EnfoqueGlobal

“God is doing something extraordinary in our church” Pastor Mario Cano of Getsemani B.C. in Puebla Mexico. God is already calling the members of Getsemani to do more than just come to and attend church. He is calling them to be missionaries locally in Puebla, in Mexico and unto the Ends of the Earth.

I had the opportunity to return to Getsemani this past weekend and teach the Global Focus seminar to over 100 of their leaders, and then preach in their Sunday services.

God moved greatly this past weekend, with one young man coming to faith in Christ, and dozens surrendering their lives to live their lives missionally and take the greatest news outside the walls of their church, to their neighbors and to the nations.

Several of the members of this church will be participating in their first cross cultural missions trip tot he Middle East with us in August, serving the Syrian refugee’s.

Also we are helping the church walk through the process of sending their first cross cultural worker to the mission field. Pray for the impact that Global Focus is having on churches just like Getsemani all over Latin America. We have now helped local churches send out their own workers to 12 different countries in Central and Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East.

We are proud of Nayeli and Matthew and God’s calling on their lives. While I was in Peru mentoring and preaching Nayeli was invited to share at the Worthy Conference in Pasadena, CA. where she was able to share with them God’s passion for reaching mslm people groups. Please continue to pray for them as the raise the last $1200.00 still needed for their vision trip to Southeast Asia.

This weekend I was able to launch Global Focus with Vida Nueva La Molina in Lima (Several of the churches we mentor have the same name in Peru and the D.R.). On Friday and Saturday about 90 leaders came together to go through the Global Focus seminar (which is the seminar we give before starting our mentoring process with the church). Their leaders were challenged and excited at the same time, especially as I showed them videos and shared testimonies of other Latin American church that are engaged in world missions.

BIMI Missionary Thomas Pace started this church 25 years ago, and now Pastor Fernando continues the Godly legacy and says that Global Focus is going to help their church mobilize even more of their members to live their lives intentionally on mission with God, both locally and globally. It was my honor to preach in both of their Sunday am services where nearly 20 people responded to the Gospel and many dozens surrendered their lives to become God’s Seed to the Nations.

Connect Global is helping to connect Pamela, one of their cross cultural workers with other Global Focus churches in order to send her to work with and reach refugee’s for Christ in Europe. At the same time I was starting the Global Focus process in Vida Nueva.

I would travel across town to mentor Bible Baptist Church of Callao.This church is in the 4th module of our missional process, and doing a great job at implementing every paradigm shift. In this module we start to help them prepare their first Global Celebration where they will bring in local, national and international missionaries from all over the world. This church is the home church of Dr. V.T. whom we sent to Central Asia 3 years ago in partnership with FBC Temple Terrace, FL. Now there are at least 3 other young professionals in the church we are working with to send to the nations.

“Global Focus has changed our church 180 degree’s, now then entire church is focused on The Mission, and almost everyone is participating.” This was the testimony of one of the Global Team lay leaders at Vida Nueva B.C. in Arequipa, but it is also the sentiment of the pastor Vargas, and many church members. This past week I was able to mentor them in the last module of our missional process. Thirty of their leaders came together for 2 days to learn how to help every member of the church find their Kingdom assignment and live their lives missionally.

As a result of Global Focus’s impact in this church, their young people and adults have started local several missions project reaching people locally, they are participating in missions in other areas of Peru and South America, and now they are taking as church their first cross cultural missions trip to work with Peruvian workers that we helped to send to North Africa. Another first for Vida Nueva is that at the end of this year, they will launch their first family as cross cultural workers to Southeast Asia to reach mslms and do church planting. Now pastor Vargas is mentoring churches in other parts of Peru and Pastor Caruachin is mentoring churches in Bolivia this week and also and other parts of Peru. God is mobilizing His church in Latin America to help finish the task of reaching the nations.

Xochitl just returned from Cuba where she, our pastors wife, Susie Hawkins, and other ladies were able to teach at a conference for pastors wives. Xochitl was able to teach from the book of Ruth about a woman that put God in first place.

Pray for our daughter Nayeli, she is in Germany this week where at the International Prayer Counsel in Herrnhut, Germany. This is where the Moravian revival started centuries ago.

Jason Carlisle, who is the IMB Hispanic mobilizer has done a tremendous job at mobilizing Hispanic churches here in the U.S. to some difficult places. Every year he organizes Enlace Global in Richmond, VA and this year also in Houston, TX. I was able to be with them this year, and enjoy seeing all God is doing. I was also able to teach on how Latin American churches can adopt and reach other ethnic groups. The good thing was that my class was not just theoretical, but through the Global Focus missional process, I was able to show them how many Latin American churches are doing exactly that! During this meeting we were able to commission a new worker from an area Houston Hispanic church to work in Senegal.

A few weeks ago I went to Havana with pastor Jesus Guillen to help facilitate sending of a family from Cuba to Senegal to work with our Venezuelan team there. After 2 attempts to board the plane and being rejected by the Cuban authorities, the third time they were allowed to board the plane and they arrived this past Monday in Senegal. I was able to spend some time with them along with David, a trainer in the “Four Fields” church planting method on Skype teaching them biblical principals about church planting. Pray for them and the Venezuelan team that is serving their, they have already started several discipleship groups and house churches.

Last week I was able to preach for my good friend Steve Flockhart at New Season Church in Metro Atlanta. This is one of the first churches to partner with our ministry when we started. We had one young woman confess publicly her faith in Christ and many decisions to live missional.

This weekend I was in Morristown, TN at a Hispanic church; Iglesia Bautista de la Gran Comision (Great Commission Baptist) and take their leadership through the Global Focus seminar for 6 hours on Saturday, and then preach on Sunday were we had 3 come to faith in Christ, and dozens surrender their lives to missions.

This small Hispanic church is now sending their first cross cultural worker to the unreached!

This week my wife and I are in Mexico, and this weekend we will continue to mentor Getsemani Baptist Church of Puebla, with pastor missionary Bruce Bell (who is the founder of Miramonte Baptist in San Salvador 45 years ago).

So the question is, what does all of this say? How does it change our current perception of missions and of the church? Number 1; God is working, drawing men and woman to Himself in the mslm world. In some of the hardest places, most difficult circumstances, God is not limited by fear of danger, or political attitudes.

He is about His glory, and He is constantly inviting us to join in with what He is doing. Participating is not just our commandment, it is our extreme privilege.

Number 2: That God is using Christians from economically depressed areas to show us that He does not need our money, our large budgets, our well planned strategies; that all He really needs is our willingness to obey and participate in His mission around the world. That the mission field, is quickly becoming the mission force and He is raising up a new generations of workers to send out.