This past Sunday we celebrated the resurrection of Christ. If the resurrection teaches us anything, it teaches us that God can take that which we fear the most, and turn it into triumph! The Apostles were paralyzed by the fear that Jesus was being crucified and they scattered. But when they experienced the reality of His resurrection, it changed everything! They were no longer just participants in the Gospel, they now had become protagonist of the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel was no longer just local, it became global. They experienced God in a new way, because of the reality of the resurrection. That is exactly what God is doing in our world today. He is taking that which we fear the most, and he is launching us into His new reality. He is changing our perspective on many things through this difficult time.
The past weeks that I have been working from home; God is allowing me to teach virtually. Last week I taught a 2 hour class on how “God’s mission has not been quarantined” and we had over 400 missional leaders on the Zoom video webinar from 9 different Latin American countries! This weekend I will be teaching several different churches in Latin America via Zoom. I have also spent the last 2 weeks recording videos for our Global Focus missional process. I have been able to make 9 different videos, and this Monday will finish up with another 5. From there I will begin to video our entire Global Focus missional process. We are not sure what things will look like once this is all over, but we want to have our entire process ready for any circumstances. Why? Because we still have been commanded to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
I am having weekly Zoom meeting with our country directors for Global Focus Latin America, and I want to take a few minuted to share with you a few testimonies of what God is doing around Latin America with the churches that we are mentoring.
The first testimony is a miracle that has taken place in Venezuela. As you know the economy in Venezuela has already collapsed, even before this pandemic. But now, things are much worse, people cannot work, their is literal starvation happening in Venezuela. This country has been for the last 10 years one of our best countries to work in and recruit from. We have sent to the some of the most dangerous mission fields in totally closed countries more Venezuelan families than any other Latin American nation. We are currently mentoring more churches in Venezuela in our Global Focus missional process than any other country.
God did something last week that not only amazed me, it amazed the people of Venezuela. In the midst of this pandemic, when things are even worse than they have normally been, God sent millions of fish to the coast of Venezuela! The people were able to gather them in buckets and give them away to their friends and neighbors. God is literally feeding the starving people of Venezuela! Praise God that He is able to continue to do the same miracles we see in the Bible!
The Global Focus churches of Venezuela are still doing missions! FBC of Turen, one of the first Global Focus churches in Venezuela, has a group of members that meet every morning very early to pray for all of their missionaries on the field. They spend at least an hour before their days starts praying for missions, and for missionaries.
One of the missionaries sent by the church is a young lady serving in the Andes mountain region. She is taking the Gospel to a very poor indigenous community. This young lady is helping this very poor and the sick in community with food and medicine and she is going house to house teaching them the Bible at the same time!
Other Global Focus churches in Venezuela, the young people are venturing out into the city and they are taking food to their own community and to the hospitals. For a long time the government is no longer providing medicines, medical supplies, or food for the patients in the hospitals. They are taking the patients and the doctors and nurses food, but most importantly they are taking them hope! In Venezuela they are doing missions locally, and praying for missionaries globally!
In Colombia one of our Global Focus churches has been able to take over 1,000 food baskets to people in need in their own community! They are also having a daily virtual prayer service that lasts 6 hours, in which hundreds of members of their church are praying for all that God is doing in the midst of this pandemic. They also pray for each one of their missionaries. They have been able until now to continue to fully support each one of the missionary families sent from their church.
