More pics from Santa Cruz

Below Samuel, in yellow, gets ready to sling a rock against a wall. He broke our hearts on our last night when he crashed into me, hugging me tight and sobbing. He is a great son who looked after his younger brothers and sisters all week. It was obvious his parents depended heavily on him.

Segunda speaking with Bryannia about her day. Behind her, the one-year old baby, Belin, sleeps in the stroller.
Paula gives us a big smile.
Pastor Angel shares Christ with Esther. When she prayed to accept Christ, she wept uncontrollably. In Bolivia men don't hug women who are not their wives, but I couldn't take it. I reached through that barbed wire and hugged her. She was so overcome by the saving power of Christ, it was too much for me. She came to our meeting that evening and wept again and shared with everyone how happy she was that Jesus forgave her of her sins.
Nancy, mother to our translator, David, shows me her hot empanadas. These were filled with cheese and so delicious I could have made myself sick on them. She was part of the faith story of our week. Feeding us lunch and dinner on our third day because our host family could not afford to. God provided through Nancy, and it was a great provision.

Pastor Angel telling Mary that Christ can take her to heaven. Mary prayed to receive Christ then asked us to pray for her husband who struggles with alcohol.

Below is Alberto. He was a huge encouragement to us. When we came to his home, he preached to us. God radically changed his life. Three years ago a missionary from Korea came and challenged him to read his bible with all his heart. Now Alberto reads his bible constantly and was tremendous at proclaiming God's truth. He came to the meetings to encourage the new believers and gave a powerful testimony of Christ's redemptive power to the entire church. He was a blessing from God and one we're praying will continue to help Pastor Angel make disciples in this new work.

God's Spirit Fell on Us

Tonight the Spirit of God fell on our meeting.

I’ve never experienced a cell meeting like we had tonight. First, remember that this church had no members, just a couple with nine kids and the faith to step out and plant a church in their home. Tonight we learned …. the rest of the story.

Before we came, the pastor tried to run away, but God told him to stay. He then tried to quit two or three times before we started, including the first morning when he came to pick us up at our hotel. (we knew none of this) His family had no money to support us. The host families feed us lunch and dinner every day and our family (Angel’s) could not afford to feed us and their family. The Lord took care of us, as He always does. First, the pastor’s daughter asked her boss for additional money, and he agreed. Then another family stepped up and asked to have us in their home for meals one day, than another on the second, then another on the third, and so forth. You may ask, “Why didn’t you buy them their meals?” It would be inappropriate according to my translator, and God used this situation to show His faithfulness to everyone who attended tonight’s meeting. How many attended?

70.

From 0, God brought 70 including just under 20 adults. Then He filled the church with His Spirit. We wept, people who were strangers had tears pouring down their cheeks while telling how happy they were that Christ forgave them of their sins. Others told of returning to the Lord after being away for years. Husbands and wives had marriages strengthened. Our pastor made himself totally vulnerable and transparent and God moved in our hearts in a way I can’t describe.

Just a few days ago, our team was begging God to move. I asked you to pray on our behalf because this was a challenge unlike any I’d faced before. This pastor and church have no support and no workers. I had no idea what would happen. We’re praying God will raise helpers for them from the harvest, and tonight five or six mature Christians looking for a church to assist near their house! Our God is a faithful God who hears our prayers!

The Spirit of God is like fire. Tonight I saw what it looks like when the fire is uncontained and His Spirit runs wild in His people. I have no idea why God in His mercy allows Ali and I to be a part of this.

Ali ate Cow Stomach

Our team. Note the pastor's NINE children.

Let’s start with something that has a humorous bent to it before I give you a serious “missions” moment. Today I went to Javier’s home. He’d come to our children’s meeting on Sunday, and since he was the only dad to show up, I was really interested in following up with him. When I went to his house my translator mentioned that he really didn’t want to talk right now because he was scared of his mother seeing him. Yes, this man below who guards our portion of the neighborhood (he’s the overnight security guard) is scared of his mother. Or that’s what came through in translation.

He said he’d stop by as he was making his rounds and talk to me. Sure enough he came by to first check on me, then came again to talk to me about the gospel. He just soaked up the gospel. His eyes filled with tears when he heard that Jesus could take away his sins and he prayed to follow Christ while his children worshiped a few feet away. It was a great moment in a great day.

Ali

God continues to use her in unique, powerful ways. She’s really connected with her translator and several ladies in the neighborhood. God used her testimony in tonight’s meeting to show that this church in a home will be one of redemption, love, and grace. So many of the folks in the neighborhood have problems and troubles that we’re able to send a message to the people that this church, His church, will be a refuge and light.

Oh, and Ali ate cow stomach in the market today. Ha! The things we do for the sake of the gospel. Then she had to eat lunch about an hour later, and here you clean your plate. Good times.

Thanks for praying for our pastor, Angel. I’ve attached myself to his hip the past two days and seen a man with a real pastor’s heart. He fully understands how big of a job lies before him, and today he shared how big a vision he has. He has caught a vision to plant churches and wants to learn everything he can this week so he can replicate this process (Paul’s ministry with Christ’s commands) in the countryside.

What’s been encouraging is seeing Angel’s family share the gospel with the EvangeCube, and seeing them begin to lead all aspects of the cell group meetings at night. The Lord is doing such cool things to encourage him. We’re finding a sprinkling of believers in his neighborhood that we’re praying will come and, as mature believers, help disciple the baby believers. And God is moving. It’s still a tough(er) area, but today many made professions of faith, which was a shot in the arm for all us, but I think especially for the pastor.

A puppet show for the kids below.

Starting From Scratch

This is turning out to be the most challenging area I've worked in, but also one of the most exciting. Ali and I are in a mission church plant in the truest sense of the word. Our team of locals consist of the pastor, his wife, and his nine children. Oh, and that's the same folks who make up the congregation. But wait there's more, the pastors wife, Segunda, can't work too long because it takes so long to prepare meals. (No fridge in the house and she has to borrow propane to cook.)

The "church" (shown above) is four months old and really what we have is a pastor with a huge heart and desire to plant this new church, and not a whole lot else. I'm loving this huge challenge the Lord has placed before our team. There is no mother church, no team of locals helping the pastor. It's us and our translators. What this means is that this church, as it grows, will begin with all baby believers. The pastor really has his work cut out for him. His name is Angel (ahng-hel) and he needs not angels, but divine help.Ali
Ali shared with a woman (Carla) that she came all the way from the U.S. to Bolivia just to tell her God loves her and Jesus can take away her sins. When Carla heard this, she broke into tears that Jesus led Ali to come all this way--and not Disneyworld (many latin Americans' dream trip) Then Carla prayed to accept Christ.


Tonight Carla showed up at our worship service and Ali got to hold a little, women's bible study for new believers.

Off To Bolivia

Tomorrow we head south to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. 42 Americanos partnering with pastors and leaders to plant churches.

Jerusalem

So hotshot, you're going to Africa, South America, and the Middle East; what about that first part of Acts 1:8? What about your Jerusalem?

Several events transpired (conspired?) that continually brought this question to mind. It's one I'm constantly dealing with, as are others in my ministry. Basically, if you're going to other countries and teaching and preaching church planting, yet coming home in your local megachurch, what does that mean? Oy vey, conviction.

Our Sunday School class, er "connection class" has begun an outreach project in a local neighborhood. We're slowly walking through church planting steps; however, I have no idea if we'll plant a church or attempt an "in-drag" rather than an actual "outreach." I'm still working my way through the book, "The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation adn Mission for the 21st-century Church." The authors have my head spinning as we reach out to this local community.

Here's our current challenge in a nutshell: After 6 weeks of prayerwalking, how do we really "engage" the community? On paper it seems simple, in practice it's actually quite difficult, particularly when you don't live in the neighborhood.

How do we engage, without compromising the gospel, in the most culturally contextualized way possible? How do we check our hearts so we develop real relationships based on love, not just a notch-in-the-gun-handle motivation? We recognize that our church actually has some barriers to entry. Not on purpose, it just is what it is. What do we do with those?

We're seeking the Lord to help answer these questions, and yes, I'll read this next.

The cool thing that has happened already is to hear and see God moving in our lives as we obey. John 14:15, "If you love me, you'll obey my commands." Jesus.

Church Isn't Growing

Back in the USA ....

Ed Stetzer in his article, "Church Growth: When the Formulas Don't Work" writes: (hat tip to the great George Robinson)

"Seven years ago my church growth world began to come apart. Many of the
sure-fire, guaranteed, great-new-whiz-bang-programs weren't working in my church or
the churches we were starting. They were supposed to work, they worked in other
places, they worked for some of my friends, but they didn't work for us! We kept trying
some of them, but my community just didn't respond as the church growth experts
promised. When I became a seminary professor, my students told me the same thing—
the sure fire methods just were not that sure fire.

"Every time I read a book from a church health pastor (particularly those
mentioned earlier), he warned “Don’t copy me. You are not in [my community].” I didn't
listen very well. As I look around me, I see that lots of other pastors didn't listen either,
as clones of successful mega-churches popped up across the continent. The temptation
was too great—we really wanted to reach as many people as they did, so we copied
their models and hoped for the same results. Unfortunately, it didn't work in most
places."

Read the whole article here.

And click the picture for another great article.