module is to teach each churches member to find their unique Kingdom Fit in missions.
Not only has this church successfully gone through our missional process and are personally engaged in missions and with missionaries, this year they will be sending their first cross cultural missionaries to North Africa. J. and Y. will be leaving their church to work with another couple that Connect Global helped to send to North Africa.
Most of the churches in Latin America are smaller congregations, their offerings are not comparative to those of churches in the U.S. or Europe. None the less, churches all over Latin America are beginning to impact then nations, even among the unreached people groups. Global Focus is helping these churches through an intencional process, so that even smaller churches can embrace the challenge of Global Missions. Now, churches in Latin America are sending their own missionaries to some of the hardest places, these missionaries are planting the church of Jesus Christ amongst the unreached. They are sending short term missions teams to personally participate with the missionaries, their sacrificial giving reflect the priority of missions within their local church. Global Focus is not just teaching courses about missions, we are helping local congregations personally embrace the Great Commission by implementing missional strategies that mobilize their own church members both locally and to the nations. Below is just a very small sample of what God has been doing in churches we are mentoring in the Global Focus missional process.