El Salvador Wednesday

Wednesday

It was strange to say good bye so quickly tonight. For the people of the church, it was our last time to be together. We gathered tonight for Wednesday Night Worship, and continued with discipleship training from Monday and Tuesday Nights. The thing that continues to be such an encouragement is how grateful they are for us coming. Each and every member of the church (or close to it) came and gave us each a hug to thank us for coming.

We spent some very strategic time this morning with some lay leaders in the church. JB and Ken taught, and JB said that this was by far the most hungry/motivated groups we have had so far. At the end, the group from Nicaragua and the group from Santa Ana each were asked to have a volunteer stand up to be accountable to gathering the group for further discussion on disciple making. It was cool to see them step up, step out in faith, and think about leading like this. Among those being trained in our sessions this week were groups from all over El Salvador and a group from Nicaragua. Tremendous potential for influence.

Dr. Dick has been spending some very intentional time with the doctors in the church, learning about their medical system, building relationships, and just encouraging these doctors in their work. There has been a special bond made with Dr. Alex, who is a pediatrician and a pastor. He works in the hospital all day, and then has been coming at night for discipleship training!

Tomorrow we are gearing up for our pastors conference. 200-400 pastors are expected. Please pray that these men catch the vision for disciple making, and this kind of strategy to reach the world for Christ will begin infiltrating El Salvador and Central America.

Tomorrow (Thursday) night we will head to a hotel near the airport. Not sure if we will have internet or not. If not, we will try to update this one last time to give a recap on Thursday’s pastors conference at some point. We’re packing our bags, and are a little sad to start heading home, but have a huge mission tomorrow. An added prayer request, Tim has a great opportunity tomorrow morning to meet with a group of business leaders in Santa Ana who meet together weekly. This group is very influential! We are praying Tim’s testimony will make a great impact.

Good night.

El Salvador Team (JB, Ken, Dick, Tim and Danny)

El Salvador Pictures 3

Church Gathering Wednesday Night



Guards outside the neighborhood that we stayed in



Driving Through Santa Ana


Driving Through Santa Ana


Driving Through Santa Ana



Driving Through Santa Ana



Driving Through Santa Ana



Smal Group of Leaders Wednesday Morning


Pupulsas Tuesday Night (cooked over the open fire)


Pupulsa-Chefs Tuesday Night

El Salvador Tuesday

Tuesday

Today, was another busy day.

To give you a little overall perspective, we are trying to do several things while we are here:

1.) Continue discipleship training with leaders of Oasis Church, helping them spur on their leadership to begin discipling, answer questions and struggles they have had over the past few years, etc.
2.) Cast a fresh vision of disciple-making to the pastors from around the country, who have been gathered for this teaching this week.
3.) Be an encouragement (as always) to the Christian School at Oasis Church, equipping and training teachers, teaching classes in the upper school, and spending time with the kids.

Discipleship Training with Leader of Oasis Church:
Saturday Night with 15 lead pastors from all Oasis Church Plants
Sunday Morning Preaching at all Oasis Church Plants
Monday Morning Training with Deacons from Oasis Church
Mon, Tues, & Wed Nt Discipleship Church Conference 6:30-8:00pm (Oasis & Plants)

Fresh Vision for Disciple Making to the Pastors from around the country:
Thursday Pastor’s Conference (expecting 200-400 pastors from El Salvador)

Be an Encouragement to the Christian School at Oasis Church:
Monday Afternoon Encouraging Teachers to Invest Spiritually in Students
Tuesday Morning Teaching High School Students in Chapel
Tuesday Afternoon Training Teachers & Administration in “Family Ministry” Model

Tonight, Dick & Ken got very practical by giving the “9 Qualifications” and the “10 How To’s” respectively. We spent much of the day at the school with the students, teaching at chapel, and Danny spent an hour doing a workshop on the family ministry model. We continue to be blessed by these people, and their generosity, compassion, and general desire to grow and learn. But we are also praying that they put action to this! Because of the layout, we do not eat dinner until 9 or 10pm. Tonight, we went out for famous “Pupulsas”, which is like a cheese tortilla. It was fun to be with our friends and enjoy one of their traditions.

Early morning tomorrow. Danny will be teaching The Doctrine of Salvation in the upper school, and we will be doing discipleship training in the morning with 20 leaders in the church, and at night as part of the conference once again. We’re all getting tired, but it seems like we’re getting little jolts of energy from conversations with people here, from each other, and from the Holy Spirit. Thanks for your prayers. We are constantly talking about the blessing of our families and friends who support us in this.

"Ustedes pueden hacer discipulos por la fuerza de Dios"

The El Salvador Team (JB, Ken, Dick, Tim, and Danny)

El Salvador Pictures 2

JB "Great Commission" Monday Night


Danny "Key That Hangs" Monday Night


Breakfast at Pastor Mauricio's Tuesday Morning



Soccer with the Students Tuesday. Grengos 2 Estudiantes 8


Soccer with the Students Tuesday. Grengos 2 Estudiantes 8



Chapel From the Back



Chapel From the Front


Praying to Begin Teaching Time w/ Dick & Ken Tuesday Night


Pupulsas Tuesday Night with DL Team & Oasis Team

El Salvador Monday

Today, we woke up early for a 3-hour training session with the deacons at Oasis Santa Ana. There are 18 young leaders in the church who were present with us. Since they have heard so many of these teachings over the past four years, we are trying to reinstill vision, but also be very practical. JB revisited Great Commission and quizzed them a bit with multiplication. Then Danny taught on the potential of one man from “The Key That Hangs at the Front Door of Church History,” and then Ken taught on the “10 How-To’s”. Mauricio explained that this is such an important group. They are the future leaders of the church. One of the most encouraging things about this gathering was that the leader group from Nicaragua (and their pastor) was present, and have been present at all of our teaching sessions. They are listening extra carefully because they will be taking this to Nicaragua.

In the afternoon, we are spending time with the teachers from the Oasis School which was started by the church. It is similar to a Christian School in the states, trying to give the kids a biblical worldview while providing great academics. We are spending two afternoons speaking with them about the potential they could have if they engaged in their students’ spiritual, family, and social lives, serving as a mentor and spiritual influencer in their lives. We are also incorporating some teaching on Family Ministry, incorporating parents, as the primary faith trainer in the family, into the mission of the school.

Tonight will be our first night of the church conference. We will be laying the framework once again for disciple making. And each night, we will build on this teaching by getting more practical.

Our team is doing well, and we are enjoying our time here, and our time together. It is a joy to be appreciated. There is much “life-transference” that happens even when we are not teaching from the front. We are learning much about their culture, and they are asking some very practical questions about discipling in their contexts. If you were to look around each meeting space after any one of our teachings, you would see each of the 5 of us “grengos” spread throughout the room engaging in discussions with the Salvadorans about disciple making, about life, about faith. We are certainly busy, and Pastor Mauricio is putting us to work. We’re not complaining, because each of us misses his family very much, and we want to be busy and strategic while we are here.

It looks like we will be able to update this blog at least every couple of days. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Be sure to look at our previous post. We posted some pictures.

The El Salvador Team (JB, Ken, Tim, Dick, and Danny)

El Salvador Pictures

La casa de Tim y Dick




JB Teaching Oasis Pastors Saturday Night




Oasis Pastors Again (We met outside in a pavilion)




Worship at Oasis Main Campus Sunday Morning




Worship at Oasis Main Campus Sunday Morning




Worship Team (with overhead projector) in Antiquizaya (Where Tim Preached)




Danny & Tim on the way to Country-Side Church La Magdalena




Danny & Tim on the way to Country-Side Church La Magdalena




Gathering to pray for an elderly woman of the church




Teaching the Oasis Teachers Monday Afternoon

El Salvador (Hacer Discipulos)

Thank everyone for your prayers.

Saturday, our flight to San Salvador was delayed a bit, but we made it in ok, just a couple hours late. We met up with "hermano Tim" from DownLine NWA, and our team of 5 arrived in San Salvador about 2-3pm Saturday. We had a quick lunch, and headed to our host homes. This year, we are staying with members of the church. It is a huge step in our relationship with these people.

Saturday night was a very strategic gathering. For the first time since DL has sent teams down here, we gathered with all of the Oasis Pastors from throughout El Salvador. We met in a church member's back yard, and 15 pastors and their wives showed up. We began teaching at 8pm, and finished at 11 or 1130. These pastors have been exposed to the idea of disciple making in a few other contexts over the past few years, but this was 3 hours of trying to put a clear vision in front of them. JB taught Great Commission, Ken taught Vocabulary and Danny taught Thessalonians. Afterwards, the pastors wanted to continue talking. It was about 65 degrees, and they were freezing (we were loving it) and they wanted to continue to discuss and ask questions. Many pastors were saying that after 4 years they "finally see the Savior's strategy". Three in particular vocalized that their "eyes had been opened" that night. And of course, from Ephesians 1, that was our prayer. So we went to bed exhausted, but thinking about the tremendous potential for kingdom impact that was in that gathering.

Sunday:
We got up bright and early. Most of us ate a traditional Salvadoran breakfast with our host families. Some eggs, some ham... but the staples: bread and beans! Then we split up to preach at several different church plants within an hour or two of Santa Ana. Tim preached in Antiquizaya to about 30-40 church members, and then spent some time discussing disciple making with folks from the church at lunch. His comment was that he wanted to bring some of the Antiquizayans back to the US to show some of our churches how to worship. JB spoke at Oasis Santa Ana, and Ken went to a local church plant, pastored by Pastor Mauricio's son. Danny went to Chalchuapa, where he preached four years ago. And Dick went to Brother Alex's church a little farther out. They have an interesting bond, since they are both Pediatricians.

A hearty lunch of "Pollo Campero", and an hour to rest, and now we're off to preach at some afternoon services in Texis and La Magdalena.

Thanks for your prayers. We continue to pray for these people to really catch the vision for multiplicative disciple making. Also pray for us, that we stay healthy and energized, as it can be very draining interacting and teaching in another culture. This trip is so strategic in so many ways. Hopefully we will find time to update this again soon. And Tim has been taking some awesome pictures we're going to try to get up here as well. We will see. So far, we're off to a great start.

Blessings.

El Salvador Team (JB, Ken, Dick, Tim, and Danny)

El Salvador Update

The team in El Salvador is doing great! Here are some of the statements from JB and Pepper….

FROM PEPPER…
Dear praying friends,

I will keep it short. I am using a keyboard from a different country.

A few of us will be speaking at a pastor’s conference on Thursday. 150 to 300 will be in attendance. I will be speaking on the great commission. Other topics include vision and strategy, multiplication etc. Please take a moment and lift the pastor’s up along with us as well as we communicate important truths that have the potential to change the lives of many. I will be speaking at a church tomorrow night in Santa Ana here in El Salvador.

We are having a great time doing ministry here. As you pray...you are impacting El Salvador and the surrounding countries perhaps for generations.

I love you guys!
Pepper

FROM JB…
Things are going very, very, very well. The team is awesome! I believe this church and country are about to explode. I am not just saying that. There is some serious fruit being produced, and more fruit I think is close.

Thursday is our pastor's conference. Please be in strong prayer. We have at least one hundred coming, and Mauricio found out last night, that 200 more (that's right) want to come. I don't think we have a place large enough to accommodate them, but we will see. The word is out and it is because of Mauricio and his family disciples. It really is similar to what we read in 1 Thess. All of Macedonia and Achaia have heard about this, and I think it is only a matter of time before they become the sounding board or trumpet blast everywhere. This is good stuff my brother.

All of our teachers are doing awesome. Praise the Lord. JB

FROM PEPPER…
It (discipleship) is beginning to really take off here. We have a pastor’s conference on Thursday from 8 30 to 4pm. Please pray for us. Pepper

El Salvador

The El Salvador Team made it to their destination and things are going well for them. More updates will follow soon!

Friday Update

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Wednesday Update

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Tuesday Update - Britton and Jeremy

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Monday - El Salvador Update

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El Salvador Video Update

www.tokbox.com

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The Day Before

We are leaving in less than 24hrs and spending the last day doing some last minute preparation. I am going to blog as much as possible while in El Salvador. Please be praying for safety with the political elections and also for our passage through customs with all our medicines.

We will preach at several churches in El Salvador on Sunday morning. Our discipleship conference will begin on Monday night. I will send more info when we get there.

God Bless. Your brother.
JB Selecman Matt 28:18-20

El Salvador

JB writes... Hey downline family, hope all is well in the good ole USA. We are doing well in El Salvador. As I write this, it is Sunday afternoon and the team has just finished preaching in several different churches. Steve preached at the main church in Santa Ana. Quinton preached in Sonsonate, Dustin and Matt preached in Antquizaya, and I preached in Chalchuapa. Our official conference is finished and the Lord really stirred everyone’s hearts as we taught the discipleship training. This is now the third year we have come here, so some of the brothers and sisters here are beginning to understand the life on life transference that is actually takes to make disciples. They have caught the vision and strategy of Christ and now they are beginning to disciple others. They have many practical questions about how and what to do. This means that they are actually putting into practice Christ’s strategy, or they have at least thought long and hard about it. The head pastor is such a Godly Christ Focused man and he has twelve men that he is discipling. Praise God. I think he is realizing that twelve was too many to take at one time, so when he has trained them to the point of reproduction, he will probably go smaller next time.

Quinton is a master with their teachers. He and Steve have spoken over six hours to their Christian teachers. They had so many practical questions for them. Because of Steve’s experience with youth and Quinton’s experience in education, these sessions were so valuable. We hadn’t even planned on doing these sessions, but obviously God was. I was able to sit in on these sessions and could not believe how God used them.

Last night a door was opened for us from a contact we made four months ago. Tito was our translator last year for the main discipleship sessions. He heard the word last year, and we spoke at his church last night. They have a young couple in their church who speak English and who are very hungry for the word. Listen to this, right before I gave the vision and strategy and Steve spoke on the Great Commission, William (the local) told me that he was really interested in the relationship between Paul and Timothy. He wanted to know more about them! Isn’t God good. We spent the next several hours with them over a meal building a relationship. They are going to come to our training conference next march. It was really and blessed night.

The brothers from Nicaragua left yesterday because of flooding in their hometown. It rains here for 6 months straight. We were discouraged they had to leave early, but we know God is in control. They drove 10 hours in the rain on bad roads and missed the entire first night of the conference. Steve and I were able to spend some good one on one time with them going over the strategy. It actually was a very sweet time and because the settings we taught them in were more intimate, probably more effective. I think we will see them again. I love how God opens and shuts doors on His timing to allow these meetings with new people that we can continue to build on year after year.

We have more services tonight and then more training with pastors on Monday and Tuesday. Continue to pray for the words to take root in their lives and for God’s anointing with our brothers.

More from El Salvador

Greetings from El Salvador! The Lord is truly blessing what is happening here! On Friday the team trained more teachers and students from the Christian school that is connected with the Oasis Church. Also, while the teachers were being trained, JB taught four brothers from Nicaragua who drove over 8 hours to hear the teaching on discipleship! Last night Q shared with the main group and then we broke into smaller groups for more teaching. The people we are teaching are very attentive and have lots of insightful questions. Please continue to pray for our team – God is doing some amazing things here!

El Salvador

JB Selecman writes... What's up from El Salvador. You all will be happy to know that it is still raining, Hotel Toleteka is still here, and the Christmas decorations are already out everywhere. Who would have thought, they are early for Christmas. We are having a great time. Last night Steve taught on Jesus vision for his disciples from Mark 1 and Luke 4, where Jesus tells the disciples the only thing he plans to make them into - fishers of men and how the strategy for that is played out in Jesus lifestyle of discipleship! Today was the first day of our teaching. We had four hours with their teachers and administrators today and two hours with their high school students. The teachers are all trying so hard to love their students and give them an education with a Biblical worldview. They had many questions and Steve and Quentin did an awesome job with them today. By the way, Quinton Lytle is a father of eight children (that is not a typo) who has homeschooled all his children. He has been a pastor and the principle for a school for inner city school kids who have been kicked out of public schools. He is now working with Downline full time and has worked in ministry in Memphis for 20 years. He worked for five years for JIFF (Juvenile Intervention Faith Based Followup). So you can imagine how helpful he is with the teachers.

Tonight begins the conference. It runs until Sat night. We will be teaching Discipleship as always and do 3 breakout small group sessions. They are really starting to understand discipleship. They have had some growing pains as the seek to live a lifestyle of discipleship and have many questions which is a great thing. It means they are trying and struggling with it and they are eager to learn more. Please pray for the perseverance and patience. On Sunday, we will preach 8 to 10 different sermons. Pastor M. asked us to preach on discipleship even from the pulpit to encourage the lay people in the churches to get involved with one on one relational ministries in their spheres of influence. Discipleship is really on his heart.

Pastor M. is doing great. He was so excited to see us and sends his love to all of you. He is already talking about next March when we come back. I am going to find out more about the elections and let you guys know. Right now he said, it looks like the communist party is leading in the poles. They are really worried about the election, because the govt could shut their school down. Please continue to pray for this.

Leaving El Salvador

We missed our flight because a security guard overslept! That is the way things seem to work in El Salvador. Despite the delay, the week was been truly incredible and the Lord has used the team. On Friday we taught a group of business and pastors. They were incredible receptive to discipleship.

News from Wednesday!

Britton Wilkins writes the following... I have been so encouraged by the genuine faith of the people here. Their goal when they come to church is to exalt The Living God. They do not seem to have anything else on their minds. They do not seem to be concerned about what time the service will start or when it will get out. They are just glad to be there. It is refreshing!

Yesterday was another great day! We had the opportunity to speak to about 50 teachers from the school. They face many of the same challenges educators in the U.S. face when dealing with today’s youth but it was easy to see the great burden and love they had for their students.

In one room J.B. and Herb did a great job casting the vision of the Great Commission and challenging the teachers to see their students as a way to change the Nations…to think beyond their school and El Salvador! This is the room I was in and it was great to see how the teachers received and understood the message. After J.B. and Herb were finished, some of the teachers asked to share and it was clear that the Lord had moved in their hearts. They we burdened for their students and you could see that their hearts were renewed to reach their students and therefore the Nations through making disciples. They wept as they shared how they had impacted by Jesus’ words in the Great Commission. One teacher even said she felt as if the Lord has been calling her to a ministry to disciple the poor children of El Salvador and shared, that after hearing this message, she had no choice but to pursue this ministry. Her boss was in the room and stood up after she had essentially announced she was changing “careers” and affirmed her decision. She said she knew this was a burden on that teacher’s heart and she felt as if that decision was imminent. It was great to hear one after one how the Lord was giving them a heart and vision for discipling their students. It is times like these where you can see the Lord channeling the love they have for their students into Jesus’ method for reaching the Nations…these are the times we realize why we came!

In the other room Mark shared the Great Commission and Steve conducted a Q & A session which helped the teachers apply the Commission to their classrooms. They were very encouraged by what they heard and the Q & A session was very productive. We then met with the administrators of the school and Steve talked a little more about what the Biblical model of a disciple is and challenged them to pray for their students. It was a great time to be with those teachers and to see a glimpse of their passion and desire to serve the Lord by teaching tomorrow’s generation of leaders in El Salvador.

The Doctors continued their great work yesterday. As of Wednesday, they have seen or treated over 1200 people! They are doing amazing work in less than ideal conditions! It is great to see how thankful the people are for simple medical things. One lady started crying and gave Dr. Joe Rowland a hug after he gave her reading glasses she could have bought at the store! She was now able to read again!

The doctors are helping meet their physical needs and the church is helping meet their spiritual needs. The truth of Gospel is shared with each person that is treated and church members pray with them if they have requests. After the first two days over 125 people had placed their trust in Christ! The church will follow up with each of these people to try to plug them into one of the 8 churches Pastor Maricio has planted in El Salvador.

Last night was also great! Pastor Herb challenged each of us with the parable of the tares explained in Matthew 13:37-43 and John 12:20-26. It is important for each of us to remember that in order for a seed to bear fruit it must first die. After it dies and is nurtured by the living water of Christ, it bears fruit which creates more seeds which in turn do the same. The challenge is clear for each of us die to self, follow Christ, bear fruit and build the same in others to the Glory of God.

Also last night, Josh Brink shared at the same time as Herb for the people who received the discipleship training last year. He taught part of the Bible overview and that group of faithful people have really enjoyed receiving an overview of the entire Bible to better understand where each book fits in and how the Bible relates to itself.

What a privilege it is to be here!