Learning Spanish

Perhaps you’d like to learn Spanish too?

You can download Rocket Language’s Spanish course here for $99.00. 

You can even sign up for six lessons for free. 

I’ve not used it, but it seems like it might be a good product if you want to learn Spanish via an Mp3 player while you drive.  You can order the hardcopy at nearly $300, so the digital download sounds like a better idea to me.

The best way I’ve been finding is immersion.  But many don’t have that option.  So a course you can download and begin at any hour is a great way to start. 

Reflections from Nicaragua

I recently returned from the mountains of Nicaragua teaching on ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit at two different locations with two different groups.  I praise God that we returned healthy, stayed safe, and had minimal travel delays.

At both locations, our team presented on worldview, who is the Holy Spirit, the four works of the Holy Spirit, how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then how to listen to the voice of God. 

This material is the basis of Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International’s Ignite Project.  We had the teaching slides translated into Spanish, and had more material than we could cover in our limited time.

This material has been translated into several other languages and used around the world, but this is really the first major initiative to enter Latin America. 

I’ve taught some of the material in Latin America before, but it was piecemeal.  This time, we are developing a strategy to share this material further and with more frequency as we see the need is so great.

As pictures become available, I’ll post links here.

Nehemiah Center – Managua Dec 13-14

The Nehemiah Center is a center of several different ministries working together for the transformation of Nicaragua.  It is based in Managua (see Wikipedia’s article with photos). Several international ministries have pooled together to coordinate their work and save overhead by sharing office space and support staff.  You can read about all their ministries at the Nehemiah Centers “About Us” page.

The Nehemiah Center takes its name from the example of Nehemiah in the Old Testament, who was called to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem after they had been broken down. In a similar way, the “walls” of Nicaragua have been broken down by a series of natural disasters, wars, and other events. The Nehemiah Center exists to rebuild those walls by equipping the country’s leaders in a variety of sectors with a biblical worldview, the foundation necessary to nurture the future growth of this country and its people.

We had lots of time for small group discussion, and since we had the entire teaching time, we used it liberally for discussion, q&A and allowed plenty of time for the staff to wrestle with the material that we were presenting.

Vida Joven– Jinotega Dec 17-21

We had the privilege of being with nearly 200 Young Life leaders from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico.  We had a daily class with about 40 leaders in particular, and they served as the ministry team for the nights that we had the larger group.  We taught on the work of the Holy Spirit and the gifts, and then how to minister as a team to people asking for prayer. 

We saw physical healing (for example, one pastor received a healing in his right hip from a car accident nearly 40 years ago – the Lord revealed the pain as a word of knowledge).  We saw a lot of emotional healing and several demons were dealt with.  Many rested in the Spirit. 

The highlight of the trip for me was watching the local staff grab a vision for team based prayer ministry and the confidence they had in being equipped.  It’s not that the “American team” led ministry, as much as we delegated it away to the local leaders. 

Esperanza Coffee

On the way back , we visited and toured the coffee processing facility of Esperanza Coffee.  By God’s grace, our friend and president of Esperanza, Javier, happened to be there.   I had emailed Javier that we were coming to Nicaragua, but I was never sure if he got the word, so his being there at the same time we dropped in, was merely coincidence.

I first met Javier in 1998, and have stayed in touch since then.  Esperanza gives so much back to social missions in Nicaragua from building schools, water projects, job training, and rehab centers.  It is a Christian business with a missions heart.

Javier took us to his coffee shop in Managua and we talked about lots of ideas to develop this teaching ministry in the future. 

I have enjoyed his coffee many times in my home, and you can order your own coffee direct from their offices in California. Their order page is a little out of date, but you can still order fresh coffee.  We sampled it as part of the tour and if I could give it an award I would.  It has won awards in the past. 

Future developments:

Biblical Worldview

What became clear to us during our time that much of our material answers questions that are being asked in North America.  To develop the material better, we’ll need to spend time listening to what questions are being asked in Latin America and using that to reshape our material. 

For example, North Americans tend to have a secular world view (world view images from Discipling the Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Cultures by Darrow Miller).  God does not “do work” in the world.  Events have a natural cause and effect.  Some have a biblical world view where God “does work” in the world, prayer is effective. 

Latin America tends to have an animistic worldview, which sees human life trapped in a cycle of being controlled by spirits.  For example, people refuse to live in the old section of Managua that was flattened by a pre-Christmas earthquake in 1972 because that part of town is inhabited by evil spirits.  Here in Panama, we see infants with charm bracelets on their wrists to “ward off evil spirits.”

This teaching material is greatly needed in Nicaragua, and from my observations, in Latin America in general.  It’s solid, bible based, and very well anchored in Scripture and the Reformed tradition. (Tongues is one evidence of the spirit, not the only evidence as in traditional Pentecostal theology). 

Ministry Style

It also has a ministry style that is team based, and respectful of the person being prayed for.  This is and can be a contrast to many of the potentially abusive ministry styles that I have encountered in Latin America.

Our style of prayer is

• Permission based – we ask permission first before laying on of hands or anointing with oil.
• Quiet — we pray in a normal voice without the need to shout or dramatic emphasis on keywords.
• If we feel a leading of God in prayer, we share it by saying “I think the Lord may be showing me” or couching it in more tentative language than “The Lord Says” because we realize we might be wrong.

The feedback we received was that our prayer times seemed orderly, less wracked with emotionalism, and very gentle.  Even our ministry leaders were grateful at the gentleness of the times of ministry.  It was a new style they had not encountered.

Potential Plans:

We’ve been invited to return to Vida Joven to share more on inner healing and prayer.  It’s one thing to have a 20 minute ministry session to deal with matters of forgiveness and have great encounters with God, but another thing to take the time to actually work through inner healing and freedom into discipleship.  The need is great, and we’ve been asked to revisit next year specifically to train leaders in healing ministry.

There are other possibilities that may open up, but they are still dreams and possibilities.  Nothing in firm, so I can’t yet share them.

Thanks for praying for us.

Christmas in Panama, and Upcoming Missions work

This will be our first Christmas in Panama.

It feels different to be in a place where there is no chance of snow and it’s 85 degrees outside.  It seems different to see snowmen in Christmas parades here, to see the garlands and polar bears, and hear "I’m dreaming of a white Christmas" sung by carolers in front of the hotels that cater to American foreigners.  After nearly 40 years in the US with a chance of a white Christmas, this is an entirely new way of looking at Christmas for us.

Yesterday was the Christmas parade through town.  We watched some of it on TV.  Santa was not in a sleigh with reindeer, but in a powerboat, pulled by a truck.  The celebration was capped off by a huge fireworks display which we could observe out our window.  "Wow" is an understatement to the display.  We were amazed by the celebration.

Ministry Developments

This week, I leave for Nicaragua.  We’ll be gone for 10 days.  Follow the link to read more about the work and ministry.

In January, Brenda and I will be with church leaders at a conference on Child evangelism.  Brenda and I will both be doing workshops over a couple of days.  It is being advertised nationally, and will be held at a conference center in the interior of the country.  That will be in early January, just after the turn of the new year.  Continue to be in prayer for that time of ministry as well.

EvangelismCoach.org

I also continue to write for Evangelism Coach and celebrate that my first article was published in Net Results magazine.  You can get a downloadable copy  of "Avoiding First Time Visitor Nightmares" by following the link.  The article comes with assessment questions.  Simply provide your email and it will be automatically sent to you. 

Next Mission Trip: Nicaragua

On Dec 12, I leave for Nicaragua to continue ministry in Central America.  We believe that our calling is to the Americas, so this step continues to unfold that plan.

I will be part of a team from Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International that will be conducting teaching/training events in two different locations.

December 12-15

We will be with the leadership of the Nehemiah Center, teaching through the Dunamis material from PRMI.

December 16-22

We will be with Vida Joven (Young Life) in Matagalpa for their annual leadership training conference.  We will be teaching the same material during the mornings, and the evenings we’ll have the plenary sessions with 200+ young life leaders from around the country.

• Be in prayer for us as we go and travel.
• Pray for safe uneventful travel (most fly out Dec. 12) and for physical and emotional health.
• Please pray also for the families of the team members.
• Please pray for Chris Walker as he gets the power points ready.
• Pray for all the preparation and the technology to work smoothly and seamlessly.
• Please pray for the Christian Reformed missionaries and others who will be attending the first event (Dec.13-14) that the team will lead. 
• Pray for God to draw people and for them to be sensitive and obedient to His leading.
• Pray for God to give the PRMI team favor in their eyes as this is the first contact we will have, and several different ’streams’ of the Body are coming together here.
• Pray for unity among our team, that God will weave them together to demonstrate the mutuality in ministry and the flowing of leadership that so beautifully characterizes PRMI. Several of them don’t know each other yet.
• Special prayers for Sam Hale, our team leader who has been struggling with an illness that affects his voice.  I would like to pray that God dramatically heals Sam on this trip as he is a very gifted teacher and spiritual mentor. Pray for Jesus to get great glory from this healing.  
• Pray for the Young Life leaders that our team will be teaching on he second part of the trip after traveling to Managua Dec. 14.  
• Pray for a good connection among all; that language will not be a problem during this event (Dec. 16-22) 
• Pray for them to grow in power ministry and theological grounding. 
• Pray that God uses us to unite Catholic and Protestants of various ’streams’ that will be present.
• Finally pray for spiritual protection for both events/places & groups and for all the individuals and their families. Pray that the schemes of   darkness will be revealed  and overcome by Jesus’ servants acting in obedience. Pray that the enemy will be bound from exploiting any differences in culture, language, politics etc.. to sow division.
• Pray for safe uneventful travel back to Managua on Dec. 22 and  home on  Dec. 23.

Thank you again for being wiling to take part in this with us!