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!

News from Tuesday!

JB Selecman writes the following... yesterday we had the privilege of traveling to a church plant from our main church about 1 hour away. The city of Metapan is in a bowl with great mountains surrounding it. The church is on the highest hill in the center of the city. It is an open air church that sits above the city, and below the mountains, so the view from the pulpit is almost 360 degrees of incredible views. We taught for around 4 hours beginning with Mark teaching the Great Commission, Britton explaining vocab, Josh showing them God’s multiplication table, Victor doing the Key that hangs, and Herb closing it all out with an incredible look at Paul’s relationship with Titus from 2 Cor 2:12-14. Herb also unpacked some of John 17 and talked about how Christ’s prayer life focused on His men 46 times in just 23 verses. The whole morning was anointed with the Holy Spirit.

At the end, Herb was weeping and speaking to the pastors about how his downline would continue long after he is dead, because of the young men who were teaching on the team. It really stirs Herb’s soul to see us young men who have just “begun to chase the Fox” teaching discipleship on foreign soil.

When Herb finished, several of their pastors spoke from the heart. They really take this seriously, because their whole lives are spent pouring their lives out to the masses. They are really overextended and tired. They feel like they are constantly spinning their wheels and preaching the gospel, but they see very little progress. So once they see the example of Jesus to the twelve, or Paul to Timothy, they see a more efficient and Christlike method for doing their ministry. It really is a blessing to see these light bulbs come on for these men.

One awesome door that God has opened is with a brother from Guatemala. He almost did not come to the meeting yesterday, but was there and was so moved by the teaching that he stayed late and even went to lunch with us to learn more. They are so eager and open here. He asked us if we would come to his country to teach our sessions there. So by God’s grace, we are going to Guatemala on the heels of a man who wasn’t even supposed to be here in El Salvador. Isn’t that amazing. Be praying specifically for our time in Guatemala tomorrow that this one man will catch the vision and the multiplication process will begin with him.

Views from Victor & Josh

Here is a picture of Victor Johnson sharing the gospel with a lady at the clinic! She does not speak any English and Victor does not speak any Spanish. They communicated through working through a gospel tract until a translator showed up half way through their conversation.

Here are Josh Spencer’s view on the trip so far… the third day of my first mission experience is winding down. It certainly doesn’t feel like the third day. Not that the days have been painfully long or dreadfully boring (though they have been quite rainy), but the time here seems to move differently. The pace of life here floats and lingers more than it moves, and schedules seem to drift into the next event more than they proceed into it. I have definitely been enjoying the trip thus far, and I’ve been learning a lot along the way.

On the first day, we were welcomed to the church with a very professional marching band procession, and people crowding around the entrance to celebrate our arrival. The children put on a performance for us as well, dressing up in miniature scrubs and singing English worship songs. The people here are very genuine and expressive, which is a sharp contrast to our American guardedness and attempts to save face.

Worship to the El Salvadorians is very real. There are no attempts to look good in front of others, but instead church consists of individual people worshiping with a mass of other believers crying out to their Father in their own way. Nobody complains because the next person is too loud. Nobody cares whether anyone else is clapping to the music. Nobody worries about what others will think of them if they pray out loud. Very few churches have much more than a roof and none have pews. Plastic chairs and small speakers provide the only worship setting necessary. No fuss is made if a note is missed by the musicians or a microphone squeals. And since this atmosphere exists, worship becomes even easier as a church body.

Everybody is very welcoming and loving. Our team taught this morning at a beautiful open-air church overlooking a grassy valley and mountains in the distance. The windows were only decorative square bars, so the breeze periodically blew some bible pages, sunlight provided our only light, and birds flew in and out of the sanctuary freely. It was a good morning, and especially since it had stopped raining and we were able to enjoy some dry outdoors time.

I am excited about the rest of this week. I’m sure God has a lot to teach me, and I just hope I’m not too stubborn to learn those lessons. I’ve been slightly ill the past couple of days, but nothing severe, and I received some medication just an hour or so ago that should fix me right up. There are many new people to meet and many new things to try, so these next five days should be interesting. But I will take them one moment at a time.

News from Monday!

Things are going GREAT in El Salvador! Last night we began the discipleship training conference at the main Oasis Church in Santa Anna. Several hundred people were in attendance. Herb Hodges taught the entire group for the first hour and then the group divided into two - those who were here last year and those who were not. Mark Murdoch taught the Great Commission to the rookies and JB Selecman taught the first portion of the Bible Overview to the veterans.

Today we traveled to a smaller church about 2 hours away and taught for a little over three hours. Many on the team had an opportunity to teach including Mark, Britton, Josh, Victor, and Herb. The Holy Spirit was definitely moving the group as everyone was amazingly attentive and the pastor spoke of a desire to begin a discipleship training center at his church. God has been so very good to the team so far and we have been very blessed to get to see Him moving in the hearts of His people!

News from Sunday!

Today started with a challenging devotion for the entire team lead by Brother Herb Hodges! Herb spoke from 1 Thessalonians. Nearly all of the DownLine teamed preached in various locations today.

Here are some of Mark Murdoch’s thoughts on the trip… this trip has been truly amazing already and we are just getting started. It started last night with the warmest welcome I have ever received in my life. You may have already heard another account of this, but as soon as our bus pulled up to the church we were greeted by dozens of children jumping up and down and waving their hands in the air. They gave us homemade gifts and personally escorted us to the front of the church while the national army band played. It was amazing to see how thankful they were to have us come. Ever since that time, they bend over backwards looking for ways to serve you. I do not think I have ever been in an environment where the people were so loving and so eager to serve. It has been very convicting just to see their attitudes. They truly have Christ-like hearts.

Today I had the opportunity to go preach in a small village about 20 minutes away called Texas. It was a house that they had converted into a church. The building was not large, but the people were crammed in. The church was only a year old, and I found out when I got there that many people in the church did not know the Lord. I preached from the edge of the main room and there were also people sitting in the hall behind me and in a room off to the side of the hall. The people in the side room could not even see me. This was my first time preaching with a translator. It definitely had its challenges and there were several times where it was hard to get the point across because of the language difference, but it was absolutely an amazing experience. We had prayed before that the Holy Spirit would be present – and He definitely was. At times during the talk, I got a little discouraged because I knew that I was not able to make the translator understand what I was trying to say. But God showed me that it is really not about what I have to say anyway. It is about Him moving in hearts. Though I was not able to communicate the talk in the way I had planned, God had His own plans and two people gave their lives to Christ. It was a very rewarding and humbling experience and it taught me in a tangible way a point that God has been pounding into me lately – that it is all about Him. If we abide in Him, we can bear much fruit. Apart from Him we can do nothing. It is not about our talents and abilities – it is all about Him.

It is so exciting to be here and we haven’t even started the discipleship conference yet. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do the rest of this week

El Salvador

The DownLine and GHO teams arrived in El Salvador! The Oasis Church had a marching band, at least 40 children dressed as doctors, and several hundred church members greet us at the church! The church is so very welcoming. Tomorrow Ken Nippert, Herb Hodges, Steve Winstead, JB Selecman, Victor Johnson, Mark Murdoch, and Britton Wilkins are all preaching in church services. Josh Spencer will be sharing testimony. We start the discipleship conference on Monday. Looks like this is going to be an amazing trip.

Oh, and some of the dentist hid JB's passport and he looked for it all during lunch. They realized the joke went bad, but I think JB is planning to repay the favor.