In a word: Pray for my visa to come through to get to Peru by October 15th. I figured out where I am living in Guatemala! God has been connecting my heart with the body of Christ that is literally moving all over the world. God has connected me with some unbelievers here in Richmond that I am trying to invest in. God has been working in the last two weeks by teaching me how to church plant. God is literally re-wiring the way I think about reaching people.
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Practical things: My visa is still being worked on. Please pray that everything goes through correctly. Peru had closed off all visas for like 2 months before I got up here to the International Learning Center but everything is back up and running. Just pray that everything goes smoothly. I have put together my finances, made a will, signed over a power of attorney and even designed my own funeral as I have been here. That is been a bit morbid and even emotional at times but I am glad to have that out of the way. I got my packet yesterday for where I am going to live in Guatemala! The family I will live with has a 19 year old son that I am pumped about hanging out with! I will be the only missionary living with this family which means I will have to learn Spanish like a crazy man! Hahaha Please pray as I practice with Rosetta Stone and other tools to get ready for this experience!
Connections with God’s People: God has provided some beautiful relationships as I have been in training here at the International Learning Center. There is rarely an evening when I am not up late talking, laughing and going on random adventures during the night. It is funny though that most of the people around me are girls. There are not that many Journeyman dudes compared to gals, so it just seems like there are girls everywhere hahaha. Now I am not complaining about this, it is just an observation haha. But some of my new friends that are dudes are just amazing men of God namely: Mitch, Evan, Ryan, Paul, Brad, Josh and many others. Ryan and I are actually accountability partners for the next eight weeks and we have had some excellent conversations as we work on being well disciplined disciples.
Connections with unbelievers: In the past few weeks God has provided the opportunity to connect with Jack, Shawn and Sarah. These three I met at a local coffee shop and all three had different responses to the gospel. Jack was closed but said he would like to talk to me again if he sees me in the coffee shop. Shawn talked to me for like an hour about spiritual things. He is curious but he has never heard God and been saved. Pray that he would be saved in the name of Jesus. Sarah has a band that is playing in the coffee shop this Thursday and a few of my new friends and I are going to go hear her play. So please pray that God would open the door to share with her because of the relationship that we develop.
Church Planting: We had our typical Southern Baptist church planting session in which we talked about the “Biblical model” for church. I really was having a hard time seeing how planting this Southern Baptist church building with paid pastor, Americanized church in Peru was going to work. I have spent some time in the Library reading about my people group and about Baptist work in Peru for the past 50 years and this model has failed significantly. Then I prayed….funny how God hears His people right? I asked God with Ryan one night to give me someone to talk to about this and I just happened to pass an experienced missionary as he was getting out of his car and God laid it on my heart to talk to him about it. An hour and half later I saw this amazing picture of what church planting could look like in South America. We used random rocks and sticks to give examples of strategy as we talked through reaching these unique people in South America. In a word he said to reach out, start cell groups and link the cells together through fellowships. This model he said worked beautifully for him in South America and he didn’t need any money for his budget to do it! That shocked me that you can have small cell or house churches all over the place and then get them connected through fellowships that you have every month or so. I am still working in my mind what this looks like but after starting some small groups at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church I feel like God has been preparing me to do something similar to this. Please pray that God will teach me and I will be ready to learn as much as I can while I am here.
Getting connected overseas: Have you ever thought about going overseas? Maybe as you keep updated and pray for me as I am going through this process God might ask you to come and be apart! I want you to know that the door is open for you to come at any time you would like to aid in reaching the people of Peru. Visit my website www.tellperu.org and look under the “Go to Peru” link to find out more about getting involved!
This is just a small picture of what is happening, if you would like to hear more just shoot me an e-mail at John77xx@aol.com or call/text me at 210-316-3630.
I love you all so much!
