God Sightings in Latin America

Coaching Clinic 301 and Church Planting School

Nov. 17-21, 2009

Orosi Valley, Cartago, Costa Rica

Eph.3:20 God sightings – "above and beyond you can ask or think"
Sunday Nov. 22 5:00 a.m.

Thank you so much for your investment and prayers that are yielding wonderful fruit to God's glory. The training in Costa Rica Nov. 17-21 was used by the Lord in some ways beyond what we had expected. My heart was filled with gratitude as I wrote God-sightings at the river's edge at 5 a.m.


A beautiful place. I told José I thought the cabins were too crowded He said "You gringos need your space; we like it close. It's not a problem for us." He's right. Our goal was that it be simple, organic, and reproducible.

Praise God 32 of 34 came for at least part of the event. People from 10 countries: Mexico, Argentina, Honduras, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, USA, Costa Rica, Colombia, Nicaragua (Jim & Melanie Wilson).

When you look at the churches represented by the leaders present, there is the potential of impacting at least 250 churches through our coaches and planters.

20 Tico church planters and 10 Tico leaders (included in 32 coaches mentionned above).

Praise God for the evolution of the vision and work of training church planters, leaders and coaches. A desire was expressed to strengthen collaboration between leaders and national bodies and to grow the vision for Latin America.

Transition to a more mature partnership between RG and movements in Latin America. ReachGlobal did 90% of the work in Coaching Clinics 1 & 2. Four organizations pulled together to pull this off:

1. GBIM (Grace Brethren) send the main speaker for the church planting school and Oscar Chavez is from the same background.
2. COMIBAN (Premier Missionary-Sending body in Latin America) sent Omar Gava as a speaker and consultant for the Coaching Clinic.
3. ReachGlobal did planning and several of us contributed to training.
4. INCRESE (Costa Rica EFC Training) put on the Church Planting School, handled on the ground logistics and paid for ½ of Church Planting School.

High caliber of main speakers: Omar Gava, Craig Ott and Walter Testa. Each had a significant contribution to make.

1. Reproduction and Innovation– We know that Venezuela, Brazil and Costa Rica have already used the basic Coaching Clinic. It was encouraging for me to hear some creative ideas like a plan for the mobilization of youth for church planting and missions in Brazil.
   
   
   

   These people have the opportunity to take the vision, concepts and training (reproducible) to 250 churches with a possible impact on 500 churches.
   
   
   
   All praise and glory be to the Lord!
   
   

(In front of the statue of Pope John Paul at wawel castle in Krakow)

(Evangelical Christians singing and witnessing a Krakow park. Look at the faces!)

(Birkenau Concentration Camp near Auschwitz)

Poland is unique in several ways.

1. In the suffering that it has seen. It has been partitioned three times with Germany and Austria occupying part of its territory and Russia another part. During WW II it was attacked by both German Nazis and Russia at the same time before the Nazi turned on the Russians. Three millions Poles died in WW II; as many as the Jews who were killed. Then at the end of the war the Communists under Stalin took control.
   
   
2. In its welcome to the Jews. Though they were oppressed at times, for the most part they were allowed to live in peace and develop their own communities from the early Middle Ages. Many settled during the inquisition in the 15^th Century. When Nazism arose the greatest concentration of Jews in Europe was found in Poland. Our tour guide at Auschwitz said that one reason they were not able to protect them was that they had not rebuilt their army from WW I. There were many other work camps in Poland Auschwitz was unique in that it was built ten years into the Nazi persecution of Jews as a "death camp" to bring about the final solution.
   


3. In the resilience of their Catholicism. We saw churches filled in Krakow. Some had seven services a day and more on weekends. Poland is unique in Europe in that 40% still go to mass. But attendance has declined by 6% since 2003. One of their theologians commented "Polish religiousness tends to be based on turning to God to escape distress. When that disappears, so may God." There is still a window of opportunity before secularism takes hold. Poland is following the path that other traditional Catholic peoples like Quebec and Ireland have followed. Yet the church is alive as we witnessed while walking downtown in a park. We pray that many will be reached before indifference sets in.
   

Church Planting in Europe

Our reason for going to Poland was to meet with church planters gathering from all over Greater Europe as far as Cappadocia, Turkey and Kiev, Ukraine. We had appointments for every meal and some during our breaks and free time. There was good participation in the church planter forums. We discussed "best practices" in several areas. The 3 issues/challenges that stand out in Europe are:

1) The difficulty of evangelism in secular, post-modern countries,

2) the challenge of finding local church planters to work with, and

3) the danger of missionaries slipping into a pastoral role and how to avoid that.

As we spoke with church planters we saw that the further west on worked in Europe (Portugal, Spain being the extreme) the harder the soil was for the gospel. Some central European countries, though the curiosity has eased, are still experiencing solid church growth. We spoke with several teams working with Muslim Ministry background people. God is doing a work among Iranians in Europe. Friends who have been sowing among the Turks in Germany for almost three decades are seeing more fruit among Iranians in the last few years. There is an encouraging work in Berlin that is raising up new workers and resulting in multiple church plants. We talked about how to sustain the momentum and keep it from becoming resource dependent.

I believe God wants us to invest in Europe in spite of the challenges. Why?

The invitations of the planters themselves. We had several invite us to spend time with them, especially teams beginning their ministry and teams transitioning to a partnership with local workers now that a foundation has been laid.

Then one day Linda spoke with me about a sense that we should visit church planters on site right after I had had the same thought. Could this be the leading of the Holy Spirit? Later I met with our Mission's associate executive director and he encouraged us to explore this further.

"No church planter left alone" is one of our mottos. Although we have several experienced church planters who could coach others locally, none of them are ready to take on the role of Point Person for all of Europe at this point. Until God raises up that person it seems that direct coaching is a valuable and needed investment.

Yet the needs are great and resources limited. Where should we go Cappadocia Turkey, Berlin, Lisbon, Birmingham England, and Toulouse, France? We would love to help workers in all these places we need God's word about this. In March 2010 there will be a Church Planter Training Institute in Amsterdam with national planters from all over Europe. Gene has been asked to participate. We did our church planting internship in Paris. We understand the challenges first hand. Who would have thought that God would call us to come alongside so many church planters in Europe twenty-five years later?

To those of you who know Europe much better than I do, I invite your comments and counsel.

picture 1: Carlos, Gene, Guillermo, Giovanni, Mike and Jhollman

Picture 2: Giovanni the national leader prays for Guillermo

picture 3: church plant that had 7 people 3 years ago when Guillermo arrivedpicture

Hot in Colombia! It was 104 degrees in Cartagena so we struggled with the heat but at least had a simple room with AC to sleep. No toilet seats but who cares when you have AC and can get a good night’s sleep! J The people were as warm and hospitable as the weather. One highlight was traveling by bus for the first time to Sincelejo on a road which had been controlled by the FARC guerrillas for years. There we (four Colombian national leaders, Mike Gunderson and I) encouraged the saints and ordained their church planter Guillermo.

Church Planting Advance in Colombia

The first time I tried to go to Colombia, Linda didn't want me to go. Crime and kidnappings were at an all time high. We checked with someone in the country and they said the day we planned to arrive was election day and trouble was expected. We postponed.

A few months later we went and we were restricted to the major cities. The only way to drive from Bogota to Cartagena was in a caravan with military escorts. We went to the cities.
This time (July 09) for the first time we could travel freely outisde the cities. One church plant in Sincelejo had not been visited in years. The plan was to visit, encourage the brothers and sisters and ordain the church planter. Three other goals had been set:

1. Help them with church planting plans and strategies using lay church planting teams
   
2. Encourage and advise all the workers
   
3. Introduce Mike my replacement as church planting coach for Latin America
   

It was so encouraging to find out that our Colombian friends didn’t wait for us to make their CPing plans. They chose three new sites in Monteria, Bogota and Baranquilla and had already discussed who would be interested in planting the churches. Most of the pastors would love to leave their pastoral ministry to evangelize and start a new church. One pastor has already made an exploratory trip to one of the new sites on his own. The real challenge we discussed was raising up new workers and pastors in the churches to replace the pastors who want to go out. Our colleague Omar Rodriguez will be going in a few weeks to launch a new Church Based Training ministry that comes from Spain. We see so clearly how Missions and Leadership Development must go hand in hand. Please pray for Omar’s ministry and the facilitators he will be training from each region.

In Bogota

The last 2 ½ days were much cooler - about 65-70 during the day and cold at night. Bogota is a mile high and the people are more reserved and professional. There is less interest in church planting but the pastors we met want to plant a church together. Two of them feel God’s call to be missionaries one day. It is so encouraging to see how God is tugging at the hearts of Latin Americans to reach Post-Christian Europeans and Muslims. Anoth highlight personally was spending the entire week (including flights) with Mike Gunderson who is replacing me as Latin America Church Planting Coach. He is a joy to work with and an able equipper and coach with 20 years of experience in Brazil. Please pray for Mike as he transitions to this role and builds on what God has already done to raise up church planting leaders and coaches.
Soon after I got home Orlando, one of the pastor who was away during our visit called me on skype. He asked about my new role. I assured him that roles change but friendships remain. Some relationships last for time and eternity. What a joy to work with these fine men.

Exponential New Church Conference: Church Planting Leaders moving toward multiplication

April 20-24 we had the wonderful privilege of bringing together 17 church planting leaders, both nationals and missionaries, for the Exponential New Church Conference in Orlando FL. We met as a team before and afterwards and went together to take in some amazing speakers. The theme was "The Art of Movements." Our discussions were primarily about raising up and training church planters. It helped me a lot to get people together face-to-face as I build the new Global Church Planting Team.

George Klippenes, Church Planting Director for the EFCA, was so helpful generating prayer and finding scholarship money to bring the international leaders together. Good things are coming our of the interaction between USA church planters and those from other countries. The learning goes both ways. Ehab shared how God is bringing revival to some traditional churches in Egypt and sending our a wave of church planters from that country to others around. One of the biggest lessons is the variety of people God uses to multiply churches. Sometimes it is very grassroots and spontaneous; at other times it needs to be deliberate and strategically planned.
Between these two pictures you have all of our ReachGlobal team. What a joy it was to share with this rainbow coalition of battle tested leaders. They are working in:
Europe: Spain, Germany, Czech Republic
Asia: Indonesia, Myanmar, N. Thailand
Latin America: Brazil, Costa Rica
Africa: Ethiopia, Liberia, Congo
Middle East; Egypt
USA: Miami, CA and Chicago

Please pray for these men to advance Church Multiplication Training and to invest in many others through mentoring and coaching. Two of them from Africa launched the training in Togo in June and will be continuing in the Congo in July. The guys from Latin America will be working with me on training for leaders from 10 Latin American countries in November. Praise God for the reproduction He is bringing about and for the part I can play as a catalyst and coach.

India a land of contrasts - God is at work

The greater the darkness, the sweeter the light that pierces through. The greater the void of hope, the more precious the realization of what Jesus has done. Grace is absent in Eastern religion. Shiva saved the world from the devastation of the angry waters of the Ganges and the poison about to destroy humanity. But the requirements to gain his favor are endless and empty. What a contrast to worship on Palm Sunday and see the children singing Jesus’ praise and the men dancing to Indian tunes in praise of what God has done.

We saw the place Buddha taught his first 5 disciples and took a boat on the Ganges where people come for ceremonial cleansing and to die and be cremated on the river bank. They believe the water has spiritual properties that will give them a better existence n their next reincarnated state. How sad to see such strong but misplaced hope. I pray that I would be able to help them in some way with more training.

The pattern we heard in their testimonies is that in desperation they prayed to Jesus and God intervened by healing a child or delivering them from danger. The convert suffered abuse from his/her spouse and family but through perseverance and prayer won others and now whole families are following Jesus. Lay workers took us doing visitation and we met many who had come to Christ and prayed with them for their unsaved family members. In the past eleven years the first church plant has multiplied time and time again so that there are now 34 house fellowships. We taught some of the leaders… and learned so much from them. The pattern was repeated in Varanasi. There one church has become 18 in 8 short years. The workers who have other jobs and many struggles want to start more churches but asked if they should strengthen the existing ones first. We had a good discussion about that.

We flew into Kolkata (Calcutta) in the East. The names means Abode of Kali and at the main temple the priest told us 60 horses are sacrificed to Kali each day and many more goats. We saw people floating wooden statues of Shiva and Kali in the Bengal river as an offering to the Gods. At least, human sacrifices have ended. Every culture has its dark sides, its idolatry and its perversions. My impression is that India just has a more complex mix of false teaching and destructive beliefs. The congested flow of people was overwhelming at times. Personal space does not exist. The diversity and syncretism is mind boggling. Even with Sam’s explanations I sensed it would take the better part of a lifetime to wrap your mind ariunf India. Mark Twain wrote "In religion, all other countries are paupers... India is the only millionaire.” At least other struggle with this: "How can you sort out all these [Hindu] patterns-- family, regional, historical--and come to a simple understanding of the whole? The answer quite simply is: you cannot. No one can, or has, or perhaps ever will“ (Thomas Hopkins, The Hindu Religious Tradition, p. 2).

We were impressed with the leaders we met. In Kolkata many were from the Brahmin class. They were young, dedicated, missional, and had amazing testimonies. Suffering is part of their existence and their preparation. How can we help them without spoiling them or tempting them with western clerical models? Look what Buddha did with 5 disciples. Jesus sent out 11 apostles. God is doing great things. We visited some missionaries in New Delhi, a more modern city from the British Colonial period. From there it was a 15 hour flight covering 9 time zones to get home. It will take a while to adjust to the time changes.

Please pray that God will raise up national church planting coaches and trainers in India that will fan the flames and strengthen the multiplication so it carries into several more generations. Pray also for sustainable ways for them to support themselves or for partners to help support these regional leaders so they can develop, empower and release more workers for the harvest.

Back from Africa

Can you guess what Wanaume is Swahili for? ______ Hint: Next door there's Wanawake

This little girl doesn't care that Linda is having a bad hair day.

You guesed it. We just got back from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania February 26. The purpose of our trip was to meet church planters and explore ways to work with them. We served by translating in French during the teaching sessions and led a couple workshops. Listening is encouraging and we did a lot of listening and affirming. The teaching went well. That was dialogical and we all learned from each other in the areas of mentoring leaders and church multiplication. Gene and Dave Kiamu went over plans and curriculum design for church planter training in Africa.

The first morning we were awakened around 4:30 a.m. by the Islam call to prayer over the loudspeaker nearby. We plunged in and went on a Vision Trip to see some of the church planters and a school. We were struck by the abject poverty among other things, yet so encouraged by what God is doing through his servants. We stayed with two families that are working among Muslims and preparing lay church planters to reach a tribe called the Zamora. We can't share names or details. Most of the expatriates work sacrificially in tough conditions, especially those who try to reach nomadic tribes like the Fulani and Masai.

It was so good that Linda came! The African leaders also came with their wives and we were able to get to know them as couples. We spent some quality time with Dave Kiamu, the Africa church planting point person and his wife, Lucie. Gene spent hours translating literally 3 inches away from the ears of the French-speaking Congolese leaders, and had lots of side discussions while serving them in this way. One may lead to an open door to work with church planters there.

(Linda and her Congolese friends Claudine Selenga and Jeanette Bosokpale)

God is using the African leaders in amazing ways as well. The ones from Rwanda all lost family members in the recent genocides but are seeing God triumph in the midst of pain. Pastor Esron shared that he lost his mom and 2 siblings. He is leading a church planting movement. Their goal in 2004 was to go from 23 churches to 55 churches in a decade but they will surpass that goal as churches are multiplying faster than expected. The movement in the Congo has evangelized their region and are reaching the pygmy tribes and others on the other side of the Congo River by sending out missionaries. They plead for more training and partnerships to do more. They have formed their own mission organization called ReachAfrica. Gene will be working with two of those leaders.

They use Chronological Bible Narrative because the culture is oral, literacy is low, and stories are the best way to address worldview issues in their culture. That's how they learn. We learned about training and many other things. One of our greatest take-aways is CHE (Community Health Evangelism/ Education). It is a great way to combine compassion ministry with evangelism and lead to church planting. The community leaders "own" the projects. When the expatriate staff had to leave Congo because of the recent war, they didn't know what would happen to the CHE projects. Praise the Lord, they not only survived but their number doubled because they were "grass-roots" efforts. If you are interested in learning more listen to this cool video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYn7lVRtFpg

In the end we spent 3 days in the interior, on the plateau, and in Mikumi National Park. We saw amazing scenery and animals and praise God for His wonderful handiwork. It's totally different to see animals you normally see in a zoo. They are free, in their families, roaming and playing in their natural habitat. We slept in little African huts in the middle of the game park and heard animals during the night separated only by a wall of wood and mud bricks. We had elephants and Cape Buffalo within 100 yards, and could even hear them pulling the grass out of the ground. The last day we saw 8 lions in different settings. The last one was a male eating a fresh kill of Cape Buffalo!

We are filled with excitement in our spirits from all we learned and experienced, joy in our hearts from making so many new friends, burden in our souls from memories of faces weighed down with incredible needs and burdens. Gene's next trip is to Asia in a month but we have some immediate prayer requests.

Prayer Requests

For effective follow-up from this time in Africa. The list is long!

For discerning God's voice and understand His priorities as there is much to do.

Our kids are doing well but please continue to pray for their direction as they will be facing changes.

Please pray for Mario, a Colombian church planter to get a visa for Haiti this week. He is in the Dominican Republic trying to get in.

On March 21 Gene leaves for a 3-week trip to Mongolia, Thailand and India. Please hold him up.

Serving others to multiply kingdom communitites,

Gene

Passing the Baton and Building a New Team

What a journey 2008 has been! We began as church planters in Quebec and have been coaching church planters and training church planting coaches in Latin America since the year 2000.

Then this year we became grand-parents and love it! Annabelle Sophia was born to Jarrett and Michelle on Nov. 18 in Louisville, KY. They had the joy of spending 3 weeks with them. It's hard being a part now.

GOOD TRANSITIONS are good for everyone. We want to pass the baton well and raise up a new global church planting team. This meant finding replacements as church planting coaches in Latin America and raising up church planting coaches for each of our five divisions: Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and MENA (Middle East-North Africa).

GOOD NEWS - On January 19^th at our Latin America Conference in Costa Rica they literally passed a baton in front of all the missionaries to Mike and Linda Gunderson who have been church planters and leaders of the Brazil missionaries. This year Gene will be taking Mike to meet leaders in some of the countries where church planting is taking place and together they will be organizing a Latin American Church Planting Summit. We were encouraged by the fact that they want to follow our pattern of working as a couple in their visits and coaching. Mike and Linda are great!

BUILDING TEAM – David was "accompanied by valiant men whose hearts the Lord had touched. (1 Sam 10:26)" We asked God for leaders with a coaching profile and a passion for multiplying kingdom communities. Our international leaders recommended people and God has been putting the team together in incredible ways! First he spoke clearly to Mike and Linda from Brazil. In March Dave Kiamu, a Liberian who is already training church planters agreed to join the team. Two wonderfully gifted men serving in Europe and Asia who are considering this role.

LEARNING – Gene's mom asked: "What do you know about church planting in China?" He responded: "Very little. But hopefully I'll someone who does." We are keenly aware of our limitations and of the immensity of this challenge. We have begun going to each major region of the world to interview church planters, learn about their victories and struggles, and come alongside key leaders (both missionary and national). We started at the Church Planting Training Institute in Sopron Hungary in November. Right after Christmas we were in Bangkok, Thailand for the Asia Conference. Then we went on to the Latin America Conference Jan 14-21. From Feb 14 to 22 we will be at the Africa Conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Our desire is to serve and encourage as we learn. Gene gave workshops in Bangkok on Church Multiplication and Mentoring Leaders and will be doing the same in Tanzania. Linda uses her great relational abilities to build bridges and understand people.

NEXT STEPS – We have been invited to follow-up with church planters by sending a quarterly church planting newsletter to church planters globally, interact with them over strategy issues and help them coach others using skype (free phone over the internet). Gene was invited to return to Bangkok and make side trips to India, Mongolia and Japan in March. In April our new team will be gathering before and after a church planting convention that will take place in Orlando, FL. God is opening the way before us.

Change is never easy. Please pray for faith, wisdom and humility as we engage with new leaders, new cultures and new ministries.