Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Estén siempre alegres, oren sin cesar, den gracias a Dios en toda situación, porque esta es su voluntad para ustedes en Cristo Jesús.

1 Tesalonicenses 5:16-18

The many faces of Lima remind us of the everchanging seasons and circumstances in our lives.  Sometimes life is amazing and everything seems to be going beautifully just like this ocean photo but as quickly as a blink of an eye we could experience a complete change to a season of challenge and trials as in this photo of Lima’s concrete jungle amidst the dry desert.

With all the uncertainty in our day to day lives, we rejoice, pray, and give thanks to the one God who is, was, and will always be constant!

Feeling equipped and ready for action!

Our support raising training has prepared Great Commission laborers to do what God has called them to all across the globe!

This past couple of months Jen and I were blessed to attend various ministry training opportunities.  I, Manny, went to our headquarters in Arkansas to attend a Support Raising Solutions boot camp to learn how to facilitate support raising training in Latin America. Jen traveled to the other side of the world with our co-laborer, Sussi, to Taiwan to attend our family and children’s ministry, Weave, Big Story Training in order to get a better understanding of how we can bring that resource to Latin America. Click on the links to learn more about these Great Commission ministry resources that we dream of using to help mobilize the global church towards missions to the least and unreached populations.

This past December we completed our one and a half years of formal language training in Spanish.  We have come a long way but also recognize we will have to work harder and be more intentional towards developing an increased level of proficiency.  We enjoyed learning, not only Spanish but from the people in our classes that represented many different nations and cultures.

Global missions exist because worship doesn’t exists ~ Mobilization exist because missions don’t exist

Last month Jen and I attend the Global Mobilization Consultation near Sao Paulo, Brazil.  We participated with 335 mission mobilizers representing 47 countries which together represent the nations with the greatest mission sending potential worldwide. The focus of our time together included the following:

• Connecting with other mission mobilizers by region to establish regional mobilization networks
• Identifying common obstacles and overcoming challenges with other mobilizers from around the world
• Collaborating to accelerate the mobilization of the global church to reach the unreached
• Interacting with a wide range of useful mobilization tools and resources

Some of the key takeaways from our CMM Global Affiliates, Ramiro Martinez in Mexico and Victor Ibagon in Columbia are below:

Ramiro in the red shirt next to Elijah

If we want to be effective mobilizers, then we must first love the church. If we love the mission of God then we must love the church of God.

Often we can get hyperfocused on our work in ministry and forget to love, serve and participate in the local church. This was a great reminder of the importance to always evaluate the condition of our hearts towards our work in ministry and our relationship with Christ’s bride, the church.

Victor says that sometimes we get so wrapped up in our materials, resources, and programs that we forget to do the most fundamental thing, which is disciple people. With a continent (South America) of 160 million converted Christians, we lack disciple-makers. If we do not equip the local church as mobilizers, we will be mobilizing a world of people who will not complete the task.

Some other opportunities the Lord has presented us with include; sharing God’s heart for the nations with our local mobilizer in San Juan de Lurigancho, Raul Melo (photo above, top left on the left side) as well as serving our local home church, Iglesia Centro de Fuego, by facilitating a time of prayer for the 17 unreached tribal communities in Peru.

Through these opportunities, we dream of seeing God move in the hearts and minds of the church so that we can see more missionaries risen up from the Latino population and the gospel taken to those who haven’t heard it so we can see the worship of our God from every tribe and language and people and nation!

Familia update

Here are some photos of our lives during the past few months.  From top left clockwise.  1&2) We got to celebrate the graduation of some friends of ours; Jimmy and his wife Sofia and Eder from bible seminary with the Assemblies of God.  All three of them are working towards ministry in the mission field amongst unreached people in the middle east,  3) Alyssa finally was approved her residency in Peru and is officially classified as a missionary worker! 4) Alyssa and Elijah both serving at our youth group monthly lunch meetings at our apartment, 5) Elijah with his schools, winning soccer team!, 6) Lunch with our friends Eder from Peru and Taha from Turkey with the intent to learn from each other’s cultures and have open conversations about Jesus, 7) Elijah celebrating Christmas with his youth group of Iglesia Centro de Fuego, 8) Elijah just being his cool self, celebrating his 16th birthday on December 30th!

Praise

• We first want to praise God for sustaining us through a very challenging 2 years in Peru.  We have been stretched, pulled, pushed, and turned inside out, and upside down but as we look hindsight and read through the book of James we rejoice in those trials in order that our image can be transformed more closely to that of Jesus!
• We praise Jesus for our ministry partners like you.  Thank you for your prayers and continued financial support!  This work can not be done without you.
• We praise the Lord for the doors He’s opened for us in our church, Iglesia Centro de Fuego, to serve through mobilizing the body towards the people of the world who don’t have access to the gospel message.
• Praise Jesus for the hard work Alyssa put forth to complete her first semester of Liberty University Online on the Dean’s List!  We are super proud of her efforts.
• Praise Jesus for Elijah completing his first semester of sophomore year with all A’s & B’s.  We are blessed with awesome kids!

Prayer Request

• I can’t encourage you enough to continue to pray for our marriage.  The Lord is doing a supernatural work in our love for one another but we know that through His army of prayer warriors, like you, we will continue to grow closer to one another as we grow closer to Him and run hard towards his will for our lives.
• Pray for Alyssa and me, Manny, as we travel to Santiago, Chile in February to serve with our partners at the Movida, CIMA conference designed to mobilize 3,000 or more youth from across the globe!
• Also, pray for Jenny and Elijah as they hold down the fort for us in Lima during the 8 days we will be in Chile.
• Pray for our team and coworkers; Dave, Liz, and Sussi as we meet next week for our semi-annual strategic planning.  We deeply desire to be within the will of the Lord and use all of our resources wisely to see His name lifted up amongst the nations.
• Pray for our church, Iglesia Centro de Fuego, and our pastor, Dennis and his wife Charmian as we explore ideas and work towards weaving God’s heart for the nations within the DNA of the church body. We desire to be a body who prays, mobilizes, welcomes, sends and go’s to the unreached.