First Leadership Development Conference

It was a great privilege to be a part of my first Leadership Development Conference (LDC) last night and this morning where we had 70 people attend. These conferences are where we teach pastors and people from their congregations about prayer, evangelism, discipleship, gathering, developing leaders. After the conference they have the tools needed to prepare for when our North American teams come down to work this them so they will be ready to plant a new church. I taught evangelism and leadership develop while another church planter, Dan, and the e3 National Director, Danny, taught the other portions. I have been studying these materials for the past several months so it was great to see the conference in action and how excited our national brothers are to receive the training.

Heading for the border, Peru border that is.

When you expect an 8 hour bus ride and it turns into 12…well that just a long time on a bus. But it was nice and I did arrive safely, after many encouraging word from my Ecuadorian friends like, "Are you going alone?" or "That is very dangerous." Thanks alot!

The Panama America Highway uses the term highway very loosely let me tell ya. I live on a dirt road and most of the time it was better that this. Anyway, it allowed for lot’s of study and prayer time. More soon.

May 27 - What road will he travel?

Back at sports, back out in the heat, back with rowdy kids. Oh, my goodness we had 150 very active kids. Both girls and boys were so excited we were there they just couldn’t contain themselves. One boy in particular was Julio. I could tell other coaches were having troubles with him as well and making matters worse. At 13 he was setting the tone and example for the rest of the kids. He was bouncing between sports, cutting in line, shouting and not listening. When he came to my sport I watched him very closely and could tell the others looked up to him. He had natural leadership skills even at the age of 13. When it came time to teach the kids about Jesus, my translator and I pulled Julio aside to share with him individually. We talked about his behavior which led into other discussions about sin and how we’ve all done it. Continuing to talk with him we related the story of Jesus paying the penalty of our sin, about what repentance was and how the Bible was God’s letter to us and how he wanted us to live. He was still, he was attentive, he was sorry. Then the Lord prompted him and Julio quietly, far from the other kids prayed to be friend of Jesus. Afterwards we snuck him in to the medical clinic through a side door so the doctors could look at the sty in his eye. We gathered his home information and introduced him to one of the men at the church. Lastly, I sat him and gave him the gift of God’s Word. I told him the natural leadership skills God had given him could be used to lead people down a good or bad road. I asked him do you know what you class needs, do you know what your country needs, do you know what this world needs more of?... Good men. If he reads God’s word it would it would instruct him how to be like Christ and how to lead people down the good and narrow path. He tucked the Bible in his backpack, we high-fived, he walked home. I know I won’t see him again till Heaven but I expect to hear good things from him when we meet again.

May 26 - sandels instead of tennis shoes

Laying our sports equipment down today, the sports team headed out into the field to focus on sharing Christ in homes. Along with my interpreter and me we were joined by the pastor of the church (Richard) and another church member (Javier). Javier had been a believer for some time but had never shared his faith. In the morning we went to several homes and I shared my testimony and used the Evangecube to relate the story of Jesus. Javier watched closely and after lunch he was ready to go. We had time to go to two homes where we was able to lead 2 men to Christ. He was excited. Later during a session on how to disciple new believers, Javier spoke out. He said, “As I am here today I feel that by this training (in Evangelism and Discipleship) God is raising me up (and he stood) to go out and share more about Jesus Christ”. Wow, that’s it! We have to be training our national brother and sisters to do the work year around.

CONVICTION ALERT! Several of the houses that I spoke in seemed to have a common issue with taking the step to put their faith in Jesus and it wasn’t what you’d think. It was us, Christians. Many people said they had known people who said they were Christians but they lived no different than anyone else so what should they bother to become a Christians if that is the way Christians live. Ouch! As believers we need to be very careful of our witness and take Jesus’ word to heart when he said it is better to be hot or cold than to be luke warm.

May 25 - Working in Babahoya

The drive to the mission point wasn’t too long this morning as we travelled along the river, passing by homes build to iffy looking stilts out over the water. Again we were in a school facility and we were a bit relieved when we saw there wasn’t a giant line waiting. Little did we know however that the parents were inside and there were over 500 kids in the school. Taking it in stride we laid out a plan were all the kids would get to enjoy a time of sports and then go through a small group time of learning about the story of Jesus Christ.

May 24 - First day of minstry in Ecuador!

After leaving our home base of Babahoya and driving through miles and miles and miles of banana fields, we arrived at our first mission point in Vinces. Two new national church planters had been trained a couple months earlier and were ready for our sports and medical teams to help them start their new churches. We were working inside a school facility and when our bus arrived there was a line extending around the block. Both teams quickly began setting up equipment. Our sports team was able to minister to the children while their parents stood in the long lines and waited for hours. Throughout the day we had 100 come through the sports clinic and when it was time to share the Gospel, 65 kids heard the Good News around 49 made decisions to follow Christ.

After lunch I was able to sit down with 10 younger boys and begin to teach them the importance as new followers of Christ to pray, read God’s word and attend the new church in their area. I was also able to teach them the importance of sharing their new faith as well as how to do it. It was a sweet time of discipleship.