Train, Stretch and Pull...God is wearing me out!

“Train, stretch, and pull...I feel like God is wearing me out trying to get me ready to go to Peru.  Literally all day long I sit in sessions that challenge everything I have ever learned about evangelism, or church planting.  It is quite a challenge and my head really hurts but I am finally doing what God wants me to do!”

In a word: I am finally getting to the meat of what I will be doing—church planting.  That’s right it is the goal of every missionary (despite your job description) to start what is called a church planting movement in the area where he or she is.  (Read on below if interested).  My friendships continue to grow while I am here and God has opened the door for me to share the gospel with my new friends Shawn, Sarah Carlos, and Dolly.  Please pray they would come to faith.  The visa process is going to start in October while I am in Guatemala, so please pray that everything will work out since the Peruvian government has been weird about visas lately.

Church Planting: I have learned about what is called a CPM or church planting movement.  This is basically where I go into a village, city or wherever (even in the states) and I find a man or woman of peace to start investing in.  Second, I start a small group of people typically in the home of the man or woman of peace and dialogue with them about the gospel and the Bible.  Once a few of them come to faith (including the man or woman of peace) I begin to allow he or she to take over the small group—teaching it and leading it.  My goal the whole time is to train so that everyone in the group can be trained.  It is like my new missionary friend said today, “We see every new believer as a potential church start in their culture.” The concept is that there is no way the world is going to be reached by the amount of pastors that we can train, instead it is going to be won by the national believers that we train in our small house churches.  Have you ever thought for instance that anyone can baptize?  Maybe you have known that your whole life but I have always had this thought in my mind that it would be better if a minister did it or something.  The best thing on the field though is to allow those that lead their friends and family to Christ to baptize them.  It gives them ownership in what God is doing and therefore gives them a passion to go reach all of the other lost people that they know.  I am still learning so much but I am so pumped that we are learning these things!

People I have met: You know what is great?  There are people from all walks of life here?  God truly calls anybody and everybody to go do this missionary thing.  We have people that were saved when they were 5 and people were saved only 3 years ago.  We have a ton of girls and just a few guys, which isn’t surprising in mission work these days.  And most of all we have people that have worked as engineers, fast food cashiers, nurses, and even those with their first job.  So there are always amazing conversations about where people have come from and why they would move to Africa, the middle east, Europe or wherever.

Lost people I am speaking with:

The Lord is increasing my faith and my passion to share my faith as I go.  I had the opportunity last night to share with a lady named Dolly who I don’t think had really heard the gospel before.  She was working at Waffle House and she was raised Catholic but when I told her of how God had changed my life it was something different to her.   She looked at me with such sincerity and hunger but the words coming out of her mouth were almost turned off.  I told her I would pray for her last night and that she ought to ask God to speak to her about Salvation.  So please pray for her that she would come to faith.

I am looking to invest in Sarah and Shawn at the Daily Grind Coffee Company.  Shawn seems to be open to talking all about spiritual things.  He reads the Bible all of the time, along with the Torah and the Koran. Sarah’s band played at the coffee shop one night and we all went to hear her to reach out to her. I have not shared the gospel with Sarah but one my new friends named Katie apparently had the opportunity to share with her.  So please pray that these two would be saved.

Finally I have the opportunity to go to El Paso Mexican Restaurant here in Richmond and share my faith in Spanish.  It wasn’t amazing by any means but my new friend Carlos and another man working with him told me to come back at about 3PM sometime and they would like to talk about Jesus a little more.  So please pray for an opportunity to do this and that God would give me understanding in Spanish that I don’t have.

And finally:

Things are wearing on and I am getting tired.  I am beginning to look toward the field and it is difficult to leave all of this behind.  Some TCK’s (Third Culture Kids or Missionary Kids) got up during a session and shared about how they said good-bye their whole lives because they moved around so much.  They were so disconnected from the US and even from the country that they grew up in that they didn’t have anywhere to call home.  It hit me when they started talking about this that I am going to move around a lot now and many of my friends are not going to live close to me.  That is hard considering I have never really lived outside of Texas before.  I mean I have really only moved once and that was for college.  So this is a huge transition for me!  I am pumped about it, but I am beginning the emotional process of letting go of what I have here—so that I can go serve the Lord over there.  So please pray like crazy for me as I work through this!

I love each of you 

Connections Made and Learning the Missionary Life

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!

 

 

Adventure's at Training Begin!

Friends and family—this has been an exciting adventure as I have finally moved into the International Learning Center up here in Richmond, VA!  This place is where missionaries with the International Mission Board are trained before going overseas.  The training has been great!  I have had the opportunity to learn more about church planting, cross cultural witnessing and my spiritual life.  To give you an idea of everyday life here at the ILC—I get up for our sessions that start about 8 or 9 everyday and I sit in sessions until about 5PM that night.  We have had sessions about medical information, living arrangements and also many on spiritual development.  Some sessions (I will be honest) are extremely boring but many of them are very helpful in getting me prepared for overseas service.

Can I tell you how grateful I am for people?  I have met some of the most amazing people on the planet.  These people actually live, eat and breath missions.  They have the same heart I do to reach the nations for Jesus Christ!  There is a handful here that will serve with me on my team in Peru!  Their names are Jessica Brooks, Mindy McCord, Jim Gilstrap, and Christine Jackson.  My team is a dynamic one that I am confident will see God do great things while we are down there.  On the larger scale—there are nearly 375 people out here and I hope to at least meet all of them! LOL—I am not sure that’s going to happen!

So all of that to say my friends and family—I love this and this is everything I have been waiting for!  I finally get to do what God told me to do—“go” and reach the nations for His name!  I have wanted to do this since my sophomore year of high school and I couldn’t be anywhere else right now. 

Please continue to pray that God will give me a hunger to share.  To give you an idea of what is coming up—we have to share Christ at least three times a week while we are up here.  Please ask the Father that He will plant people in my life to invest in up here—people that do not know Jesus Christ.  Secondly please pray that God will develop some beautiful friendships while I am up here so that I can have even more support on the field.  And finally ask God to change me while I am here.  I need to learn so much it is overwhelming—I know nothing about church planting and I need an overhaul when it comes to evangelism and spiritual development.  So would you ask God for that?  Ask Him to change me into a new man.

I love you so much and thank you for your prayers, your love and your support as I begin my preparation to move to Huancayo, Peru. 

Preaching Sunday July 27th

Sunday night at 6:00PM I will be preaching/being commissioned at First Baptist Church San Antonio Texas!  I have been working there for some time now investing in students until I leave for training at the International Learning Center in Richmond Virginia.  This is a special service for me as many of my friends and family are coming from all over Texas!  So I look forward to getting to preach the Word and be commissioned by the people I love so much!