A Covenant to Mobilize the Local Church

It was a Monday in Lima, Peru, late February 2020 (Pre-COVID pandemic), when I received an email from our local team leader in Arkansas. He forwarded me an email from Martin Jauler, who was inquiring about the Center for Mission Mobilization efforts in Lima, Peru. We connected with them immediately and scheduled to meet with him and his wife, Jaqueline, in person the next week on March 4^th.

A large part of our week is comprised of meeting new people and allowing God to work through those interactions for His purposes. Martin and Jaqueline were one of the appointments we had that week. We did not know what to expect entering into this meeting. 

In our initial meeting with the Jauler’s we learned that in December 2018 Martin and Jaqueline were commissioned as missionaries by their sending church in Brazil to plant churches in the rural regions of Peru. In 2019, they moved to Peru from Brazil after graduating seminary; however, due to an unforeseen health emergency, they needed to move to the capital city of Lima to receive adequate healthcare. Late 2019 brought them into a season in which they were seeking the Lord for their next ministry assignment. They first heard of the Center for Mission Mobilization (CMM) from a conference that took place, December 2019, in small town Sumaré Brazil, which they followed virtually. The event challenged them to serve in the mobilization of their Peruvian local church and other churches in their region to the glorification of God among all peoples and nations. Before the meeting was over we shared our vision, plan, and potential opportunities for them with our team’s mobilization efforts. As we walked away from the meeting, the only thing on our mind was that it was too good to be true. 

I cannot explain, without acknowledging the Lord’s sovereignty and goodness, how He orchestrated the connection between our team and the Jauler’s. It’s often difficult to know where someone’s heart and priorities are after an initial meeting but we continue to be faithful by extending the invitation and leave space for God to work. I unexpectedly received a text from Martin that same evening after our meeting and he wrote that he had just gotten off the phone with the pastor of his sending church and received his pastors’ blessing to work with us full-time.  This was an answer to prayer for our small local team; which at the time only consisted of three. After numerous conversations with the Jauler’s, we realized how our team was an answer to prayer for them as well!

It’s often difficult to know where someone’s heart and priorities are after an initial meeting, but we continue to be faithful by extending the invitation and leave space for God to work.

Before we had the opportunity to introduce the Jauler’s to our team member, Sussi, the government of Peru placed the country under strict mandatory quarantine, effective March 15, 2020, to minimize the spread of COVID-19. After a week had passed under quarantine we decided to introduce the Jauler’s to Sussi virtually by video call. Our team met virtually with them for two weeks before training them on our core resource, Xplore. After the seven-day virtual training we invited them to participate in our regularly scheduled weekly meetings. A month later in April, after seeing their high level of commitment we decided to formalize the relationship and invited them into the onboarding process with the CMM as international workers and challenged them to begin support raising for their mobilization ministry with us.

The development of our small team has its challenges. The first challenge we sought to overcome is our language differences. Martin, being a native Peruvian and Spanish speaker, was blessed with the opportunity to study in Brazil, thus, has learned to speak Portuguese. Jaqueline, as a Brazilian native, is a native Portuguese speaker, but her marriage with Martin has helped her gain a high level of Spanish speaking proficiency. Both of them have a desire to learn English and currently understand a good amount of the language. With the language challenges, we still give thanks to the Lord for building a truly international team; which has been our desire from the beginning. As our communication with one another improves it continues to give us hope in God’s ordained plan for us to prevail in mobilizing the Peruvian church, despite the language differences. The second challenge has been to develop and train the Jauler’s in a time of quarantine and pandemic. We began this journey with the Jauler’s in March of 2020 and set off determined and Spirit-led to fulfill the ministry the Lord has put on our hearts to expose, establish, and equip them in the ministry of mobilization against the overwhelming odds.

Their hunger to learn and serve in the ministry of mobilization inspires us to run harder and faster.

Martin and Jaqueline continue to encourage our team during this season of pandemic and we give all the glory and thanks to God.  Their hunger to learn and serve in the ministry of mobilization inspires us to run harder and faster.  We finished training them in our Support Raising Solutions ministry and equipped them with tools to begin raising funds to support their ministry. In only three months, they reached 90% of their budget goal! Martin recently finished leading one of our discovery bible studies which ended with 19 participants, representing nine different churches. They are also in the middle of leading two Xplore study groups, one in Portuguese and the other in Spanish, to expose their church and ministry partners to God’s mission. The potential to reach many more Evangelical church leaders and faithful Christ-followers has been increased exponentially with the addition of the Jauler’s to our small team in Lima.  We praise Jesus for His provision of Martin and Jaqueline and as a result, we have greater trust that He will continue to provide exactly what we need, when we need it, according to His purposes.

We would love to invite you to pray for Martin and Jaqueline as they continue to grow in their knowledge and experience in the mobilization of Latinos to missions to unreached people groups. Also, pray for more people like Martin and Jaqueline to lock arms with our team in Lima as we advance our efforts to see more faithful followers from the Peruvian church commit to taking the name of Christ to the nations so one day we will see the prophecy of Habakkuk fulfilled.

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” -Habakkuk 2:14

Lima, Peru

• Total population: 10,000,000
• Evangelical Christians: 3,500,000
• Current missionaries: 0.01%
• Mission potential: If missionaries increased to 0.1% of the evangelical church, that would mean at least an additional 3,500 missionaries
• Peru is culturally closer to the Arab world than 9 other Latino countries!

Together we are mobilizing Peruvians to:

• Discover God’s heart for the nations
• Develop their role in God’s global mission
• Deploy their gifts in accomplishing God’s mission

Discover

LARGE GROUP TRAINING // MOBILIZING PERUVIANS TO MISSIONS

Xplore Study Group
Lima, Peru

One of the ways we serve the church in Peru is by our involvement through training in large group settings.  We use various biblical tools and resources that emphasize God’s invitation to all of His followers to work towards His glory among all nations.  Larger numbers of Latinos participating in missions is our dream.  As we delight in the Lord and seek to serve Him daily, we are affirmed that He will give us the desires of our heart, which is to see Him produce a massive mission movement from the Global South, never before seen in history!

Courses, like the Xplore study we hosted last year, help us discover 1) God’s heart for the nations, 2) who the nations are, and 3) how we can be a part of His plan to reach the nations.  Judit and her son participated in this study.  Every gathering she would tell us how the Lord was speaking to her regarding His call on her to missions.  She was excited to discover the possibility for her to serve amongst the people with little to no access to the Gospel message and shared the same enthusiasm with her son, Diego.  After completing the course, we continued to dialogue with Judit and she has agreed to lead the next Xplore study for our church!  Like many of us, Judit is now on the pathway to discovering her role in God’s mission to make His name known across the globe, with the next step of mobilizing people in her own community!

Develop

SMALL GROUPS AND ONE-ON-ONE DISCIPLING // DEVELOPING PERUVIANS

Peruvian students are learning how to point people who know Jesus to entire peoples who don’t.

We’ve introduced you to our friend Eder in previous newsletters.  The photo above shows him leading a small group of students through a study of our resource, Go Mobilize.  Eder was trained to disciple others, using this resource, by our partner ministry, MOVIDA.  He is the perfect example of a local Peruvian mobilizer, who dreams of going to serve amongst the unreached people of the world.  Until the Lord opens that door for him, he is strategically using this season of preparation to inspire others towards the same mission. We meet with Eder weekly to help him reach some of his goals of preparing to serve amongst the nations.  Eder is using the biblical tools and resources to point other followers of Christ towards those who don’t know Jesus!

We are committed to developing Eder and others who are accepting the call to “Go and make disciples of all nations…”. One of our goals in seeing a missionary movement towards the nations is to see local, indigenous, mobilizers who are multiplying themselves in order to create a sustainable wave of mission sending so that one day…

“…the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” – Habakkuk 2:14

Deploy

 PERUVIANS SAYING “YES” TO JESUS // PARTNERSHIPS WITH SENDING AGENCIES

Could South Africa be the country where the Lord wants me to go?

We have also introduced you to Moraima in a previous newsletter.  During the Perspectives course of 2019, she continued her discovery for her purpose in God’s will.  Before the course even started, she was invited by friends to vacation in South Africa.  Through the tenure of the course, the Lord was revealing to Moraima that He had a higher purpose for her trip to Africa!

As Moraima was preparing for her trip to South Africa, she was also given the opportunity to visit a mission agency in Morocco, which is a country the Lord has put on her heart many years ago.  Her vacation to the continent of Africa turned into a mission’s vision trip.  She learned of opportunities to teach Spanish and serve the church in both countries and was affirmed of her call to missions.

On her return to Peru, she has committed to prepare for her mission by; learning to coordinate, teach, and be a mentor for Perspectives courses, learning the methodology of Spanish teaching, learn English, and take cross-cultural and classes to learn more about Islam.

Moraima’s deployment to the nations is a testament to the effectiveness of the mobilization process as we seek to serve others to Discover God’s heart for the nations, Develop their role in God’s global mission, and Deploy their gifts in accomplishing God’s mission!

None of this is possible without our ministry partners, and we love each and every one of you. We are honored that we get to participate in the Great Commission together!

Con cariño!

Familia Martinez

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.

This painting is a common painting we see as we walk through the markets here in Peru.  It is a reminder to us of Mathew 9:35-38.

The Harvest Is Plentiful, the Laborers Few

³⁵ And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

The mountains in the background are also a reminder to us of the impossible task we have been called to, which is to have the good news of Christ redemption proclaimed amongst all nations, tongues, tribes and people groups.  This is an impossible task for us; however, it is not impossible for God!

We have so much to share yet, I wanted this message to be brief.  More 4th quarter updates to come in January.

As we wrap up this decade, we look back and see how God’s love, mercy, and goodness have overflowed in our lives.  There have been, and will continue to be, many hardships and times of mourning but God’s presence and faithfulness prevail.

Many of you have been a testament to God’s abundant blessings on our lives and the lives we encounter through your prayers and your financial resources.

We want to ask you to consider a partnership with us and God’s greater mission of this Great Commission task to mobilize the Latin American Church towards missions to nations with little or no access to the Gospel message.  Our invitation is simple…

1. Pray earnestly with us to the Lord of the Harvest for laborers to be sent into the harvest fields
2. Ask the Lord if he desires you to partner with Familia Martinez in His Kingdom work
3. Click on the link below and give abundantly and cheerfully!

⁷ Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver

2 Corinthians 9:7

Your gift will go towards helping us become fully funded, vision driven and spiritually healthy.  The funds will be directly deposited in our ministry account to invest in various mobilization trainings, travel to facilitate trainings throughout Latin America, translation projects, resource printing, family retreat, and discipling, equipping and encouraging Latin American Church leaders to becoming full time mission mobilizers!

Most of you know that our Peruvian seasons are opposite of those in the U.S. But if by the slightest chance you didn’t know that, September 23rd  marked the first day of Spring.  With about 6 months, since April, of little to no sun, we are ready for sunshine and warmer temps.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.

¡Den gracias al Señor, porque él es bueno! Su fiel amor perdura para siempre.

Psalm 136:1 / Salmo 136:1

We give thanks to the Lord for family, including you all.  Thank you for reading our updates and your support as we continue down this journey of serving the Latin American church from Lima, Peru.  We desire to pray for you as a partner on this mission to love on the church in Latin America.  Let us know how we can pray for you.

2019 CMM Family Gathering

In July, we gathered with CMM staff for training and to hear how God has been working within our teams globally. Hosted in our new International HQ and Training Center in Arkansas, over 160 staff and families spent the week celebrating God’s work through our ministry, encouraging one another, equipping for the future, and praying for our teams and partners. We were excited to have a few of our international partners from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Russia and Pakistan join us as we work together to mobilize mission sending movements to the unreached.

A season of preparation

That the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:17

Jen and I have been working on our competency for our ministry through various trainings to include; Perspectives Coordinator Training, Kairos and Kairos Coordinator Training.  We continue our language learning, with 2 months remaining in our program.

In the next week, Jen will be traveling to Taiwan.  Jen will be observing our Weave Family Ministry, Big Story Training.  We dream of seeing the Big Story Training flourish in Latin America as a resource for families and children to learn about God’s heart for the nations and be a part of the Great Commission. Peru has 28% of the population under the age of 15, compared to 19% in the U.S.  A high population of youth is a common statistic for Latin American countries; thus, creating the demand for family and children ministries.

I, Manny, will be traveling back to the states during Jen’s trip to participate in the Support Raising Solutions Facilitator Training.  We desire to see Great Commission workers sent from Latin America who are; spiritually healthy, vision driven and fully funded.  There is not a resource or training like our support raising bootcamp and we desire to resource the Church of our Latino brethren with tools that will help see more laborers sent and thriving in their ministries across the globe.

While it seems like we are in training overdrive, an easy way for us to put our minds at rest is to have peace in knowing that it all comes from the one and only true and tested source, God’s Word!

Moraima’s story

Moraima is a sister in Christ we had the privilege of meeting in our most recently completed Perspectives program.  She registered for the class to learn more about her purpose in life, which is something she had been seeking since becoming a believer in 2008. The first day of class she quickly learned that she was going to walk away from the course with a much greater purpose; God’s purpose.  The first class started in God’s Word. From Genesis to Revelation she discovered how God’s promises develop through history.  Moraima was encouraged to learn that she was invited into God’s global purpose of redeeming all people from every nation to Himself.  Not only was she invited but was at peace in knowing that God was going to complete His purpose with or without us.

In 2014 Moraima studied two years of theology with a concentration in missions at the Andean Bible Seminary University in Lima.  It was at this time the Lord had put Africa on her heart.  Early this year, 2019, she traveled to South Africa and Morocco and the Lord presented Spanish teaching opportunities for her.  Since completing the Perspectives course in July 2019, she will be praying, preparing herself and exploring these opportunities to serve the Kingdom in Africa.  While she is in this period of preparing to go, she will be serving the Church in Peru as a mobilizer and coordinator for the next Perspectives course in Lima.

Family update

Our family continues to adjust to life in Peru.  Things are getting much easier for us as we continue to learn to live in a foreign environment.  Elijah continues to excel at the International Christian School in Lima, playing futbol and volleyball with his friends.  He just recently was selected to play the lead role, Aladdin, in the school’s musical, Aladdin, which will be in March 2020.  Alyssa was happy to help him with memorizing his script and getting him comfortable with his singing voice.  Alyssa finished her first semester with Liberty University Online and will be helping with a new mentor program at our church.  She recently turned 20 this past month!  Jenny and I have made tremendous progress in structuring our work day, working together and establishing healthy rhythms and routines in order to maintain a God honoring work/life balance.

Our last stateside visit was enjoyable visiting with family and friends; however, we continue to be reaffirmed to our call in Peru and Latin America.  Thank you for loving us well on this visit!

Praise

• Praise God for the 34 graduates from the Perspectives course and 22 graduates from the Coordinators Course to help lead the Perspectives movement in Peru
• Opportunities to increase our knowledge in various ministry resources
• Numerous relationships and partnerships established and being developed to further the Kingdom
• Opportunity to help our church, Centro de Fuego, establish a program to adopt unreached tribal communities in Peru!  More to come on this project…
• Elijah’s assimilation to his new environment
• Alyssa’s launch into university classes

Prayer Request

• Pray with us for the formation of a Perspectives national team.  While there has been some strong momentum, the Peruvian nationals will need to dig deep in order to establish a sustainable movement.
• Pray that our trainings and travel be worthy investments for the establishment of multiplying mobilizers and disciple makers in Peru and Latin America.
• We continue to seek prayers for deeper community for the purpose of showing others, through our love for each other, God’s glory.
• Pray for the enemy to be held at bay as we explore the opportunities for our church to adopt the unreached tribal communities
• Prayers for Elijah as he continues to develop as a leader amongst his peers and grows in his relationship with the Lord
• We continue to pray for Alyssa to find opportunities to build genuine local community, which has been challenging with the language barrier and online schooling.
• Thank you for praying for our marriage!  God is answering your prayers and bringing more joy back into our lives, but we ask that you continue to pray for us to have a stronger marriage that is reflective of Christ and the Church.

This past Holy week or Semana Santa is widely celebrated in Latin America, 2nd to Christmas.  Its historical roots began as a Catholic tradition brought to Latin America in the 16th century.  Peru gives the students the entire week off from school and many business and government agencies take the Thursday and Friday off in honor of the resurrection of our King.  The reason familia Martinez commemorates this week, leading up to Easter, is our entire reason for being.  This week is a prime opportunity to engage others with the Good News!

The production in the picture above is put on by a local church in Lima, Alliance Church of Los Olivos, and draws over 10,000 spectators over the Easter weekend.  The message of Christ life, death and resurrection for our salvation is alive and strong in Lima!  Let’s get MOBILIZED!!

Mobilization efforts

CIMA 2019 – Chiclayo, Perú

Go Mobilize!  In our previous newsletter we mentioned that our team got the privilege to participate and serve a partner ministry, MOVIDA, at their annual conference, CIMA, in Peru.  This conference is all about mobilization.  The target audience is young adults between the ages of 15 and 30, next generation mobilizers.  We did everything from moving furniture, instructor care, leading small groups and led training workshops. Our CMM resource, Go Mobilize, was used as the daily resource that was exposed to the hundreds of attendees.  The photos above are a brief glimpse at our time in Chiclayo.

Your faithfulness and commitment to our ministry, by way of financial support, enabled us to sponsor two attendees, Alison and Midori, to participate in the week long experience part of the conference.  This part of the conference presented an opportunity for them to put into practice what they had learned the previous week by serving and sharing the Gospel with children in villages throughout Peru.  It has been a joy and blessing to see and hear how the Lord continues to use Alison and Midori for His Kingdom purposes.

Xplore study group

Over the past couple of months we have been discovering Gods Word, Gods World and Gods Work with our local church, Centro de Fuego.  Jen and I have been blessed with tremendous favor to lead and facilitate the Xplore study with over 20 of our brothers and sisters, including Pastor Dennis and his wife Charmian.  As we unpack each lesson, new insights are gained by all.

God’s word brought clarity to Judith’s questions, regarding her call to serve.  She understood that she no longer needed to be told by someone how or where to serve. God’s personal call for her was made clear in His word.  She has been using this study to help her son, Diego understand what God’s call is for us as followers and also what the need is globally.  I peeked over her shoulder and saw this illustration she had made for Diego.  It was a Post It with hundreds of little blue dots that represented unreached people with a couple red dots that represented the believers amongst that group.  Like us, she and Diego were astonished that there was such a shortage of people who are available to these groups to share the saving message of Christ.

The awareness this study is brining to our community in Lima is astounding and all the more affirmation for our call to Latin America.

Perspectivas Perú

Our CMM team in Lima has been praying for a group of Peruvian Nationals to be risen up to begin and lead a National Perspectives program in Peru.  The team the Lord assembled for this current training is comprised with about a dozen folks representing 7 different churches and various denominations, including ourselves.  This is victory considering all the barriers and challenges to strong denominationalism amongst the church in Latin America.  It brings us joy to see our brothers and sisters from various denominations working together towards one single global purpose of bringing glory to Jesus Christ amongst the nations!

The Lord brought us 79 students from 32 different churches! We are hosting this class in 5 different denominational churches in the city over 5 months.  To learn more about the class (in Spanish), just  visit  www.perspectivasperu.org.

Family update

The past few months have been an encouragement to us from our sending church in Austin, Texas, with visits from our Missions Pastor, Don Ellsworth and our Pastor of Latino Ministries, Uriel Novelo.  It’s a blessing to share our lives successes and challenges with our ministry supporters in person.

Alyssa is coming back to Lima!  She enjoyed her time away in Austin and getting some clarity on her next season of life.  She has decided to come back to Lima and immerse in the culture and language and take online college courses.  Now that she knows what to expect, this should make for a much better experience.

Elijah continues to grow in his relationships at his international school and church with a diverse group of students. He recently starred as the King in the high school musical “Once Upon a Mattress”, which is something he surprisingly enjoyed.

Jen and I are beyond humbled to have celebrated our 20 years of marriage this month.  Nobody knows Jen and I better than ourselves and can sincerely give all the glory to God for supernaturally allowing us to celebrate this anniversary. Every day, through prayer, we seek to love each other better out of the overflow from our love of the Lord.  The first picture is our recent trip to Belize to celebrate our 20 years and work towards greater connection.  The second picture is of Jen modeling our new home work center. Up until the past few months we pretty much worked wherever we could find a place to sit.  This area will help us to be much more organized and productive.

We are blessed to have found a loving church community in Centro de Fuego.  This past Christmas we were blessed to be a blessing to the 50 or so Venezuelan refugees who have started attending our church.  There were lots of tears and hugs as we gifted food baskets to our Venezuelan brothers and sisters.  We continue to host many events at our home.  Above  are pictures of the monthly youth gatherings at our home and the recently kicked off monthly mens gathering.

Praise!

We are grateful for Jesus and his gift of eternal life through his life, death, burial and resurrection for our salvation over the certain death we deserve.

We praise the Lord for 18 months of life in Lima.

We praise God for taking us through the many trials we have undergone over the previous 18 months in order that we may experience growth in Him.

We are worshiping the Lord for providing us the opportunities to serve Him within the Peruvian church.

We praise God for you; our financial ministry partners and prayer warriors who have enabled us to be here and continue the work he began in us so that we can bless those around us.

We praise God for the Peruvian Church and the rising up of faithful leaders to proclaim the truth of the Word and advance the Gospel message amongst the nations.

Prayer request

Please pray with us for Alison and Midori, as we continue to dialogue with them with the hopes of seeing two future Peruvian disciple making mobilizers.

Pray that we finish our Xplore study strong and can continue walking alongside those who desire to take the next practical steps in mobilizing the Peruvian Church and in the Lord’s Great Commission call to make disciples of all nations.

Pray for leaders to be risen up from CIMA, Xplore and Perspectivas to lead the next generation Latin American Church mobilizers and missionaries.

Prayers requested for the leaders and the teachings and the body at Centro de Fuego and other churches in Peru and Latin America to proclaim the truth of the Gospel and for that truth to penetrate our hearts towards action.

Pray for Jen and I to continue to have minds and hearts that are open to continue learning our new language and to be able to communicate at a much deeper level to our brother and sisters in Latin America.  (Missionary friends of ours in Uruguay shared this quote from Nelson Mandela)

“IF YOU TALK TO A MAN IN A LANGUAGE HE UNDERSTANDS, THAT GOES TO HIS HEAD. IF YOU TALK TO HIM IN HIS LANGUAGE, THAT GOES TO HIS HEART.”

Pray for a new season of adjustment for familia Martinez with Alyssa’s return to Lima.

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

This past week we celebrate and thank the Lord for sustaining us a year on assignment.  The open arms of Christ, pictured above, is Him welcoming us.  Jesus welcomed familia Martinez in many ways this season of our lives.  1) He has welcomed us into his family and adopted us as His children with the promise of the riches of His glorious inheritance. 2) He is also welcoming us to His peace as we get tossed about the uncertainties, trials, challenges and stress of this world.  I don’t know how we would’ve humanly taken on this much change without His love, grace, peace, mercy and willingness to give us rest. 3) He also continues to welcome us to His great commission.  We are all commissioned to make disciples of all nations and to be His witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.  We not only get to be a part of His work but He promises that He will always be with us to the very end of the age! 4) Lastly, He continues to welcome us to Latin America!  We are called and reaffirmed on the journey the Lord has for us, as we pursue serving alongside Latinos committed to making Christ name known throughout the earth.

While this ride has been a roller coaster of extreme heights and abyssal lows and constantly challenges us to grow in our faith, we walk forward wearing the boots of peace with the confidence that His will for us is good, acceptable and perfect.

A very common occurance for us is cramming our entire team into an elevator.  We can do this for now, but as our team grows, we will need to consider taking two.  This evening we celebrated our 1 year anniversery with a dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse, ice cream and a movie at the Flynns.

A brief synopsis of year 1

Our first eight months in Lima we spent our time assimilating and getting familiar with our new settings to include; country, culture, language, community, ministry roles, church, family dynamic, online school, etc.  Jen and I were hoping to get to spend another year with Alyssa after her high school graduation but her desire was to return to Austin.  After our eight months abroad we traveled to Lynchburg, Virginia for Alyssa’s graduation with other Liberty University Online Academy seniors.  We celebrated her high school graduation by spending a few days in Washington DC and NY.  From NY we sent Alyssa and Elijah ahead of us to Austin, while Jen and I proceeded onward to Southeast Asia for field staff training with the CMM.

Field Staff Training in SE Asia

The training took place over the course of two weeks, at the end of May through mid-June.  It was an invaluable learning experience for the work of mobilization and meeting our new co-laborers who will be assigned on location throughout the globe.

There were three major goals for the training:
1) We would all fall deeper in love with Jesus
2) We would be better equipped and prepared to do this work of mobilization
3) We would grow in unity as co-laborers but more importantly as the body of Christ

These goals were accomplished as we heard from senior staff and leadership from all over the world on how to steward the vision God has given us for frontier mobilization.  We participated in over a dozen training modules, ranging from “How to Spark a Movement” to “Measuring & Reporting” to “Planning your Work Week.” We also spent time worshiping & praying together and participated in culture-learning exercises like prayerful observation and interviewing locals.

The two studies we spent much time going through, Xplore and Go Mobilize ,are pictured below:

Southeast Asia in photos:

                      Photo descriptions from top left, clockwise; 1) Manny sharing one of the many tools to explain the strategy behind frontier mobilization 2) Jenny and Megan learning the culture 3) Sharing a street food meal with future Lima field team members 4) Dinner with the gang

This short trip and training challenged our core.  Spiritual warfare coupled with our heightened levels of stress surfaced fears and anxieties we had not felt this strong in years.  Our field training was over and it was time for us to travel to Austin, Texas.

A Texas tornado within

Our goal in returning to Texas was to raise the financial support needed to enroll Elijah in the International Christian School of Lima.  Praise Jesus, He provided within two weeks of arrival in Austin!  We were encouraged by the hearts of the many committed senders within our faith community in Austin.

Our visit in Austin was packed with much-needed support, encouragement and wise counsel.  We honestly had no idea of the heightened levels of stress we were operating in and it took some of our closest colleagues to identify areas we needed refinement in. We are eternally grateful for those who took the time to pour into us so that we could relaunch to Lima in a much healthier spiritual, mental and emotional state.

A fitting study for Jen and I during this time has been Priscilla Shirer’s, The Armor of God.  While this study is designed for women, I really enjoyed it and would encourage anybody to work through this.

While the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, Jesus came so that we may have life and have it abundantly!  That’s His promise and I’m sticking to it.

Lima 2.0

We returned to Lima encouraged and just in time to get Elijah off to school and Jen and I back into language school.  While we hit the ground running, Jen and I returned with some clear objectives; 1) Deepen our relationship with our Lord, 2) Strengthen and deepen our relationship with one another, 3) Find a church home and community of believers to do life with 4) Collaborate with our team to develop and make clear our vision and goals for the mobilization work we will be doing from Lima.  Many of these objectives are ongoing; however, we are hopeful and already seeing the fruit from our prayers and your prayers

We have committed to a small church called Centro de Fuego, Center of Fire.  We have had the opportunity to get to know the pastor and his wife and immediately felt welcomed by them.  We continue to learn how we can serve the local church considering our minimal proficiency in the Spanish language while serving as a catalyst to mobilization beyond the borders of Peru.

Our Spanish is improving rapidly and we are feeling much more confident and comfortable going about the city doing everyday tasks.  This week we complete our basic conversational level courses and promote into intermediate which covers grammatical structures of greater complexity and a broader vocabulary.

In our world of mobilization we praise Jesus for the work He is doing through our leaders, Dave and Liz. We are also grateful to serve alongside our newest teammate from Arkansas, since May 2018, Sussi Servant.  A true servant!  We continue to encourage and support our local teammate, Yussei, as she raises support in order for her to become the first local Peruvian to serve with the CMM in Lima.

With the Flynn’s help, we have completed the first ever Support Raising Solutions boot camp in Spanish in Edinburgh, Texas.  This is super exciting considering the counterculture pressure in Latin America to raising support for Kingdom work.  Latin America has a different history when it comes to their religious, spiritual backgrounds and do not share in the same ideals as we do in the United States.  This is neither good or bad, it’s just different.  Our role will not only be to mobilize goers but also to mobilize senders.  We strive to communicate how the Lords provision is abundant and sufficient and how He calls us to be a blessing as He blesses us.  The Spanish Support Raising Solutions materials and future boot camps will help us communicate this message.

On October 31st, I will be traveling to Mexico City for a mobilization summit, where I will meet and network with other mobilizers from Mexico.  This will be a tremendous opportunity to partner with other Latino’s who are participating in the great commission by mobilizing to the unreached people of the earth.  I am humbled that the Lord would allow me to be a part of this.

Familia Martinez Homefront

Jen and I continue persevering through language school with high expectations.  We also are being intentional with meeting new folks and continuing with relationships we started when we first moved here.  We are starting to feel much more settled in with a greater capacity to spend time with others.

Elijah is fully immersed in his international school and is already one of the top ten most popular kids in his class of ten!  He is enjoying the new challenge but mostly enjoying the social interaction he gets to have with kids his own age from all over the globe.  He misses his soccer for now, but gets his fix every now and then with kids from his school.

Oh, how we miss our Alyssa!  Alyssa continues to reintegrate at home in Austin, Texas.  She has found a job, gotten a vehicle and license all within a month of returning home this past summer.  She has decided to take the semester off from school to get settled in and is in the process of exploring her school options.  We are grateful for our brother and sister, Jose and Sherrie for housing our baby girl.

Photo descriptions from top left, clockwise; 1) Alyssa’s high school graduation in the rain in Lynchburg, VA 2) Alyssa and Elijah visiting with cousins Zach and Josh in Austin 3) Welcoming our dear friends baby Dean into this world 4) Our new way to communicate with Alyssa 5) Alyssa pondering life in NY 6) Mom and Alyssa taking in our nations capital

Praise

• Safety in travels around the globe
• Invaluable field staff training in SE Asia
• Funds provided for Elijah’s schooling
• Alyssa getting settled in to her new life in Austin
• New outlook and level of readiness for our ministry in Lima
• Improvement in language learning and cultural assimilation
• Visa applications have been submitted
• New home church with opportunities for mobilization
• First ever Spanish Support Raising Solutions boot camp and future Spanish boot camps on the horizon
• Momentum in mobilization from Latin America and greater depth in partnerships with local ministries and churches

Prayer request

• Greater depth in our relationship with the Lord
• Strong marriage that shines bright as an example of Christ and the Church
• Approval of our Visa applications so that we have a long term working solution to ministry in Lima
• Meaningful and deep relationships with fellow believers as we seek to multiply as disciple makers and mobilizers
• Boldness to share the truth of Christ to those who have left the Church or believe in false gods
• Continued momentum in support raising and pre-field training with our prospective teammates in Lima, Costa Rica and U.S.
• Abundance of opportunities to serve alongside our ministry partners in Latin America to create a mission movement, never before seen, from this part of the world to people who have little to no access to the Gospel.  We are so ready!

¡Hasta ahora! Ir en paz.

Familia Martinez

The above was prepared by a collaboration between our creative team in Arkansas and the CMM Mobilization Index project team. It is a graphical representation of the sending potential Latin America has to mobilize towards unreached nations.

I can’t begin to tell you how blessed we are to join the Flynn’s in Lima.  By God’s grace and in partnership with others, they continue to pave the path and create momentum for and even greater mission’s movement out of Latin America to the unreached people of the world.

COMIBAM

Expanding in Lima!

Not only did the Martinez family increase the size of the Latin America team from 2 to 6 in September, we also added to our team the first Associate Staff Member from Peru.  Yussei Pacheco is a Peruvian gal with years of experience in planning and coordinating mission events in Peru.  She recently took Perspectivas in Arequipa and finished with the highest grade in the class.  She went on to take Coordinator Training in Argentina as well.  She has already been a blessing to our team in helping with translation work, and we envision her contributing significantly in the months and years to come.  

 Sussi Servant will also be launching to Peru and joining our team this Spring, 2018.  Sussi has many years of experience with the U.S. Center for World Mission, now Frontier Ventures, and the Center for Mission Mobilization.  She has transitioned from her role on our finance team in Arkansas to full time support raising.  As of her most recent report, she is 72% towards being fully funded.  Sussi will make 8 for our team in Latin America!

GMC 2017

There were over twenty mobilizers representing Latin America from 8 countries and 3 continents at the GMC!  I was super pumped to see this kind of representation.  God willing, our next GMC in 2019 will be in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  This gathering will continue to build on the momentum in mission sending from Latin America.

We credit all of the above to Jesus Christ and his sacrifice to see every tribe, language, people and nation worshipping at His throne! See Revelation 5:9 & 7:9.  I am grateful and humbled to play my part and grateful for the role you play in the Great Commission.

Prayer request

• This coming year will be a building year for our team in Lima.  Please continue to pray for our Spanish learning to progress and strong team unity amongst those presently on the Latin America team and those the Lord will be adding
• Collaboration and cooperation between mission groups and networks in Latin America
• Please pray for Yussei and Sussi, as they face the challenge of raising support ahead of them
• Pray for the hearts of Latino’s to be softened to the call of the Great Commission.  To play their role in making disciples of all nations
• We have the desire to see more laborers and mobilizers in Latin America.  Please pray for the Lord to bring the right people to Lima to fan the flames and ignite an awesome missions movement from Peru and Latin America
• Pray for the local church and leadership in Lima and for their doors to be open towards missions to unreached people groups

Day 60 of our life in Lima was not only our 60 day mark, but a celebration for the entire country of Peru!  Their late night win over New Zealand earned them a spot in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.  This will be their first appearance in 36 years.  While living in Peru, we have had the opportunity to watch four World Cup qualifying games.  Now we will get to watch the Peruano’s (Peruvian’s) compete in the Cup!  I knew soccer was a popular sport internationally; however, I now have a greater appreciation for futbol and the way I’ve seen it unite an entire country.  Walking through this city of 10 million people on a game day is like walking through a sea of red and white.  The energy and anticipation of the crowds on game day is thick in the air.  To say the least, our 60th day in Lima was pretty exciting.

The 60 days since our departure from Austin has gone by fast and our focus from day one has been the acquisition of the Spanish language.  We quickly have learned how little we know of the language and how much work we have ahead of us.  We have been using many of the methods and techniques we were taught at our pre-field missionary training and continue to do so.  Learning a second language is not for the faint of heart.  I’ve had to learn to pace myself and get plenty of rest and exercise.

The Lord has certainly worked on my patience and I am much better for it.  Taking care of the simple things, such as; renting an apartment, purchasing a vehicle, getting cell phone and internet service, grocery shopping, filling up with gas, washing dishes, getting a hair cut, etc.  I can go on, but when you add language and communication barriers coupled with slight cultural differences…WOW!  All this has caused our heads to spin.  While this has caused us some stress, discouragement and frustration, we know who is ultimately in control of all things.  We are counting our blessings daily and learning to appreciate the small things.  God has been so good to us, we don’t deserve it but we thank him for everything.

The Psalm’s constantly remind me to praise Him always and through all circumstances.

“I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.” Psalm 63:4.

Thank you Jesus, for hands to lift and give you praise!!

Thirty days in, we were blessed to be introduced to Toño, who has been a tremendous help to our family.  He offered to help us with our language learning projects.  In addition to spending a few hours a day with us on language help, he committed countless hours to serve us by vehicle shopping with us, lined up a mechanic to inspect and get the vehicle in great shape, helped us to prepare all the documentation (Peruano’s love their documentation) needed to be legit.  We are still working on that window tint permit.  Don’t ask…  He also helped us navigate the medical care system after a persistent cough lingered on for Alyssa (she is doing much better now!).  He introduced us to the local premier futbol club, Cantolao, for Elijah.  Elijah is enjoying his newfound friends and competition.  Some of the kids call him Austin and ask if there are lot’s of cowboy’s in Texas.  Duh!! Of course there are.  Toño has introduced us to many people at his home church, Camino de Vida.  We continue to pray for deeper lasting relationships at a local church.

That is the summary of what our life has been like in Lima.  We sincerely welcome prayers going forward.  Here are a few bulleted items of praise and prayer request.

Praise Jesus!

• We’ve found a beautiful apartment in a great location.  This next year in our new home will help us get assimilated to the community with access to all things essential.  So far our landing has been as soft as could be.
• Trustworthy and reliable vehicle.  Also a mechanic who speaks some English and has a desire to learn.
• Beautiful views and serenity of the Pacific and sounds of crashing waves on our morning walks and runs.
• The fascinating relationship between the food and culture and most delicious local cuisine in Lomo saltado, cebiche, Chifa…
• Sometimes a taste of home in Pizza Hut, Papa Johns and Dunkin Donuts.
• Futbol for Elijah
• New experiences!

Join us in prayer!

• Better communication amongst our family.  Please pray we can be open and patient with one another as we learn how to do life in Lima.
• Ask the Lord to lead us into long lasting relationships in a community that we can grow in our faith and ministry.
• Pray for the future of the CMM Latin American team.
  • We desire our focus to be solely for the purpose of glorifying Jesus and multiplying disciples and world Christians who have a deep desire to take the Gospel to people who don’t have access to the life saving message of Christ.
• Pray for our hearts and minds to be open to the path the Lord has before us.
  • Learning Spanish, loving the people and understanding the culture
• Pray that we have good conversations as a family regarding Alyssa’s future beyond graduation.  Pray the Lord gives her clarity of purpose and direction.
• Safe trip for Manny as he travels to Dubai at the end of the month for the 2017 Global Mobilization Consultation conference.
• Safety and peace for Jen, Alyssa and Elijah during Manny’s trip out of country.
• Safe trip for us as we travel to Bolivia mid-December on a hop to renew our Visa’s.  Also pray for an opportunity for us to make our Visa’s more lasting so we don’t have to travel out of country every 3 – 6 months.

Be on the look out for our quarterly newsletter, which will be forthcoming in the next 30 days.  God be with you and God speed!

The last 60 days has been extremely humbling yet joy filled as we continue to live out of suitcases and the trunk of our car.  We are overwhelmed with the Lord’s provision and generosity of our Church body in providing temporary housing for us through this transition.

The photo below is from the Center for Mission Mobilization Staff Conference at Shepherd of the Ozarks in Arkansas.  You can find Jen and I in the back row, top, left.  Alyssa and Elijah are scattered throughout the rest of the studly MK’s, Missionary Kids.  Look how massive the CMM team is!

We spent the last 45 days traveling from Austin to Arkansas to Colorado.  We spent the final week of July at Shepherd of the Ozarks for the CMM Staff Retreat.  This was an awesome time to meet and fellowship with our CMM Co-Laborers and hear reports of the work the Lord is doing through the CMM ministry throughout the world.  Below is a picture of the beautiful facilities at Shepherd of the Ozarks.

From the Ozark Mountains to the Rocky Mountains.  I can not think of a better place to spend our missionary training than the Rocky Mountains.  The Mission Training International Conference Center was in an ideal location to seek the Lord in His beautiful creation.

Elijah and I had the opportunity to climb our first 14’er, Mount Elbert.  The four of us took advantage of our downtime and spent quality time with our new missionary friends to check out the sights and sounds of Colorado Springs to include VIP guided tours of the Air Force Academy, US Olympic Training Facility and many of the surrounding hiking trails.  The photos below are a glimpse of how we spent our weekends and evenings.

Pictured clockwise from top left corner 1) Worship concert crew 2) Peru flag at Olympic Training Center 3) Summit of Mt. Elbert 4) Palmer Lake Reservoir Trail 5) The Incline 6) Mt. Herman 7) Air Force Academy 8) (Center Pic) Fellow missionaries serving in Latin America

One big takeaway for us from missionary training was the importance of the Sabbath Rest.  We know that if we want to be effective in our ministry we must be obedient to the Lord’s commandments, which includes keeping the Sabbath day Holy.  My natural tendency is to work hard, unceasing as if the world will fall apart if I stop working.  I have to remember that the Lord does not need me but invites me into His work.  Laboring for the Lord requires frequent rest and recharging. Hebrews 4: 1-3, also reaffirms the importance of rest.

A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God

4 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. ² For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.^[a] 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

Until our next post, go with God Speed and may God bless you!

Familia Martinez