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Not only is Vida Nueva sacrificing for His glory, but they are sending new workers to the fields. R. Is a young nurse from their church that leaves next week for a very strategic country in Southeast Asia, where Latinos are very welcome. She will be working with a hospital that cares for abused woman and orphaned children. Please pray for this young Peruvian nurse, as she is investing her life and her career for His glory. They are also sending a new team to the Middle East to work with Syrian refugee’s in a specific country where God is already working. They are also financially supporting several other missionaries that are going to the nations. 

On Sunday, after an inspiring message from Doug Ripley, they church went to a new level of sacrifice for His glory. This was the major takeaway from the message on Mary anointing Jesus in Jn. 12. “Sacrifice is giving up something you love very much, for someone that you love even more” When the invitation was given, each church member came forward to not only give their Faith Promise, but to pray for each and every one of the missionaries and tell them, “you are not alone, we are with you”. When the total of their Faith Promise was given, they had a significant increase, and their total commitment was S/168,000 (soles, which is over $50,000 US dollars)!! 

The Global Celebration at Vida Nueva is one of the most impactful in all of Latin America. Because of what we teach in Global Focus, their entire church participates; missions is not just for a select few in the church.

We started off Wednesday night service, when most churches have their lowest attendance, Vida Nueva was standing room only. The atmosphere was electric as each one of the 25 missions projects and missionaries came in to a cheering auditorium. And as they stood on the stage, each with their own missions mobilizer and team from the church, to several minutes of applause. If you were a visitor in the church that evening, you realized, “these are the real heroes of this church”. 

The rest of the week was filled with small home group meetings, luncheons, dinners, children and teens activities, forums, banquets, missions fair’s  in which the people were able to personalize missions for themselves. They were able to personally hear what God is doing and how they can personally join in on what He is doing for His glory. That way, missions is no longer a spectator sport that they watch on their TV, but it is a participative sport in which engage personally. 

I invited my good friend Dr. Doug Ripley, long time pastor of Decatur Baptist Church in Decatur, AL, a Global Focus church, and one of the most generous churches to missions. He came with me to help teach and preach on “developing a generous church in order to impact the nations”. Doug and I were able to teach about 50 pastors and leaders from several areas in Peru, Chile, and Bolivia that came together for our “Missional Church Conference” during the Global Celebration at Vida Nueva.

The response was incredible from these leaders as they will go back to their churches with the tools to challenge their people to greater generosity in order to make an even larger impact on the nations, all for His glory! 

The maximum culmination of all things, is that God be glorified and worshiped among all peoples in all nations: that is His Mission. That is the mission of the church, that is my personal mission, your personal mission.“Always more….. for His glory” was the theme, not just of the Global Celebration at Vida Nueva Church in Arequipa, Peru, but it was their theme for the entire year.

More intimacy with God, more obedience, more faithfulness, more commitment, more and greater sacrifice, so He can be glorified and worshiped among all peoples in all nations!  Missions is not about our ministry, or our agency or movement, or even our church, missions is about His glory, everything is about His glory! 

Fabio Torres, our Brazilian Global Focus director continues to mentor the second group of baptist churches from the Amazon Baptist Convention in Manaus, Brazil. These are for the most part smaller churches of 30-80 members each in the heart of the Amazon region. But by committing to the Global Focus missional process, they are declaring we are no longer the mission field, but we are becoming a missions force. God is using Fabio in a great way to help even more churches in Brazil engage in global missions. 

The “Amigos” (Friends) denomination is not a large evangelical denomination in Latin America. I began mentoring the first “Amigos” churches in Guatemala a couple of years ago, and God did an incredible work in those congregations and is now doing a wonderful work in their denomination. They are now taking missions trip and sending their own Guatemalan families to Southeast Asia.  Now, because of the impact and testimony of the Guatemalan churches,  Luis Marti is mentoring the “Amigos” churches of El Salvador and they are experiencing the same impact. 

Last week he was able to be with the “Amigos” church in Soyapango, El Salvador where he was able to help them develop their missions mentality, and a missions prayer strategy for the entire church and they missional church purpose statement. This is the declaration they developed as a church: “The Evangelical Amigos Church exits to worship and serve God by making and sending disciples of Christ to proclaim the Gospel locally and globally”.This small evangelical denomination is making and will continue to make an impact, not only in Latin America, but among the nations!

This past week I had the privilege of preaching the Global Celebration for First Baptist Church of Ensenada. Two years ago I was able to mentor this church of 50 members  through Global Focus. Today it is a church that has developed a local missional projects caring for and reaching the homeless of their city; teaching and reaching marginalized children in very poor areas; battered and abused woman in Tijuana.

But they are not only now working in their own local area, they are helping to start churches in the least reach areas of Mexico, and they have now sent missionaries from their own church to North Africa that are reaching and discipling mslms. So, can smaller churches participate in missions, they absolutely can. “The impact a local church makes in global missions is not determined by its size, but rather by its commitment to obey the last words of Jesus Christ”. 

Many times smaller churches think that missions is something only for larger churches, that they need to focus on their own community first in order to grow their church. Because they do not have a lot of finances, those finances need to be directed towards themselves and their facilities. Unfortunately most churches the first area they cut when the church decreases either economically or in attendance is their missions budget. But that would go directly in opposition to what the Scriptures teach, and what God commanded for the church. In I Cor. 16 God commanded for “all” the churches of Galatia to participate in the missions offering he was taking for the saints in Jerusalem.

So the command is clear, all church should participate in missions, whether large or small, whether with a large offerings or small offerings. The church exists for the mission that God gave it, and that mission is to make disciples in our Jerusalem all the way to the Ends of the Earth. 

This week I was in Corrientes Argentina teaching the 3rd module of our Global Focus process. The Amor Baptist Church was able to begin to develop their first ever Global Teams and their own mobilizers for each missions project or initiative. It was great seeing the progress they are are making in our process. They have planned their first ever trip to North Africa with several young people from their church next year. Please pray for this project, because some of the future missionaries could emerge from this trip. 

On Monday I was able to meet with the School of Missions at Palabra de Vida Argentina (Word of Life). They have asked me to do some teaching to the students who feel like God is calling them to the mission field. I will go next year and be with them, but I asked them to bring in local pastors to be able to help mobilize them as well. At the end of the day, it’s not as much about the candidates surrendering to go, (even though that is very important), but churches embracing the sending of this new generation of missionaries.