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Two weeks ago I was in Lima, Peru mentoring Bible Baptist Church of Callao. They have now developed their missional statement which is a huge sign at the front of their auditorium that says: “Bible Baptist Church of Callao exists to GLORIFY God, by making DISCIPLES  that PREACH Christ here in Lima, and in all of the NATIONS of the world.”

That missional statement at the very front of their auditorium sets the standard that the reason why there church exists is to build the Kingdom of God. During the module I was able to teach them on this visit was how to form their Global Teams. I wish you could have seen pastor Oscar as he heard of the missional projects that his own people were coming up with as they were thinking of reaching their own Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and Ends of the Earth.

Pastor Oscar told me that the people have never been more excited, and participative in God’s Mission.

Not only was I able to mentor pastor Oscar’s church, but I was able to meet with the leadership and preach in both Sunday am services of Vida Nueva (New Life Church). Pastor Thomas Pace has been the missionary pastor of this  great  missional  church  for  many  years,  and  now  pastor Fernando says that he believes that Global Focus can take them to an even more engaged level of missions. We will begin the process with their church in May of this year.

Along with mentoring churches and meeting with future candidates, I was able to have several very strategic meeting. One was with Antonio Pavon, the director of COMIMEX ( a large missions umbrella organization in Latin America). He has seen first hand how God is using Global Focus in Latin America, and we are currently working on a partnership agreement with COMIMEX to mentor even more churches in Mexico, and the first church from this organization Antonio’s own church he pastors. He said, Rafael, I want my church to experience how Global Focus helps personalize missions for every church member. We will start the process with them in May of this year.

Not only did I meet with COMIMEX, but I met with a couple of pastor friends of mine from the Mexican Baptist Convention. I told them how God is using Global Focus to help the churches of Baja California, and many of them are already sending workers to unreached areas. One of the pastor I was able to meet with was my good friend, Juan German Ortiz, pastor of Mexico City’s First Baptist Church. It is amazing how God has blessed this church of nearly 1,000 members in spite of not having adequate buildings, and being in the downtown area.

From their we were able to travel 2 hours away to Puebla, Mexico and meet with the leadership of Iglesia Bautista Getsemani. Pastor Bruce Bell is one of Latin America’s premier missionaries, having served nearly 50 years in Latin America.

He is the founder of Miramonte Baptist Church and dozens of other churches in Latin America. I remember as a 17 year old teenager hearing Bruce Bell speak at Berea Baptist Church in Monterrey, Mexico.

I still, after all of these years remember his sermon. I was honored to preach twice on Sunday am at this wonderful church. The entire leadership was so enthused at how Global Focus has helped Miramonte and other churches that we begin the process with them in May of this year as well.

I have the honor of mentoring Wesleyan churches in different cities of Mexico. God is doing a great work in this denomination and focusing them on His mission. I was able to preach and mentor the Pilgrims Evangelical Church in Cd. Valles, which is the oldest Wesleyan church in Mexico.

Not only did I preach twice on Sunday am and teach all afternoon their leaders, I spent 10 hours teaching their leaders again on Monday (which was a holiday in Mexico). Then I spent 2 hours with their Global Teams (Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and Ends of the Earth) helping them develop missional champions for each of their missional projects. They are now involved in planting churches in the Circle of Silence (which is the least reached area of Mexico), and in missions in Albania, and soon in Morocco. On Sunday we had dozens of people respond to God’s call of their lives for His Mission. Pray as this church seeks to engage even more of it’s members in God’s Mission.

From there I was able to teach Senda de Vida, the largest Wesleyan church in Mexico in Mexico City. I was able teach our last module, “Where do I fit in?”. This module is designed to help every member of the church find their spiritual gifting, their passion, life experiences, and personality in order to see where they fit into God’s mission. It was a great time teaching for 7 hours about 90 of their leaders. Pastor Alejandro is now sending out 6 families from the church to start churches in very need areas of Mexico, and they are also involved in helping to send a missionary to North Africa.

Last week my wife and I were able to be in Northwest Mexico, in Baja California, where I have been mentoring the BC Baptist Convention. Now we are mentoring Assemblies of God churches there as well. On Friday pm, we mentored FBC of Ensenada, where I am also mentoring Bethany Assembly of God. Not only are both the baptist and assembly of God churches being mentored, they are together sending their first cross cultural family to North Africa together! It is a joy to mentor both of these churches, and see that both are more interested in Jesus’s Mission to make disciples, than to even further their own denomination.

On Sunday am I was able to preach at Bethany where we had dozens of people respond to the invitation to obey Christ’s mission. After preaching at Bethany in Ensenada, my wife and left immediately and drove to Tecate, where I also mentor FBC there, and was able to teach our last module; “Where do I fit in?”. This module is designed to take the entire church through a process of personalization and for every member to find their Kingdom assignment in missions and in ministry. I love teaching this module, because this allows the church to literally mobilize every one of it’s members to intentionally live their lives on mission with God, whether it is in a missional project locally, or a national project or as a missional champion for a project in the ends of the earth. It helps every Christian to understand that our mission on earth is directly linked to Christ’s mission and what He wants to accomplish among the nations.

On Saturday we were able to be back in Tijuana at Camino de Salvacion, (Way of Salvation Baptist Church). They were very proud of their new Mission Statement sign that is in the church for all to see. Pastor Jose Antonio wants every member of his church to know why they exist, it is not to build a church building or even to hold services, but it is for them collectively to fulfill Jesus’s Mission on earth as His Body both by making disciples in Tijuana and in all nations at the same time. That is the reason that this baptist church of 50 members has now sent it’s first full time worker to Central Asia (I wrote about her in my last update). But not only are they making disciples in Tijuana and Central Asia, but they are making them among Haitian refugee’s.

They have been housing over 50 Haitian refugee’s in their very small church building since last Oct! Some would ask, why would this small baptist church send 75% of their offering to support a full time worker in Central Asia, and then use their small facilities to house refugee’s? It might have something to do with the purpose statement they have developed as part of the Global Focus missional process. It states: Camino de Salvacion exists to glorify God; being and making disciples that utilize their gifts to take the Gospel from Tijuana to every ethnic group on earth.

H. and L. are workers from Lima, Peru and are planting a church among the Syrian and Afghani refugee community in Germany. God has not only blessed their ministry with several refugee’s coming to faith in Christ, but now has blessed their family with the birth of their 3rd child which is their first daughter! Pray for this Peruvian family as they reach the unreached in Europe. I will be in Lima in 3 weeks, teaching and preaching at their home church.

Most churches have either their pastoral staff or missions staff develop, plan and prepare their Missions Conference. That is not the case with a Global Focus church; the pastoral staff or missions staff facilitates that the members not only participate, but help in the planning and preparation of the Global Celebration.

Why? Because an underlaying principal: “Participation creates a sense of ownership”, and a principal Truth: “Missions is not just the mission of missionaries or the church staff, but of every follower of Christ”.

After finishing up preaching at CIMA (Bolivia and Argentina) I flew back to Santa Cruz and La Paz Bolivia where I am mentoring Kairos. Both churches are getting ready for their first Global Celebration later this year. I was able to meet with the over 100 of their leaders and help them with the initial preparations for their Celebration.

These churches now have a combined total of over 50 missional projects, locally and globally! To say that they are excited about their first Global Celebration would be the understatement of the year.

I also had the opportunity to preach in the Saturday pm service of Kairos and in both of their Sunday am services. Pray for these churches as the prepare to invite the different missionaries to help them mobilize even further their people to God’s Mission.

Last Wednesday night I finished preaching to almost 500 college students from Argentina at the CIMA Conference in Buenos Aires at 11:15 pm (they didn’t start the service until after 9:00 pm).

They had asked me to speak on the subject of “Holy for God’s Mission”, when we gave the invitation, hundreds responded filling the alter and the isles, surrendering their lives to His Mission, but the most unusual thing about the service was not that almost everyone came forward, but that the young people stayed praying and weeping at the alter until after 12:30 am.

God’s Sprit was so present it was palpable as the young people were truly broken and yielding their lives to go out and live His Mission instead of their own, and take the Gospel to the unreached.

I praise God for how He is changing the perspective of Christians all over Latin America, challenging them to become a missions force instead of being the mission field.

Every January I am invited by CIMA to preach and teach about missions, unreached people groups to hundreds of young people in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. Two years ago I met a group of young people from FBC Bariloche (the southern tip of Argentina), this was their first experience at CIMA. They went to all of the classes were I was teaching and preaching, hung around for hours talking, it was there that God called P. to His Mission. P. is a young engineer that had just purchased his new car.

He went back home, sold his car, resigned his job and went for 6 months to serve in Southeast Asia. As the CIMA team interviewed P. in the service, he told the story of how at his first CIMA he was confronted about the need of the unreached.

He said that in a conversation that we had, he had asked “what is the best ability for a missionary” and that I responded “the best ability is to make yourself available.”

P. has made himself available to God, and is now being sent out by his home church as a full time worker in Southeast Asia! Please pray for this 28 year old engineer as he serves among the unreached.

CIMA is an Urbana or Passion type conference in South America. Hundreds of college students and graduates come from all over South America and for an entire week are challenged and learn about missions.

For the last 5 years I have had the privilege of being one of the main missions speakers for these events. Last week I was able to participate in CIMA Bolivia and teach about unreached people groups, about the church’s response to ISIS, opportunities for Latin Americans in the Middle East and North Africa. During the free times, dozens of these young people would come up and spend hours asking questions, seeking opportunities to serve in difficult areas. Just this week here in Argentina, I met a young man that was part of a group that came to all my sessions 2 years ago, asked tons of questions. He told me this year, “you impacted my life and challenged me to use my career and passion for His mission among the unreached. I am leaving in 2 months to move to Southeast Asia to serve the Lord!”

The last night in Bolivia I was asked to give the main missions challenge and we had over 100 surrender their lives to God’s Global Mission. Please pray for these young people that are seeking to impact the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We met pastor Isai Morales and his wife Adriana almost 2 yrs ago, our immediate connection was missions. As president of the BCBC (Baja California Baptist Convention) and pastor of FBC Tecate, he has always wanted to mobilize his church and denomination to greater engagement in missions..

For the last year and a half we have been mentoring their church and several other churches of the BCBC. On Thanksgiving we launched the Global Celebration at FBC Tecate, (this is the next to the last step in our missional process). We had 12 missionaries from different parts of Mexico and from Central Asia and North Africa come and help personalize missions to every member in the church.

The church did everything wonderfully, the inaugural service, the home meetings, the missions fair, and on Sunday when we took up their first faith promise missions offering they went way over their goal and committed over half a million pesos to missions.

FBC Tecate is not a large church, they average about 200, and they are now giving more than all of the other churches of the BCBC put together for missions! We also had 15 more surrender to go personally to the mission field as the next wave of missionaries!