Barbara Lynn Rivers (1954 - 2017)

De los 299 misioneros de la FMB/IMB que han servido en el Ecuador, pocos han logrado un mayor y duradero impacto como lo hizo BARBARA LYNN RIVERS (9 abril 1954 – 5 de febrero 2017).

Barbara llegó a Guayaquil, Ecuador como misionera en 1986 y retornó a los Estados Unidos en Febrero del 2010 por motivos de salud.  Antes de su llegada al Ecuador, Bárbara fue una misionera en Guatemala por dos años, y estudió español en Costa Rica.

Durante sus 24 años en Guayaquil, Barbara sirvió a su Señor en una variedad de roles: educación teológica, obra con la Unión Femenil Bautista (UFBME), SAS en Acción (obra misionera con señoritas), consejera de Teleamigo, ministerio a jóvenes delincuentes institucionalizados, ministerio a mujeres en prostitución, fundadora de la Fundación Dorcas y su obra con los ancianos, maestra en temas relacionados a la educación Cristiana, maestra de la Biblia, autora de material didáctico y de lecciones bíblicas, guerrera de oración, y capacitador de líderes en el movimiento de plantación de iglesias en las casas.    

Lo que siempre recordaré de Bárbara era su gran amor por el pueblo ecuatoriano. Su lenguaje de corazón era el Español.  En muchas ocasiones conversando con Bárbara, ¡ella no se daba cuenta que estaba hablando en español en vez del inglés!   Ella prefería leer y estudiar su Biblia en Español. La mayoría de sus amigas más cercanas eran ecuatorianas y consideraba a la familia de Humberto e Isabel Riofrío como su propia familia. Bárbara era una fanática de los deportes, especialmente todo lo relacionado con el programa deportivo de la Universidad de Texas dónde ella estudió. Su risa contagiosa era algo que le seguía dondequiera que iba.

En abril del 2011 Bárbara retornó a Guayaquil por última vez para despedirse de la gente quién tanto amaba. Si no fuera por la enfermedad que padecía que forzó su retorno a los EE.UU. creo que hubiera continuado viviendo y sirviendo a su Señor en el Ecuador hasta su muerte. Durante esta última visita, el Municipio de Guayaquil honró a Bárbara con una ceremonia especial por sus años de servicio social y sus contribuciones espirituales al pueblo ecuatoriano.  Si no me equivoco, Bárbara es solamente una de  dos personas cristianas evangélicas que hayan recibido dicha reconocimiento por las autoridades locales.

Para mi esposa y yo, Bárbara siempre será uno de esos misioneros excepcionales que Dios utilizó para tocar las vidas de tantas personas. Trabajamos juntos con ella por más de dos décadas y aprendimos mucho por medio de su experiencia y sabiduría, admirándola siempre por el alto nivel de compromiso que tenía con el Señor. La hemos extrañado estos últimos siete años, pero regocijamos que por fin Bárbara está hecha completa y goza en la presencia de su amado Salvador a quién ella entregó de lleno su vida mientras estuvo aquí en la tierra.

--J. Guy Muse

February 6, 2017

Guayaquil, Ecuador

Pindal Medical Missions Trip

from Guy Muse on Vimeo.

Highlights from our June 21-28, 2013 medical missions trip to Pindal, Ecuador in the southern province of Loja.

A shift in our missionary role

My wife and I arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador as missionaries in December of 1987. In those early missionary days we labored at the center of where "the action" was taking place. We were in high demand by the churches, associations, and Ecuador Baptist Convention and all their related institutions and programs. A lot of our time was spent attending all the different meetings of both our own denominational work, as well as the events and programs of other evangelical denominations. I served on various denominational boards, committees, and task forces. Our advice and opinions were respected and listened to. We were constantly called upon to preach, teach, administer, counsel, train, and coordinate ministries, institutions, and strategy. Each of us wore multiple ministerial hats. All of us were responsible for carrying out an assortment of assignments, often in areas we were not particularly gifted in, but "someone" had to fill those shoes, so we took on these tasks as well. Our phone rang incessantly. Rare were the days when we had an entire evening to ourselves without someone in our home, someone dropping by to chat, or the phone ringing day and night.

Over the years, all of the above has continued to decrease to, what is today, a mere trickle of what it was 20 years ago. Has the work diminished? Not at all. In fact far more is happening now on multiple levels than anyone could have ever imagined. But our personal influence and role has diminished from what it once was. Probably to be fair, a better description would be our influence and role has changed. While we are certainly still loved and respected by our Ecuadorian brethren, the things we used to do--as "principal actors on stage"--are now being done by those we poured ourselves into years ago. The very men/women/youth we taught, counseled, trained, and encouraged have taken our place. They are the ones now that others call upon, serve in "important" capacities, speak, teach, train, travel, lead, preach, etc.

One of the hardest missions lessons is the one John the Baptist must have also struggled with: "He must increase; but I must decrease." Someone once defined missionary success as working oneself out of a job.

But actually saying these words is a lot easier than living with the consequences of someone else now doing and filling the roles one used to have. We too want to be needed, sought after, consulted, and called upon. In fact, instead of the phone ringing in the evenings with yet another crisis for us to solve, we now can sit most nights quietly reading a book without interruption.

As I reflect back over the years of all the assignments, responsibilities, tasks, and roles we have played; ALL, without exception, are today in the hands of nationals who are doing an excellent job.

So what are we still doing here if we have successfully worked ourselves out of all our jobs?

The task is far from completed. With only 7-10% of the population in Ecuador followers of Christ, much remains to see the Great Commission fulfilled in our region of the world.

What I sense is most needed is not more missionaries continuing to come from other parts of the world to Ecuador, but rather a shift in role existing missionaries play.

We must begin to see ourselves more in the apostolic role of encouragers, enablers, equippers, trainers, motivators, connectors, and coordinators who are principally engaged in mobilizing God's people into the ripe harvest fields--not as fun as front line stuff, but necessary!

While there will always be room for the first generation apostolic church planter who goes into unreached/under-reached territory to proclaim the Gospel, make disciples, and leave a NT ekklesia; in the later stages of a ripe harvest field (like Ecuador) we best serve the King by shifting our focus to helping the church see what remains to be done, how to accomplish the task, provide tools and training, and mobilize to lead hundreds of laborers to bring in the harvest God is giving.

Another way of understanding this role change is to explain it this way: I can feel great about spending 30-40 hours a week directly engaged in proclaiming the Gospel, making disciples, baptizing 15-20 and hopefully planting 1-2 churches in a year's time...or, I can spend that same time modeling, training, mobilizing several hundred others to do the same things, and at the end of the year see the Kingdom grow by dozens of churches and hundreds of baptisms and scores of new disciples also equipped to going out and making even more disciples.

In the first role we are the primary actors on stage. Everyone sees us, needs us, and looks to us for direction. In the second we are behind the scenes and the ones "seen" are those we are coaching. The difference in the way we understand our apostolic/missionary role is between planting a church, and being an instrument in the Spirit's hands for dozens of churches planted all over the region.

What do you think? As usual, your thoughts and observations are welcome.

Mega to Mini-Church-Part 2 of 2 (Victor Choudhrie)

Continuing with Victor Choudhrie's, "Mega Church To Mini Church: 25 Steps to Transit from Being Barren to a Millionaire of Souls" are steps eleven to twenty-five.

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11.Drive the change- Start with your family. Your real marriage is to the Lord. The husband-wife-children relationship is just an earthly model to see how you make it work. If you can’t make it work, you may not be invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb. Sons and daughters - honor your mother and father, if you want to live long. The Hebrew word kabad and the Greek word time’for ‘honor’ means ‘making rich’ or even ‘money paid’. Providing for your aging parents’ ranks higher than paying Korban to your church. Tithing is neither a part of the Ten Commandments, nor a requirement in the New Testament but taking care of parents is in both. Fathers – improve your relationship score with your children, lest the Lord smite the earth with a curse. He is now preparing a new generation of reformers with new values, concepts and vision to drive the change, to restore the Body which is grossly disfigured and marred by centuries of extra-biblical additions and accretions, into the original Bride without spots, wrinkles and blemishes.

12. Know your identity in Christ: You are an ambassador of Christ, the highest ranking representative of the government of God, wherever you are posted. You are a royal-priest­, made so by the blood of the Lamb. Dismantle the ‘Reverend’culture and breach the preacher-creature divide. Like Melchizedek, the royal-priest of Jerusalem (City of Peace), who served bread and wine, took a tithe and blessed Abraham, bring godly governance to your city. Catch the vision of cloning and saturating the city with royal-priests, and run with that vision. Remember every royal priest is authorized to offer the sanctified lost people as mincha (bloodless sacrifice), baptize and serve the Lord’s Supper. God is not looking for shepherds who just take care of his sheep but entrepreneurs who multiply his sheep.

13. Paul’s passion was to conduct a saturation blitz of the gospel, where Christ had not been named, not just with words but with mighty signs and deeds. What is your passion? Challenge purposeless churches to enunciate a clear vision and to lay out a road map to translate that vision into action plans and set goals to ‘do greater things than these’. For supernatural harvest, minimize motivational pep talks and maximize supernatural healing and deliverance...Armed with maps, stats and the Great Commission, go 2x2 treasure hunting, find “the person of peace”, heal the sick, cast out demons and then teach them the divine arithmetic of discipling just one soul every month, and very soon, you will have a thousand souls in your savings account.

14. Most church going Christians are deluded into thinking that they are believers. To be a believer you have to carry signs (evidence, proof) of a believer? – “And these signs shall follow a believer; he shall cast out demons…and pray for the sick and they will be healed.” But a believer will not make it to heaven, if he fails to disciple the delivered. Yeshua did not ask you to make believers, but to make disciples. Unglue from the pews all those lukewarm Churchians who sit, soak and stagnate, and send them to heal the sick, raise the dead, tread on snakes and scorpions (expel demons), bind the ‘strongman’, plunder his possessions, demolish the gates of Hell, and make disciples.

15. Resurrect from being a dead organization to a living organism. Missions is too important to be left to extra-biblical professionals with cosmetic titles like Director, Chairman and CEO etc. Replace “Reverend culture” with five-fold ministry-gifted Elders of either gender, like apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. The primary function of the church is to equip the saints, stagnating on the pews, for the works of the ministry (offering mincha), resulting in growth and multiplication of the Body.

16. Stop despising the barefoot apostles: The religious mega-stars of yesteryears were focused on revival and churching the un-churched. In spite of mega claims, they made little dent in the global spiritual landscape. In the last couple of decades, the non-literate story tellers belonging to the oral tradition grassroots level workers, who were focused on “conversion movement” have emerged as global players in changing the religious canvass, especially the 10/40 Window countries. It is the shift from superstars to the common man/women, as the real drivers of the missions, that is changing the spiritual profile of the globe. To reach the ends of the earth, maximize every cell church, Sunday school, bible school, prayer cell, youth and women’s fellowships, cottage meeting and indeed every Christian household into full-fledged, authentic churches.

17. Filter out non-performing goats that come only for hatching (baby baptisms), matching (weddings) and dispatching (funerals). Replace them with sheep that take care of the hungry, thirsty, naked, strangers, sick and prisoners. Culling i.e. getting rid of the non-productive sheep and donating them as free gift to the nearest Pentecostal church, will greatly improve your standing in the local Pastor’s Fellowship. Culling is an integral dynamics of the ‘best practices’ of sheep rearing, so that the shepherd can focus and invest on the most productive sheep...As the dominance and the power of the clergy diminishes and the effectiveness of the empowered believers increases, the kingdom goes ballistic.

18. Simplify disciple making. Invite a couple of truth-seekers for a meal where the main dish is- The Lamb. Redefine authentic church as “the household of God” with a mission; wherever two or three, eat, meet, gossip the gospel, and multiply. Like Paul try reasoning first, if that does not work, then try persuading and if that fails, try disputing and when push comes to shove, perform a notable miracle that they cannot deny...Mini-church is the most cost effective strategy for reaching the ends of the earth by saving one household at a time. The architecture of an organic “household of God” is radically different from an organized church. It not only looks different but also her functional dynamics are entirely different.

19. Re-baptize seminaries, which are the Trees of the knowledge of good and evil and sanctify them as The Great Commission training centers. Be the Tree of life, wherever you are planted, and bring forth abundant new fruit, even your leaves should be for the healing of the nations. Share the whole wisdom of God from house to house, and set up an unstoppable momentum of multi-generational discipleship chain. Be they delinquent Christians or defiant devotees of other faiths, sound doctrine is not scholarly sermons from the pulpit, but the ability to convince, convict, convert and bring the recalcitrant to repentance.

20. God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden to work and to guard it. Significantly the Hebrew word Avodah for work can also be translated worship. Adam was to worship God through his work in the garden while guarding it from demonic attack. God took an accountability walk every evening to see how Adam was doing...Paul, Aquila and Pricilla, Cornelius, the Jailor, Lydia, Phoebe and many others continued to work in their professions and also transformed their workplaces. The same infallible and Holy God, in His wisdom has placed you, a fallible sinner, among other sinners, to worship Him through your redemptive work.

21. Remove the chapel, the chaplain, the pulpit, the collection box and the Sunday service and the church will still be there because you are the walking and talking mobile temple of the living God. Reorient your personal paradigm. Recognize ‘Hi, Hello,’ happy clappy Sunday Service as your ‘secondary, optional church’, a fig leaf skirt that is only a temporary solution. Your business, workplace or home, wherever you spend most of your time, is your ‘Primary nuclear church’. It matters little whether you are the CEO, or the janitor or the kitchen queen; you are a full-time work-place minister and accountable. Salvation is free but discipleship is costly. Salvation restores your relationship with the Father but discipleship restores you in the image of God by becoming a blessing to others. Salvation is not enough, for you are saved to save others.

22. Offer Mincha and then Pray. God said, my house shall be a house of sacrifice and I will meet with you and speak with you at the altar where continuous sacrifice is made...Yeshua said, “My house is a house of prayer for all nations” which means all nations will come there to be prayed for healing and deliverance and then discipled all the way into the Kingdom...A church that does not send you out to ‘raise your holy hands to pray everywhere’and optimize you to walk tall and make Christ ‘high and lifted up’ in your city, is not worth going to for you are not just a lay member of a fragmented denomination but a value added discipler of nations.

23. Most good missionaries practice bad missiology because they come from highly literate societies heavily preloaded with their church culture and traditions which they try to impose on others who find them offensive. They must change hearts and delete all that is demonic but should do no violence to their food habits, dress code and culture, including their worship style, just because they are different. Do not hurriedly church a new believer into an institutional church, where he will be lectured to but not discipled. Yeshua did not call us to be church-goers but cross-bearers and disciple-makers. Sadly 99.9 percent Christians do not have a clue, on how to share their faith even with their best friends, forget about leading someone of other faith to Christ and by some fluke if that happens, then they do not know how to make him a disciple, simply because they themselves have never been discipled. Find a coach who is loaded with lasting fruit, to take you out for practice sessions in the harvest field.

24. Are you Rapture ready? Do not wait ‘till death do us part’, rather do whatever it takes to precipitate Rapture by bringing Christ back on earth in your own generation. Re-set your priorities to preach Christ where He has not been named. Any place where Christ is not high and lifted up, including your workplace, home or neighborhood is dragon land. You are a candle with the potential to kindle thousands of candles and obliterate darkness from those who sit in darkness and in the shadows death. For this you do not have to go to church from Sunday to Sunday nor work from paycheck to paycheck. You are chosen and “ordained” to bring lasting fruit.

25. Adopt a ‘completion mindset’. Evaluate your ministry by the Great Commission as its mandate, with the numbers of disciples made, baptized, equipped and sent out as the benchmark. Like our Lord, focus on a few to reach many. Aim to become a millionaire of souls. And why not? After all, you believe in a great and awesome God for whom nothing is impossible. At the very least, like Peter, shoot for 3000 baptisms every Pentecost. Or like Paul, plant a multiplying micro-church every day, till you can claim, “There are no more places left here for me to fully preach the gospel.’ The minimum standard to qualify as a follower of Yeshua is, that like your Master, equip twelve disciples who have the confidence and the competence to turn their world upside, wherever they are placed. If you are not connected with your world, then you are disconnected with your God for He has placed you there to write Acts 29.

 

l-my wife Linda, c-Bindu Choudhrie, r-me (Guy)

at the Antioch Gathering in October 2009

 

Pindal Medical Missions Trip

A short video of last week's medical missions trip to Pindal in Loja Province of Ecuador (see previous blog entry.)

Thanks be to the Lord for all He did last week to the honor of his Name.

Also thanks to the wonderful team the Lord put together for this trip: Shelby and Frances, Wray, Geoff and Teresa, Hank, Dee, César, Daniel, Xavier, Manuel, Elcie, David, and myself.

Going: the hardest step in the Great Commission

Jesus gave us his own authority to go in His Name, make disciples of the nations, baptize those who believe and teach them to follow all his commandments. 

We believe this. We teach it. We preach it. We read books about it. We have conferences about it. But when was the last time we actually got around to DOING what Jesus commanded us to do? Why?

My theory is that for most of us it is just theory--church talk. We don't ever really think we are to be the ones to get out there and engage the world in an intentional way and make disciples.

The hardest step is the first: going. To go requires committment, money, time, energy, intention, sacrifice, and often leaving our comfort zone. There is always a price involved in doing what Christ commanded.

I have found that if we will just take that first initial step and actually go, each successive step is a little easier. Going is the toughest hurdle. There are so many things standing in the way. The enemy will always push other matters to the front of the line to keep us from going: family responsibilities, work, finances, committments, health, fears, laziness, insecurities, and anything else that might keep us from going.

But when we do manage to take that first step and go, the Lord is faithful to do as he promised and be with us each successive step of the way. Many take the Matthew 28:20 promise out of context and believe that that somehow Christ is saying He will be with us whether or not we obey what He has told us to do. But this promise is conditioned on what precedes. If we will 1) go, 2) make disciples,
3) baptize, and 4) teach...HE WILL BE WITH US. And we will see His Glory as we follow his lead in going before us.

 

This past week a team of 7 Alabamans and 7 Ecuadorians took that initial step of going to Pindal, a remote county seat town in the southern Ecuadorian province of Loja.  Prior research revealed that there were no known followers of Jesus Christ in the entire county.

 

Getting there was a 9-hour trek on some of the worst roads I have ever travelled in Ecuador. The roads were so bad that our car will have to be taken in to the shop tomorrow for repairs. While in Pindal, we held daily medical clinics and shared the Gospel with those who came. In the afternoons we invited everyone to join us in the park for a social gathering/Gospel-share time. After four days of these fun, share time gatherings several people expressed interest in giving their hearts to the Lord. One of the new believers who had been the restaurant owner where we ate breakfast and supper opened her home for us to continue meeting.

 

This past Thursday night, we held our first initial house church gathering in the home of this new believer with about 30 people present. Two of the Ecuadorian brethren who accompanied us on the trip have agreed to make a weekly trip to Pindal to disciple and follow-up the new believers.

 

Needless to say, this kind of committment and sacrifice is what it takes to fulfill the Great Commission. Both might have given a host of reasons why they couldn't continue to make the difficult trip (see above reasons!)  But because they said YES, I believe Jesus will be faithful to his end of the bargain and do what He said he would do in Matthew 16 to "build his church" in Pindal.

 

 

Will you begin praying about where the Lord might have you go? Interested in maybe coming to Ecuador? Adopt one of our unreached peoples http://www.connectecuador.org/unadopted-areas.html

 

 

To all our friends who come down for mission trips

Summer has arrived. We begin what is traditionally the season for volunteer groups coming down to help in our mission work. We are always grateful to the Lord for those who come year after year and do such a great job.

For those coming, or thinking about coming down there are a few things I would like to share. These are a few things seldom mentioned due to our not wanting to do say anything that might be misunderstood.

1) We desire an on-going relationship. Most of the groups coming down see the trip as a "missions experience." Something to talk about for a few days once you get back home. You want to DO missions, not just give to some missions offering. For a few short days you are eager to do things you normally wouldn't do. You take lots of photos. You meet new friends, experience a taste of a developing country's culture, food, and way of life. You have a lot of fun. Your heart is broken at seeing the how the poor barely survive from day to day. Once your 7-10 days are up, you get back on the plane and we never hear from you again. That is, unless you decide you want to come back, and then our communication is about dates for next year.

This is not what we want.

After you leave, we want to stay in contact with you. We want to know that you are praying for the people you have met and worked with. We want you to pester us with questions, updates, and actually stay in contact with those new friends you met while here. We want to feel that you too are committed to finishing the task you came to help out with while here.

Most are deeply touched by what you experience while here. Many express how much their life has been changed by the experience. Eyes have been opened to things one never knew was out there. Why then, once you leave, we never hear back from you? It is also strange to the nationals that after all the hugs and tears and moments shared, you never call, write, or even ask about them. Where are all the promised copies of those photos you took while here holding their kids on your laps?

2) We want you to become advocates for us there in the States. If the trip meant so much, share it with everyone you know back home. Make everyone look at your photos. Tell them how your life was changed by the trip. Share with them people's stories; not just, "oh, it was awesome!" Request time at church to share. Start an Ecuador prayer group, or at least keep Ecuador in your prayers. If God spoke to your heart while on the trip, follow up with the Lord about what He opened your eyes to. Don't return to life as it was before you came down. Be an advocate for missions. Keep Ecuador and global missions on the front burner of your church's attention.

3) Come prepared. It is amazing to me how many come down knowing they will be spending a lot of time sharing the Gospel one-on-one and yet not knowing how to do so. One of the comments we hear from our national brothers after every volunteer team has left is, "They apparently had never shared the Gospel with anyone before this trip." While there are certainly people who have come down who do know how to share an effective Gospel presentation, I would say that it is a very small percentage. Many coming on missions trips are doing so for the first time, and have never shared their faith back home, little less, overseas.

4) Be ready for the schedule to be changed. I know how frustrating it is to have one's plans changed at the last minute. But that is just the way things are here. Americans plan months and years in advance and like to have an hour by hour schedule of what they will be doing to maximize their time. That isn't the way things work here. We can plan all we want to and make out nice, organized sensible schedules, but most of the time things here are decided on the spur of the moment. I know it is frustrating (it is for me too) but being flexible is and willing to adapt quickly is something I wish I could say and not upset you.

5) Eat what is set before you. Most of you do a super job at eating all the foods and drinks offered to you while here. You make our people feel that their food is the best in the world. It really is! But there is always at least one of you in the group who is picky about what they eat. To not eat what is offered is a huge offense here. The people will always give you the best that they have. They are often embarrassed by the little they have to offer, but when it is rejected they are hurt. No excuses are acceptable, such as: "I am on a diet", "this is too much starch on one plate", "I can't eat this much", "has this lettuce been washed?", "what is this?", "if I eat this it will make me sick." Eat what is set before you (that is Biblical--see Luke 10!) The people who are hosting you have been eating/drinking these foods for eons and they are doing just fine. You'll be fine too.

6) Don't make promises you can't keep. After being here for a few days you realize how blessed you really are. You want to help the dear brothers and sisters whom you have grown to love in the few short days you have been here. But please be careful in what you tell them you are going to do after you leave. Few follow-up on what was offered. Closely related to this one is #7 below...

7) Consult with the missionary team about any money matters. Money is something you have a lot more of than those you are working amongst. When you see needs, the tendency is to want to do something to help. I'll be honest, there are many things that we definitely could use money for. But most of the time we are not consulted. This usually causes problems after you leave. For example, if you give to one dear brother whom you met and grew to love, what about all the others? To give to one and not to all the others causes problems. I could write pages on this, but suffice it to say, if you want to leave some money, tell us how much you want to give, and then ask us where/what/who would it best be used.

After all the above, I hope you hear my heart. We really want you to come help us. We have definite areas of our strategy that you can play a major role. What we are asking for is probably more than most are willing to give. But these are some of the things I have always wanted to say to the teams coming down.

New Year's resolutions

Many of us, including myself, use the beginning of the new year for setting goals for losing a few pounds, or getting out of debt. For others taking a needed and deserved vacation somewhere, or buying new furniture and carpet for the den is deemed a worthy goal to pursue during the new year.

But contrary to what many of us might think of as worthy ideals and goals, I have been humbled in the past few days with the responses shared by my Ecuadorian brothers in Christ about what they are sensing the Lord is laying on their hearts to do in 2011.

Here are a few that caught my attention as they were voiced over the past few days...

• with the Lord's help, I would like to plant 20 new churches this year
• begin a children's ministry in our community
• travel as many weekends as it takes out into the neighboring province until a church is planted
• with the Lord's help, plant 10 new churches this year
• stop talking about evangelism and start evangelizing each of my lost family and friends
• open a training center in my barrio to equip pastors
• equip everyone in our house church to start at least one other house church
• two things we want to do all year long: fast/pray for the lost, evangelize those we are praying for
• buy a piece of property out in the jungle so that a multi-use structure can be built for the Indians coming in to town to have a place to stay while being trained/discipled
• save enough money to be able to go to Haiti this year and help with the reconstruction

Mind you, none of the above are coming from full-time, paid, professional Christian workers. All are from what is commonly referred to as 'lay' people with secular jobs, families to support, and no Bible college or seminary classes. Just people who understand that their Master said, go and that means them, not someone else.

So, what are your New Year's goals for 2011?

The future of missions organizations

The future of denominational/institutional missions organizations is something that is clearly being redefined. As a missionary serving in one of the largest denominational missions organizations (IMB), I can attest to the urgent need that organizations change to meet the challenge of a changing world. The question becomes, though, how do we do this? What needs to be done to stay on the cutting edge of global missions today?

Bob Roberts, Jr. shares his thoughts on what this needs to look like...

There has never been a time, or as conducive an environment, for mission agencies and institutions to engage the world like there is today. If it happens, mission agencies and institutions are going to have to:

1. See themselves as connectors of the whole body of Christ to the whole world.

2. Release control or lose any control at all because people aren't going to sit around and wait.

3. Train not just local culture and practices to a missionary, but global culture and practices.

4. Redefine how missionaries work, what they do and how they operate.

5. Be a revolving door not just of sending western missionaries but of "global" missionaries from every society.

6. Be a receiving entity for missionaries coming to America who feel called to work here [in the USA]...

7. Value local churches and laymen beyond just seeing them as cows to milk for their institution (I'm convinced the key to raising funds is not asking for money but partnering and doing things together--there will be more money than they could ever imagine.)

8. View themselves not as funders of people who want to be vocational missionaries, but partner "gospel seed planters" of the kingdom throughout the world...People are going to work with people that are willing to work together and ignore those who aren't willing to partner. The days of a huge bureaucracy telling a church that is funding it what it can and can't do are numbered. Getting a bunch of young guys in a room and telling them "we want to hear from you" won't cut it. Getting a bunch of youngsters with a radical "newlight" missionary--saying there's a city, now take it, and the skies the limit. You empower them all, you infuse enthusiasm, and you learn from one another...

What do you see as the future of missions organizations like the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, SIM, YWAM, CCC, etc. as we know them today?

Is there still a need for missionaries in the major cities of Latin America?

What if, for some reason, we suddenly had to pull out of all the major cities in the Americas? No more missionaries in Bogotá, San José, Lima, Asunción, Sao Paolo, BA...would it really make any difference? Would we really be missed? So why are we still in the cities? Why are most of our missionary personnel still in places like Caracas, Santiago, Mexico City, Quito, Guatemala City?

I have a few thoughts about the roles we missionaries play in the cities of Latin America where the Gospel has already taken root. If we use the analogy of the missionary task to that of a field being planted, the farmer first plows the ground, plants the seed, waters the seed, pulls the weeds, and eventually harvests his crop.

Those missionaries who came before us did an excellent job in plowing the hard ground, planting the Gospel seed, and watering the seed through a host of ministries, institutions and programs.

But I would argue that those initial three phases now belong primarily to the national church and are no longer our tasks as missionaries.

In many parts of Latin America the work is mature. The national church is effectively carrying out these roles as effectively--or better in many cases--than we foreign missionaries were able to do.

So, what then is the missionary task that justifies our presence in the major cities of Latin America?

I propose that our missionary role and presence in the cities is validated by the extent of our engagement in the later phases of "weeding" and in many places "bringing in the harvest."

How do I define "weeding?" Weeds are what compete with the sowed grain and negatively impact bringing in a bumper crop. After two decades in Guayaquil I can name those weeds that are most hurting us: discouragement, distractions, divisions (the 3 D's of the Devil.) The missionary task, as I understand it is to be a prophetic voice "weeding out" the 3 D's of the Devil. There are probably other "weeds" out there, but these three seem universal in harvest fields. Our role is to help identify in the churches, ministries, institutions, and conventions, the weeds which are choking out the harvest which God wants to bring in.

Nobody likes to pull weeds. But what happens to a crop if nobody hoes weeds? All the hard previous labor will fall short of its potential. The thieving weeds will ruin a harvest! How weed pulling is played out will surely vary from city to city and region to region, but it must be addressed.

The other final phase is to bring home the harvest.

I see in this missionary phase the task as primarily an administrative, logistical role of coordinating, training, mobilizing, motivating, and inspiring people. We can't possibly bring home the harvest by ourselves. To finish the task, the Lord of the Harvest is going to have to touch many hearts. Our part is to be an instrument that He uses as a mouthpiece, a voice, the go-between to get people from point-A to point-B where the harvest is taking place.

We are the ones who need to thoroughly understand concepts like partnering, networking, mobilizing, how people communicate today, and understanding today's generations and cultural values to harness that energy to bring in the harvest the Lord has been preparing for decades in the cities of Latin America.

So, what do you think? Should we still be giving our missionary time to plowing, planting, watering, as well as to weeding and harvesting? Would you add/subtract anything to the above? Again, I am speaking more in the context of the missionary task, not as what we the Church should be engaged in. Till Christ returns, the church should be out there making disciples of the nations. But where do we engage our priorities as missionaries? That is the question.

The Team

In over 530 blog posts to date, I have never blogged on "the team" we work with! Of course their stories have been shared and referred to many times over the years, but never have I actually blogged about the entire group of men and women that make up our church planting team.

In the above photo, taken yesterday, six of our team are missing. Marcos was outside working on his car when the picture was taken. Mercedes was at home recuperating from an eye surgery. I don't know where Juán was. Manuel and Esperanza are out doing evangelism in the southern part of the country trying to start a new church near the Peruvian border. Fabiola couldn't be there today (she is our prayer coordinator), and Linda (my wife) was at home teaching our daughter in home school.

Linda, Barbara, and myself are all from Texas. The rest of our team are Ecuadorians. Except for Julieta, all were either won to Christ through discipleship and church planting efforts, or were trained in one of our church planting training schools.

We have been meeting every Monday afternoon for many years now. Over time, some have moved on, and others have taken their place. Our meetings usually last three hours with most of the time listening to each other's exciting stories about what God is doing. We seldom get around to taking care of "business", so those matters are generally taken care of by Geovanny and myself on the way home in the car after the meeting.

Approximately 80 churches have been planted to date by the individuals pictured above. When taking into account all the people trained by those in the photo, the number of church plants swells into the hundreds.

Click on the linked names below for a related story about that person(s). All of these are great stories and worth clicking on to read (at least I think so!)

Our team leader is Geovanny. He is the tall young man standing to my right. I personally do not know of a more gifted church planter/trainer and sold-out believer to Jesus Christ than this dear brother and best friend.

Barbara is the other Texas missionary here in Guayaquil, third to the left, who has served for 23 years with the IMB. She has a ministry working with women engaged in prostitution.

On the far left is Julieta. She served ten years as a church planting missionary in Asia, but is currently working as our mobilizer to mobilize Ecuadorians into missions, and in charge of our Guayas Para Cristo project.

José met Zarai (standing to the left of Barbara) in Peru last year. In Nov/09 they got married, and are now preparing to go back to the jungles of Peru to work as a newlywed couple with the Ashenika, an unreached, indigenous People Group.

Marlene is one of the most gifted evangelists I know. She has been used to disciple many people to the Lord and start new churches. Two of her disciples are Medardo and his wife Mónica. I have written many stories in the past couple of years about these two. Currently, they are working with five different house churches started in their neighborhood, and on weekends travel to the neighboring province of Manabí for a new church plant they started near the town of Paján.

Felipe, Bladimir, Pedro, and Juán are all church planters and trainers. Three of the four have begun working out in the provinces on weekends starting simple churches in areas where there is little or no evangelical work.

Marcos, along with his wife Tania (she is the one holding the little girl) are very engaged in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.

Mariana was part of the very first house church training school we did back in July 2000. She has been faithful all these years to travel every weekend out to a small village where she started a church. She continues to evangelize and disciple those in the village.

There are so many stories that could be told about each of these. All are my "heroes" and I have the greatest admiration and respect for each member of our team.

Which story linked to an individual did you like the best? I would love to share with our team some of your comments about their stories. It would thrill them more than you can imagine!

Would you take a moment to just pray over us all? Gracias!

What are the alternatives?

Ernest Goodman, blogger at Missions Misunderstood asks What are the alternatives?

[Those involved] in the system, especially those who are invested in it, tend to stick with it because they don’t see any alternatives. The current, broken system is better than nothing, right?

• Why do so many churches treat missions as just another program of the church?
• Why do we pile kids into a church van, drive to an Indian Reservation to do Backyard Bible Clubs and call it “missions?”
• Why are so few churches actively and directly engaged in planting the gospel among people who don’t know and believe it?
• Why do missionaries treat partner churches like volunteer labor or children to be babysat?
• Why do some only consider ministry among “unreached” people groups to me missions?
  

What are the alternatives? In each of these cases, churches and individuals act according to what they’ve been taught. They do what others are doing, they do what they think they can. They go where they think finances, prudence, and church leadership will allow. They spend what they think they can afford. They act when they think it will help them. They don’t always even know why they do what they do (and don’t do what they don’t do.)

We need alternatives. We need to know about churches the orient their entire existence around the mission. About the value of humanitarian trips to our obedience as believers. That the Great Commission is the church’s responsibility. How churches can do so much more than paint houses and prayerwalk. That the people groups of the world are not static, and that obedience is the best strategy. If we don’t know, it’s unlikely that we’ll do anything different.

What do you think? I agree with Ernest, if people don't know, it's unlikely anything different will be done than the way things are currently being done. So what should we do to begin helping others to see alternatives?

What is the missionary role in the major cities of Latin America?

What if, for some reason, we suddenly had to pull out of all the major cities in the Americas? No more missionaries in Bogotá, San José, Lima, Asunción, Sao Paolo, BA...would it really make any difference? Would we really be missed? So why are we still in the cities? Why are most of our missionary personnel still in places like Caracas, Santiago, Mexico City, Quito, Guatemala City?

I have a few thoughts about the roles we missionaries play in the cities of Latin America where the Gospel has already taken root. If we use the analogy of the missionary task to that of a field being planted, the farmer first plows the ground, plants the seed, waters the seed, pulls the weeds, and eventually harvests his crop.

Those missionaries who came before us did an excellent job in plowing the hard ground, planting the Gospel seed, and watering the seed through a host of ministries, institutions and programs.

But I would argue that those initial three phases now belong primarily to the national church and are no longer our tasks as missionaries.

In many parts of Latin America the work is mature. The national church is effectively carrying out these roles as effectively--or better in many cases--than we foreign missionaries were able to do.

So, what then is the missionary task that justifies our presence in the major cities of Latin America?

I propose that our missionary role and presence in the cities is validated by the extent of our engagement in the later phases of "weeding" and in many places "bringing in the harvest."

How do I define "weeding?" Weeds are what compete with the sowed grain and negatively impact bringing in a bumper crop. After two decades in Guayaquil I can name those weeds that are most hurting us: discouragement, distractions, divisions (the 3 D's of the Devil.) The missionary task, as I understand it is to be a prophetic voice "weeding out" the 3 D's of the Devil. There are probably other "weeds" out there, but these three seem universal in harvest fields. Our role is to help identify in the churches, ministries, institutions, and conventions, the weeds which are choking out the harvest which God wants to bring in.

Nobody likes to pull weeds. But what happens to a crop if nobody hoes weeds? All the hard previous labor will fall short of its potential. The thieving weeds will ruin a harvest! How weed pulling is played out will surely vary from city to city and region to region, but it must be addressed.

The other final phase is to bring home the harvest.

I see in this missionary phase the task as primarily an administrative, logistical role of coordinating, training, mobilizing, motivating, and inspiring people. We can't possibly bring home the harvest by ourselves. To finish the task, the Lord of the Harvest is going to have to touch many hearts. Our part is to be an instrument that He uses as a mouthpiece, a voice, the go-between to get people from point-A to point-B where the harvest is taking place.

We are the ones who need to thoroughly understand concepts like partnering, networking, mobilizing, how people communicate today, and understanding today's generations and cultural values to harness that energy to bring in the harvest the Lord has been preparing for decades in the cities of Latin America.

So, what do you think? Should we still be giving our missionary time to plowing, planting, watering, as well as to weeding and harvesting? Would you add/subtract anything to the above? Again, I am speaking more in the context of the missionary task, not as what we the Church should be engaged in. Till Christ returns, the church should be out there making disciples of the nations. But where do we engage our priorities as missionaries? That is the question.

The future of missions organizations

With the recent announced retirement of IMB President, Jerry Rankin, more than ever the future of denominational/institutional missions organizations is being redefined. I found the following thoughts by Bob Roberts, Jr. insightful. What do you see as the future of missions organizations like the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, SIM, YWAM, CCC, etc. as we know them today?

...................................

There has never been a time, or as conducive an environment, for mission agencies and institutions to engage the world like there is today. If it happens, mission agencies and institutions are going to have to:

1. see themselves as connectors of the whole body of Christ to the whole world.

2. release control or lose any control at all because people aren't going to sit around and wait.

3. train not just local culture and practices to a missionary but global culture and practices.

4. redefine how missionaries work, what they do and how they operate.

5. be a revolving door not just of sending western missionaries but of "global" missionaries from every society.

6. be a receiving entity for missionaries coming to America who feel called to work here . . .

7. value local churches and laymen beyond just seeing them as cows to milk for their institution (I'm convinced the key to raising funds is not asking for money but partnering and doing things together--there will be more money than they could ever imagine.

8. view themselves not as funders of people who want to be vocational missionaries but partners "gospel" seed planters of the kingdom throughout the world.

...People are going to work with people that are willing to work together and ignore those who aren't willing to partner. The days of a huge bureaucracy telling a church that is funding it what it can and can't do are numbered. Getting a bunch of young guys in a room and telling them "we want to hear from you" won't cut it. Getting a bunch of youngsters with a radical "newlight" missionary--saying there's a city, now take it, and the skies the limit. You empower them all, you infuse enthusiasm, and you learn from one another.

Ecuador Medical Team

Scenes from last week's medical team from FBC-Lewisville in Salitre County.

My favorite North Carolina church

FBC-Lewisville is my new favorite church in North Carolina! This past week a medical team of eight came down to help us plant a new church in Vernaza (Salitre County) as part of the Guayas Cantones for Christ project.

It was our joy to have Les Puryear and his wife Debbie stay in our home. Les is pastor of the church, well-known blogger, and advocate for "small church." During the week Dr. Mark Bardou and his team of nurses Veda, Amy, and Cindy saw and treated 232 patients. Mark's wife, Jane, fitted reading glasses for another 100+. Tara helped coordinate those arriving to be seen by el doctor. Les, along with a team of national youth, shared the Gospel with each person seen by the medical team. In all there were 77 professions of faith. With these new believers, a new church has been planted in Vernaza.

Some might question whether or not a church can truly be planted in only two days time. But many factors were already set into motion long before the Lewisville medical team arrived on the scene this past week.

--For many years prayer has been showered upon Guayas Province (which includes Salitre) by great numbers of local believers on a daily basis. For this trip there were over 1000 people specifically praying.

--Missions minded people. Instead of people being content to hang out in ongoing local church programs, or saying "I can't do this" or "I don't have time for this", people have the spirit of "can I come help and be part of this too?" It is amazing the number of believers, both Stateside and locally, wanting to serve if given a chance. We must be proactive and invite them to join with us in what God is doing to reach the nations.

--Visionary Acts 1:8 leaders such as Carlos Goya, pastor of the Salitre Baptist Church, who even though they are only a new church plant themselves started two years ago, have already grown to over 200 and are intent upon reaching the remaining 160 communities in their Judea (Vernanza is one of those 160 communities in Salitre county.)

--Having clearly defined "persons of peace" such as Luis Ramirez and his family open up their home (actually an hacienda) as a meeting place for the new community church. Luis is a respected local figure. Out of his own resources Luis is providing the space for the new church plant and will likely provide most (if not all) the needed materials for discipleship, Bibles, chairs, etc.

--Intentional church planting. Having the intent of not just 'preaching the Gospel' but planting a church with those hearing the Gospel message. So much of our evangelistic efforts are wasted by not having the clear intention of planting a church with those being exposed to the Gospel.

--Partnering with like-minded brethren. In this case "the team" consisted of a large assortment of local youth from several different churches, the Lewisville eight, three different national churches (Israel BC in Guayaquil, Israel BC in Samborondon, Israel BC in Salitre), several members of our Guayas Mestizo Team, and even a young lady (Gaby) from an Assemblies of God church who translated for Les!

God has given us all the resources we need to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It is up to us to identify the resources He has entrusted, fit the pieces together, proclaim the Gospel by word (preaching) and deed (eg. medical teams) and add to that a hefty portion of faith and perseverance. The result? A church plant.

Thanks Les, Debbie, Mark, Jane, Amy, Cindy, Veda, Barbara, Linda, Anna Victoria, Julieta, Gaby, Marcos, Rene, Kimberly, Carlos, Luis, Annie, Carolina, Delia, Connie, Ana Mari, Connie, Bryan, the ladies who cooked for us, and those who opened their homes for the Lewisville team. ALL OF YOU DID A GREAT JOB!

While we do not yet have photos up of the trip, if interested, please click on one of the following YouTube videos for images of past work in the area where we were this last week.

Christ has no body now but yours (Ecuador flood relief)

Salitre baptisms

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UPDATE: 8pm - Just returned from the first meeting of the new church plant in Vernaza. There were 31 present and one new lady visiting accepted the Lord.

Why I blog

Today the 100,000th page was clicked on the M Blog. I know this isn't a big deal to anyone else, but for me it represents a milestone in something I felt the Lord leading me to do going back a little over three years ago now. Not to mention that it is pretty amazing to me that anyone at all would ever take the time to read my attempts at putting thoughts into cyberspace. Most of what we have to share is definitely a work in progress, constantly being modified as we continue to learn from the Lord.

Why do I blog?

Everyone has their own reasons, but for me it began a few years back. It dawned on me one day that I was personally doing very little to make disciples of the nations.

Guayaquil is our "Jerusalem", not the ends of the earth. Though we are international missionaries living in a cross-cultural setting, I was personally not doing much of anything to engage our own Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. What difference was there between what we were doing, and all those other churches out there equally focused almost exclusively on their own Jerusalems?

After some prayer and soul-searching, I decided to try and reach beyond our Jerusalem and begin to impact in at least some small way the Judeans, Samaritans, and nations beyond.

Blogging is one of the ways we have been able to do this. No, it is not the blog itself that impacts, but the PEOPLE reading who are actively engaged in being witnesses to their own J,J,S, and ends of the earth.

Example: Last week a brother who had read some of our writings, contacted me by email and we set up a meeting to talk about ways we could partner to reach his "Jerusalem" (and what is for us, our "Judea"). We were both mutually encouraged, and have begun praying that the Lord of the Harvest would send a team from somewhere to help us engage his area of the province in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. Without the blog, and his having read the article, this meeting would probably never have taken place.

Many times a blog post written by myself or others touches upon an aspect that another brother is dealing with personally. Private emails and public comments are exchanged which often stimulate new ideas and function ala Hebrews 10 to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together...but encouraging one another... for more effective service.

Examples of this would be posts like What are we doing here? or Returning to Ecuador being used to encourage fellow laborers out there likewise going through times of questioning their own ministry, and hearing from fellow laborers that, we too, feel and sense these same kinds of weaknesses.

Likewise, I have received from other people's posts key insights, ideas, suggestions which we have used in our own church planting ministry. These examples are almost too numerous to mention. But in this way we are impacting one another's ministries for the good of the Kingdom.

One of the unforeseen ministries that has quietly evolved out of blogging, is the stream of emails and inquiries generated coming in from all over the Spanish-speaking world. Sometimes they are from fellow missionaries, but most come from brothers and sisters who have questions and do not know where to turn for answers. There are few resources available in Spanish for the who, what, when, where, and how of simple church, and church planting in general. I observe a swelling tidal wave of people beginning to explore and reexamine the NT in light of church practice--especially related to the "nuts and bolts" of doing simple/organic/house church practice. I have mailed out dozens of copies of our materials over the past three years to church planters all over the Americas. Sometimes I hear back from them, sometimes not. Related to this is a good amount of time spent weekly answering inquiries generated by people passing on posts and information originating from material read on the "M Blog." In this way we are able to have an influence not only our own Jerusalem, but on far-away places which we normally would never have a chance to engage.

As time has gone by, we have added to the blogging other projects to engage our Judea and Samaria that are beginning to yield tremendous fruit. One of these is our "Guayas for Christ" project to reach our Judea.

To engage our Samaria, our church planting team is currently partnering directly/indirectly with several ministry projects which seek to engage overlooked, or marginalized people's in our midst: the abandoned elderly, AIDS victims, street kids (gangs), women in prostitution, delinquent youth, and homosexuals.

This whole Acts 1:8 mindset is being caught by the churches in our network. It is exciting to sit with them over discussions of how they might be able to impact places like India, the surrounding provinces, and the jungles of Peru. Money doesn't seem to be the central issue; rather discernment of the Lord's will, prayer, faith, and how if we sacrificed more, we might be able to send at least one person as a short-term missionary.

So, in a nutshell, that is why I blog. Thanks for reading and especially for all you do in obedience to engage in the task of making disciples of the nations.

Guayas for Christ

Guayas, with 3.3 million people, is the largest province in Ecuador. The province is divided into 25 cantones (counties). By far the largest counties are Guayaquil and Durán with 67% of the total provincial population.

Most of the attention over the past 50 years has centered on outreach to the two largest counties of Guayaquil and Durán, accounting for most of the evangelical presence in the province.

In the remaining 23 counties (population 1.09 million) there is an unknown, but considerably lower percentage of evangelical Christians and churches.

The “Guayas Cantones for Christ” project seeks to focus prayer, investigation, training, evangelism, discipleship, and church planting on the remaining unreached/under-reached counties of Guayas province.

The project entails at least two churches partnering together to establish reproducing churches in each of the remaining 23 cantones. One of the two churches will be a local national church. The other will be a Stateside/international partner church or missions outreach team.

Together, the national church and their international partners, will adopt and engage one of the under-reached counties. They will collaborate and work together to come up with a viable strategy for reaching their adopted county for Christ. More than likely this would be a 2-3 year commitment by both partnering churches.

The definition of “reached” is planting a minimum of three networking churches in the canton. Most likely these will be “simple churches” or “house churches.”

Simple/house churches are N.T. churches without all the extras that typify modern churches today (buildings and property, paid staff, etc.) The following documents help describe what we are talking about.

What do we mean by ‘simple church?’
What kind of churches are we planting overseas?
Simple churches need simple plans
Church planting lessons learned along the way
Simple church interviews

Interested? Any churches or missions teams reading this post that would prayerfully consider partnering with us in this project, please contact us through the email address found in our profile (top right-hand side bar.)

Reaching Guayas with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a bigger task than we can possibly handle by ourselves. WE NEED HELP from those willing to come and take responsibility for reaching an entire county for Christ. Is this something God might be touching you to come do?

Carefully pouring oil on the process

Wolfgang Simson states in "Houses That Change the World" ...

I believe we have moved from a colonial era of mission into what I call 'national mission', where each nation is called to develop its own models of church. Often enough this will have to happen through people in every nation praying for themselves, shedding their own tears, incarnating the living Christ afresh within their own time and culture. If the West could then come and, in the spirit of 'crucified colonialism'--the opposite of imperialism and denominationalism--carefully pour some oil on this process, it would be wonderful.

How, exactly, is one to "carefully pour some oil on this process?"

There is little doubt that countries like the USA and other developed Western nations have indeed been blessed by God. If we are truly One Body in Christ, shouldn't those parts of the Body who have more be willing to share liberally with those who have far less?

How might the West carefully pour some oil on the missions process so that it results in blessing and genuine Kingdom expansion?

1) Giving to the needs of the saints. In Acts and the Epistles we see this kind of sacrificial, liberal giving for fellow brethren going through hard times. The USA, and particularly the Church, has always been at the top of the list to help during a crisis both at home and around the world. At various times over the years, I have sent out prayer "SOS's" with the intent of illiciting prayer support for some of our fellow believers going through difficult trials. Occasionally we will receive love offerings to help these saints going through difficult moments. While this is not our intent in sharing these needs, the Lord has touched their heart to not only pray but give. We gladly help to channel these gifts for them. Being one-time gifts they do not create dependency; rather they have been the cause of much thanksgiving to the Father.

2) Matching what can be raised locally for various and sundry evangelistic and outreach projects. It is a terrible thing leading to dependency to simply provide the financial assistance to nationals and pay for everything. They will certainly let you do it, but it takes the blessing away from them of having to give from their own resources. An example of this is something we are currently dealing with. There is a particular discipleship course of study that we would like to use with the new believers. The price per book is $6. Few can afford this amount and if we charge $6/book very few will receive the benefit of this wonderful material. $3 is something that most could pay out over several weeks. They would cherish "their" book that they had bought. But someone has to pick up the remaining $3. This to me, is where a "bit of oil" from the outside might quietly be used to subsidize the cost of making disciples.

3) Independent, self-supporting ministries. Just as in the USA there are many charities and ministries that seek donors, overseas ministries likewise are in desperate need of financial support. I personally do not see the difference between a USA-based ministry asking for contributions and an international ministry doing so. Why is it OK to give to Focus on the Family (a great worthy ministry) but not Teleamigo or Camino de Salida, Dorcas, Clemencia, or any one of dozens of other struggling national Gospel ministries making a tremendous impact on the lives of tens of thousands of people and doing so on a shoe-string budget?

Any other ideas as to how oil might be poured upon international missions in such a way that it doesn't cause harm, but results in Kingdom growth and blessing to thousands?

DISCLAIMER: It is not my intention to use this post as a cloak to secretly petition funds for our work and ministry (as much as I would like to! :-). If anyone should write me back privately saying they would like to give to our work or any ministry mentioned above, I will write back instructions on how to make a donation to the IMB, or how to give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the Southern Baptist annual offering taken up for international missions. We encourage individuals to give to missions through their local churches as led by the Lord, and if a SBC church-- through the Cooperative Program and LMCO.

Unlikely Ecuadorian church planters prove effective

By Dea Davidson

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (BP)--Seven years of moisture and exposure through the cheap, wooden frame have soiled the thin paper, but the faded certificate retains a prominent spot on the cement wall. Carlos Solis proudly points out the inscription: he is an official church planter.

Solis and about a dozen other Ecuadorians equally proud of their certificates weren’t exactly the people missionary Guy Muse had envisioned when he set out to train church planters in July 2000. One woman was blind. Three others were very old. Even Carlos and his wife, Maria, were former drunks who lived in “The Frontier” – a zone of Guayaquil where gangs meet and clash, and doors are locked by 5 p.m.

Yet within six weeks, the unlikely workers had started four churches. A year later they and other local believers had formed 70 more. Now, more than 100 churches are meeting in the streets and barrios (neighborhoods) of poverty-stricken Guayaquil.

Guy and his wife, Linda, both native Texans, have served among the 3.3 million Mestizos – mixed Spanish and Indian people – of the Guayaquil area for 20 years.

People of this city, which serves as a port to the Galapagos Islands, hold to a culture of nominal Roman Catholicism, with fewer than 5 percent of the population evangelicals.

“People on the coast of Ecuador are very open,” Guy says. “They know that they’re sinners. They know that they need God. Those are things that help us because they prepare the way for presenting Christ. We’re getting to harvest what many of our fellow missionaries that came before us had planted and watered.”

Guy was one of the first Baptists to plant seeds in Ecuadorian soil. In 1963, he arrived in the capital city of Quito as a missionary kid. He remembers handing out tracts with his dad on street corners, watching people rip the paper in pieces and throw them in his face.

Openness to the Gospel – and the strategies used to bring it to the Ecuadorian people – have changed in the past 30 years. In 1997, with the average Baptist church baptizing seven people a year, the work took on a new direction. Missionaries began focusing on building house churches rather than starting churches with buildings.

In March 2000 the Muses and the Guayaquil team began praying for the Lord to send helpers. Five months later, the Solis’ church became the first answer to those prayers.

At a missions meeting, Linda announced a church starting goal that people weren’t confident could happen.

“The next year at the missions meeting,” Linda says, “we got to get up and say, ‘We started 33 churches by December.’”

Casting a vision for reaching the country’s largest city is one of the first things Guy does every seven weeks as he begins another training group. Through radio announcements and word-of-mouth, between 20 and 30 Ecuadorian believers pour into the training center each week to learn how to start la iglesia en tu casa – the church in your house. When these servant-leaders lead people to Christ, they are expected to follow up within 48 hours and immediately begin discipling. Within four weeks, each trainee is to start a new Bible study that will become a functioning house church. Guy’s role is to train these disciples in church planting skills as the Ecuadorians to reach their own people.


Marlene Lorenti, a single mom and hairdresser turned Bible teacher, is one of the results of Guy’s training. Testimonies of her faithfulness in leading her neighbors and friends to Christ come from those who meet at her beauty shop for church. A new church started from this group meets 45 minutes away in another area.

“Marlene is an on-fire evangelist,” Guy says. “She has done everything that we’ve talked about. I feel like that’s my job, to empower people.”

Through servant-leaders like Marlene, the number of house churches in Guayaquil continues to expand, some even replicating to the second and third generations. As the Muses and their team continue catalyzing church plants, they also are looking for stateside partners to carry the Gospel to unreached pockets of their province. By teaming up with Ecuadorian churches, Southern Baptists have an opportunity to strategically take the Good News to people in coastal Ecuador.

“This is the time when we need to be putting everything into the effort,” Guy says. “We have an open window of opportunity like never before. This is not the time to be holding back. We need to put everything into finishing the task. It’s finishable.”

To volunteer, check out the “Go” section of samregion.org. The Muses are among the more than 5,500 Southern Baptist international missionaries supported by the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. The close-out date for 2008 offering receipts is May 31, 2009. To learn more about the offering, go to imb.org/offering.

-Dea Davidson covered this story as an overseas correspondent with the International Mission Board.