A Motorcycle and a Tricycle
Dear All,
Thank you so much for reading these trip updates and praying for our team. = )
Thursday’s Bottom Line:
Our “Faithful Four” held their second vision-casting in Kalinga with three more new DM groups forming(!!!), thanks to Pastor Daniel’s months of investing there. And now, they have just completed their third vision-casting in three days (WOW!) in Ramon. They are all working very well together, but the pace, the travel, the heat, and the many hours of standing and teaching are also draining.
Thursday’s Prayer Requests:
1. God to give each team member grace, patience, stamina, and strength; each of them to have the rest they need and time to prepare for whatever is coming up next.
2. Scott’s physical body to “make it through” this fairly intense week of travel and ministry; specifically, his back to stay healthy and the discomfort in his right arm to end.
3. Clear communication between the coaches and the new DM groups they are setting up in each of these new areas; the groups to start promptly and be energizing and life-giving for the participants.
4. The Holy Spirit to guide the formation of our first-ever South American online DM group; it will start this coming Monday with attendees from Peru and Columbia! (Details on this in our next update.)
Thursday’s Details:
I simply MUST tell you about Pastor Daniel and his commitment to see disciple-makers raised up, no matter the personal cost.
Pastors Wilson and Angelica live in Villasis, and they have formed disciple-making groups with other pastors and church leaders in their area, including Pastor Daniel, who was powerfully impacted by being in a DM group. Very soon, he wanted to bring that process to the people in Kalinga, where he had pastored in the past. Although Kalinga is six hours away from Villasis, for the past two-and-a-half MONTHS, Pastor Daniel, who is not a young man, has traveled to and from Kalinga every week on his motorcycle(!) to lead a DM group there. The people he has been discipling in that group spread the word, invited other area pastors and church leaders to attend our team’s vision-casting there this week, and they are now the coaches who are forming and will lead the three new DM groups in Kalinga. This is very exciting!
I was about to wrap up today’s update when Scott sent me a voice message about our team’s time in Ramon, which is where they drove after the vision-casting in Kalinga.
At 9:00 AM, when the six-hour vision-casting was scheduled to start, there were ZERO people there! By 9:20, Scott was about ready to cancel the whole thing. He learned that the folks our team had worked with to arrange this vision-casting were part of a denomination whose local overseers were not pleased that they had not initiated the meeting, and because their denomination already has a discipleship process, they had forbidden folks of that denomination to attend. = {
The disciple-makers movement is not associated with or limited to any denomination. Our seminars often have pastors and church leaders from multiple denominations and non-denominations in attendance. Thankfully, our team is not easily deterred so they hung around, and after about 45 minutes, a few people did come. They were wonderfully attentive and open to what our team shared. God really put everything together and as a result, a new DM group of four or five people is now starting there!
Finally, because cultural things are often fun and usually interesting, here’s a picture Scott took a few days ago. He said, “Culture shot – double-decker tricycle. It takes passengers on top and also below (although the lower level is currently empty).”
Can you imagine tooling down the road in that?!? Thankfully we don’t have to imagine your support during this mission trip because we know you are joining your faith with ours in PRAYER. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Blessings,
Patty