L. and T. are from the very first Hispanic church that I mentored in our Global Focus process, both were single adults in the youth ministry at the time. As Ekklesia began to make major paradigm shifts and their people became not only passionate about missions, but began to personally participate in missions. L. helped start an ESL program in order to reach the unreached in their local Washington D.C. area. God used him and T. to share the Word of God and make disciples locally. Today they are serving in a war torn area of the Middle East with Syrian refugee’s. Even though they have only been on the field for a little more that half a year, they are already learning Arabic (a very difficult language) and intentionally investing in relationships and making disciples.
L. and T. are discipling several new believers, but what is more important is that these new believers are taking them to others and they are able to present Christ to them also, and they too are now being discipled. So they are teaching them to multiply! That is the way that the Kingdom of God expands, even into dark and difficult areas of the world.
The ultimate goal of missions mobilization is the expansion of the Kingdom of God among all people groups! Because our ministry helps mobilize and align churches around the singular mission of God, and then helps them to send out their own workers to the nations, we are able to see both ends of the spectrum. We see the beginning phase, when church leaders and members start to understand their churches’ role in Gods’ overall mission. Then when they get personally involved in missions either locally or globally, and begin to take vision trips, short term projects, and then God beings to call some of them out. Exactly how we mentor the church through the Global Focus process, we mentor Latin American missionary candidates and help send them to the field. We help them with initial vision trips, connect them with local teams, missions agencies, training schools, fund raising and the eventual sending of this new generation of missionaries.
There are now 71 families (soon to be 72) that have gone through this same process. They are either learning the local language of have learned it, but most important they are making disciples of Christ, and forming the church where there was no church. They are expanding the Kingdom of God among all peoples!
Yovanny, our Venezuelan director, is now beginning to mentor Baptist Churches in Colombia. This past week he was able to launch Global Focus with baptist churches in Medellin, Colombia. We are very excited about this new partnership, and how it will evenly impact the Kingdom of God. Please pray for Yovanny as he is traveling back and forth from Venezuela to Colombia.
I mentored Senda de Restauracion, a Hispanic church in the Atlanta area. This spring, Xochitl and I took 8 people from their church to the Middle East to work with some of our Latin American missionaries, and with Syrian refugee’s.
On the team was a medical doctor originally from Venezuela, but now working at Emory University in Atlanta. Throughout the Global Focus process in their church, God has been working on Cesar and Flor’s hearts about His mission. On this trip, God confirmed that He had prepared them as doctors to use them reaching refugee’s in the Middle East. This past week they applied with Samaritans Purse, and with God’s help will be serving full time with refugee’s in the Middle East.
Luis Marti mentored Central Evangelical Church in El Salvador, which is now 120 years old. It was my honor to preach their Global Celebration a few months ago, and it is obvious that God is doing a tremendous work in this church outside its walls! Luis was able to take them through the last module in our Global Focus missional process, which is “Where do I fit in”?
Nearly 100 leaders from the church worked for 6 hours learning how to use our material to help mobilize the rest of the members of the church. In this module every believer gains comprehension on Gods’ unique mission for their lives based on; their spiritual gifting; their passions or talents; or their past experiences’. After this module every believer will be able to find where they fit into the Gods’ mission and how He desires to use them to be known among all peoples. That mission may be local, or it may be global, but every believer will figure out how they participate with what God is doing. We are excited for this church and their denomination. Now Luis is beginning to mentor other churches of the same denomination because of the impact that Global Focus has had in their church.
God desires to be known of all people in all nations. From the beginning of the Bible and all throughout, this is the main theme. The reason He chose Abram, is to be a blessing to all nations, the reason He chose Israel, is so that they would make Him known among all peoples and the Gospel to all nations. Most people think the church exists for them, but the church exists for God and His mission. The question we need to answer, where do we fit into Gods’ mission? God has created us, shaped us, redeemed us, for His mission, for His glory. That mission has to do with what He is trying to accomplish in all of the world; “to be known among all peoples”. But most believers are conformed with attending church, and not finding Gods’ mission for their lives. The reason we wrote our last module “Where do I fit in, is because every believer has a missional calling, a missional purpose, a place where they uniquely fit into Gods” Kingdom. But every believer also must find where they fit in.
Oscar Loyola was able to launch Global Focus with a new church in Sullana, Peru (near the Ecuadorian border). El Divino Redentor Baptist Church.
Pastor Oscar as a pastor of a church that has implemented Global Focus and seen how it has transformed his own church. Now they are participating locally in missions, and sending their own people to the nations. We praise God that He is extending a missional movement to more and more churches all over Latin America.
I mentioned a couple of months ago that I had gone to Brazil to help our new Brazilian Director Fabio Torres (former director of OM Brazil) with Global Focus in Brazil. I was able to connect him with my dear friend Teodorio Soares who for years was the president of the Amazon Baptist Convention. We both were able to vision cast for many of the pastors of the Convention 2 months ago. Now Fabio has begun with the fist 7 of 15 churches that signed up to be mentored. This week he was able to travel to Manaus (four hour flight from Sao Paulo) to spend a few days initiating the Global Focus missional process with these churches. Soon he will return to continue mentoring the other churches.
