One of the things that Lord has begun to lead us towards getting involved in is mobilization of missionaries. Nearly 70% of the global church lives in the global south which is Latin America, Non Muslim Africa, Middle East and East Asia. But where the majority of Christians live the minority of missionaries come from. Even though the majority of Christians live in the global south only about 25% of the missionaries in the world come from these parts of the world. So we have begun how we can begin to mobilize those here with whom we have influence and contact.
One of the things Ben was able to do recently along these lines is share with a group of pastors here in Magdalena about this very idea of mobilizing not just a few but all in our churches for the work of making disciples of all nations.
Please pray that we will have more opportunities to encourage the mobilization of Guatemalans for global missions!
We are grateful for our kids. I have recently been pondering this passage from Psalm 127 vs 3-4 "Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them." I am grateful for quiver full we have. We are trying to continually learn what it looks like to prepare them to be send out like an arrow to make an impact in this world for the Kingdom of God.
This past month we had a couple of celebrations with our kids. First it was Joel's 13th birthday. We always have a special weekend with our boys when they hit 13 to begin teaching them what it looks like to be a man and how to live in this world as a young man and all its challenges.
One thing we have focused on here in Guatemala since day one is discipleship. We are trying to help people know and follow Jesus. This happens through a process most of us call discipleship. This has been the main focus and work of Iglesia Nueva Vida. Our desire is not just to help people know Jesus but also teach them to help others to know and follow Jesus and multiply the effort.
This has been happening and working. We work in coordination with New Life Network and we have partnered to start 9 discipleship groups that are going through an 18 month discipleship process in which they not only learn the fundamentals of the faith but also how to reproduce themselves in others.
We recently had a retreat where we trained 20 more discipleship leaders. Please pray for these current and future disciplers. We planted some seeds that we know will bear much fruit in the future.
It is very exciting to think about these groups and leaders and future leaders of groups that in a year or two will be at least double and then continue to multiply from there. To God be the Glory!
At our church plant we are in a series on Nehemiah that we are calling, "Called to Renovate." Nehemiah renovated the walls around Jerusalem but we are all called and invited into the renovation process God does in and through us.
We have seen him do just this as over the last month we have seen 5 more people make public professions of faith through baptisms. Please celebrate with us and pray for Blanca, Hillary, Allison, Sergio and Guicho. Blanca is Hillary and Allison's Mother. God is changing whole families!
