Honduras

The trip was great and everyone has returned home safely. Comments from team members will be posted.

This is what Brian Kelsey had to say "The extreme rural poverty in the mountains showed me that you can still live a life pleasing to God with purpose and meaning without all the material conveniences to which we have grown accostumed. Yet at the same time the people’s material needs were real. The people were cognizant of their needs. And they sought help from us, their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

It was humbling to watch the kids after you had given them a cookie, turn around and break it into 8 pieces to share, especially given that that may be the only Oreo they ever taste in their lives.

The people living and working among the filth, vultures, and cows at the city dump was the most disturbing thing I have ever seen in my life. No one should have to live like that.

Teaching and listening to the lessons on discipleship brought home that making disciples is the only eternal thing in the world. It’s not my career that’s important but how I use it to teach others about and to glorify Christ.

The language and cultural barrier caused me to realize that I bring nothing to the table in serving the Lord. Only He can mature disciples. And only time will tell whether our teaching bears fruit. Yet we remain faithful to Him because He has been faithful to us."

Honduras - July 4-15

DownLine Ministries is joined by folks from EIKON Ministries and Reachlife Ministries to take four discipleship teams to the mountains of Honduras. We will be doing training in four different villages. Those going who have been a part of DownLine programs include Brian Kelsey, Michael Kitchens, Chris Boyd, LeCrae Moore, Ben Washer, Boyd Rhodes, Eric Perucca, Soup Campbell and Steve Winstead.

Unfortunately, we will not have computer access on this trip so please do expect blog updates.

Zambia - May 27-June 7

Some men from the DownLine Institute 2006-2007 (LeCrae Moore, BJ Thompson & Leonard Richardson) joined Steve Winstead and the Student Ministries of Christ Church as they traveled to Zambia to do disciple-training at Choma Secondary School and at David Livingstone College of Education.

Due to lack of computer access this trip was not chronicled on the blog.

Disciple-Making Training Day 4

On Wednesday morning we took a break from teaching and spent the day with the medical and dental teams at the clinic in La Magdalena. It’s an outdoor clinic. A large tent serves as the dentist office and patients sit in metal folding chairs while they have their teeth worked on. Most of the dental patients have so much tooth decay they have to have teeth pulled. The doctors treat a lot of stomach problems. The water here is very contaminated so a majority of people have parasites. It was great seeing how much the doctors can do, but we realized quickly how glad we were to be on the teaching team! The doctors and dentists have a tough job being out there all day long. The majority of those who can speak english are the youth, so students have been serving as translators. At noon they packed up the clinic and headed to the next location. They said that in 2 and half days, they treated roughly 1,000 people... and 50 of those accepted Christ afterwards during the counseling sessions. What a cool team we’ve been able to be a part of! Seeing Jesus meet their spiritual needs, and meet their physical needs.

Wednesday Night Discipleship Training #3
Brother Herb and Steve spoke Wednesday night, and once again, it was awesome. Herb urged the people to decide to take on the position of Paul as a disciple-maker, and begin to build into others. About 30 people came forward to sort of answer a call to build the “Christ in Them” into others. The people here have fallen in love with brother Herb. They gave him a gift before he left, and were telling Danny in Spanish that he has to come back soon!

Thursday, Steve and Kennon spoke to about 30 local business people on salvation and discipleship. Tonight Kennon and Danny will finish the training at the Oasis church in Santa Anna. It is the fourth largest church in El Salvador. Danny will teach Acts 1:8 “His last words, His last will” and Kennon will have a time of question and answer regarding discipleship.

Friday morning we will spend 3 hours with teachers from a Christian Day School, helping them understand the importance of seeing their kids come to the faith, and strengthening their faith.

A recap of the teaching:
1.) Pastors in Metapan (3 Hours)
2.) Discipleship Training #1 OASIS CHURCH (3 Hours)
3.) Pastors in Chalchuapa (3 Hours)
4.) Discipleship Training #2 OASIS CHURCH (3 Hours)
5.) Sharing the Gospel in the Clinic in Magdalena (1 Hour)
6.) Discipleship Training #3 OASIS CHURCH (3 Hours)
7.) Businessmen in Santa Anna (3 Hours Thurs. Morn)
8.) Discipleship Training #4 OASIS CHURCH (3 Hours Thu. Night)
9.) Day School Teachers (3 Hours Fri. Morn)

Important update:
Part of our teaching team (Kennon, Jeremy, Steve, and Danny) challenged the El Salvadorians to a USA vs. El Salvador Basketball Game. It was on their home court, so it was tough. They knew how to use their wooden plank backboard well. Here’s your Sports Center update:
Game 1: USA 12 El Salvador 6
Game 2: USA 12 El Salvador 5
Game 3: USA 13 El Salvador 11 (F/OT)

Disciple-Making Training Day 3

Last night we taught Part 2 of our discipleship training for the host church here - Oasis of Santa Anna. Herb Hodges (Great Commision), Jeremy Blythe (Vocab) and Danny Hinton (Acts 1:1) spoke and the people loved it. The people love Brother Herb! He is overflowing with knowledge, stories and wisdom. The people loved Jeremy - the illustration with the bucket and bottles continues to vividly bring the call to discipleship to life for people! Danny spoke to them in Spanish and they loved it! They were so excited the we could speak Spanish - they all wanted to talk with him when he had finished speaking. God really used all the speakers last night! The night was awesome!

Today we went to the medical/dental clinic and share the gospel with the kids as they wait to be treated. The dental team was incredibly busy, but JB and Michael did a great job of leading the team of dental students. KV shared the gospel with the 'waiting room' - it was tent. We talked with several people waiting in line to be treated. Tonight Steve and Herb will be teaching at the Wednesday service.

The trip has gone so well so far! God is so very good! Pastors within an hour radius of Santa Anna are getting to hear some of our teaching team and explore the idea of really intentionally building into leaders through life-transference and bible teaching. It seems like there truly is “something happening” here. Leaders are arising from these groups, and pastors seem to be “freed” by the idea that their job isn’t to go to battle alone, but to train the congregation to be able to fulfill the Great Commission individually!

Disciple-Making Training Day 2

Last night Herb and Kennon spoke - they did a great job of sharing the God's vision for disciple-making! Afterwards the senior pastor of the church, Maricio, confessed to the church how he had been trying to build the church and had not been amking disciples. He told them how our group was an answer from God for him because his vision for ministry and the church had been radically tranformed! Praise God!

This morning (Tuesday) Kennon (Great Commission), Jeremy (Vocab) and Herb (2 Tim 2:2) spoke to a group of pastors - we continue to be amazed at how God is using our group here in El Salvador. At the end of the teaching we saw a few with tears in their eyes and many spoke to us about how they had been enlightened to a vision for disciple-making! The team is doing great! God is good! Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Disciple-Making Training Begins

MORNING: This morning we went to a town about an hour from Santa Anna to train a group of about 40 pastors from the surrounding areas. They were eager to learn. Kennon taught “Synthesis of the Great Commission”, Steve taught “Vocabulary of Discipleship” and Herb closed with 2 Timothy 2:2. It was great to watch it unfold. It’s funny how WORD PICTURES help to overcome the language barrier. It was a “one time” shot of 3 hours... so it was packed in, but we think they really started to understand some things we were teaching. Several of the pastors said afterwards on how impactful the training had been for them - some spoke of life change! God is good!

TONIGHT: Tonight begins a 4-Day Training Program we are doing in Santa Anna. We are most excited about this time because we will get to train them for more total hours, and give them a bigger idea on how to be strategic about MAKING DISCIPLES. We begin tonight with two messages on “Vision” taught by Herb Hodges and Kennon Vaughan.

PRAY: Pray for our teaching team to communicate clearly. Pray that the translators communicate the message clearly. Pray for our bros and sisters at the clinic working with tons of malnourished kids. Pray for a MOVEMENT of radical discipleship to happen... which leads to leaders rising up here to continue disciple-making on their own!