MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
"For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”" Acts 1:5
There are traditions and expressions of our faith that we have been doing them for a long time. Moses at the dedication of the tabernacle, made the first purification ritual of priests, calling Aaron and his sons to go in front of the people of Israel, who were gathered around the door of the tabernacle and Moses washed them with water. Years later a very peculiar character began to baptize by washing with water those who repented of their sins and wanted to start a new life.
Jesus was baptized by John with water, but three years later Jesus announce one more way of baptism, one with the Holy Spirit.
"There are people who do not stay with what is established, who change the course of what has always been done and drive us forward."
I did a bibliographical study about the people who have been relevant in the missions throughout history. It caught my attention to learn more about Ralph Winter, a man of God who gave vision to many Christians about a world that needs the gospel. His vocation was to be a Catalyst for the advancement of the kingdom throughout the world. He was called by God to study and analyze the history of global missions in order to communicate the need to focus on people groups instead of countries with geographical limits and to develop new strategies for the unification of the church in global mission.
"Ralph Winter has not only helped promote evangelism among many mission boards around the world, but through his research, training and publications he has accelerated world evangelism." -Billy Graham
Winter was also a rebel in his time, fighting against a traditionalist church. I was encouraged by the following anecdote: In the 1950s he grew convinced that he could not honor the Lord while wearing a tie, in view of the overwhelming needs of the world, he thought it was wrong to spend money on ties. One night he telephoned his holy old pastor to inform him that he would not be able to read the Scriptures the next morning in church. When his reason came out, the pastor was horrified and argued with Winter on the phone for an hour. Finally, the pastor insisted that Winter can read the scriptures regardless of how he dressed. He did, in a military jacket.
How many times do we, without realizing it, continue to be tied to the traditions and customs of our own culture that do not allows the Gospel to advance? How many times do we share our culture by focusing on the form and not the substance of the principles that Jesus has taught us?
I am thrilled when I read the life of Jesus and his interaction with the religious people of his time. He tried to explain in different ways that what is important is the background and not the form. In each time and in each place there will be different customs and ways of doing things for the Lord, but it is the right heart, a heart of servants what he wants.
I encourage you to analyze for a moment if there are any traditions in you that could be cultural barriers that are preventing the advancement of the Gospel throughout the world. I also encourage you to be willing that let Jesus change in us the traditions from these world for those from the kingdom of heaven.
With love,
-Agustin
FRONTIER VENTURES' VISIT TO CHIANG MAI
It was very nice for us to meet and greet for the first time in person with Kevin, Jeff and John. They are part of the Frontier Ventures organization with whom we have a very close relationship for working with the least reached ethnic groups.
We enjoyed delicious organic food and an afternoon of deep and engaging conversations. One of the points we talked about is the approach to training a cross-cultural worker. With them It is no longer happening in a specific training, the word training is not even used anymore. Now there is a process of continuous formation, in which the workers are constantly growing spiritually and in the other areas of their lives, which, as they are being formed, the growth happens and produce fruit for the kingdom of heaven.
BAPTISMS WITH CREATO'S CHURCH
One of our closest ministry partners is Creator's Church. It is a church with local leaders and a vision of planting 100 churches with 100 members each thus increase the Christian population in Thailand by 1%. They currently have around 35 churches.
This week they invited us to be part of the baptisms of three new believers and they asked us to collaborate with the swimming pool in the neighborhood where the ministry is located. This is a big celebration for the Latino church, as three of the four ministers that baptized that afternoon spoked Spanish. The baptism was done in Spanish with translation into English and Thai.
We faithfully believe that the Latino church is having a powerful impact on unreached people groups and that this is an example of the global church working as a team for the kingdom of heaven.
VISIT OF PHILIP AND GABRIELA
We had in these weeks a very special visit. Philip and Gabriela are a couple who have served for many years in India and Thailand. Gabriela, was born and raised in Venezuela and speaks perfect Spanish.
They visited us recommended by one of our ministry partners in Latin America, "Encamina" a school of theology and missions. Currently Philip and Gabriela are dedicating their time to movilice Latino workers among a mega church in the United States.
After an afternoon of conversations and a nice dinner, we took this photo to remind ourselves that missions is about relationships and that by working as a team the global Church can accomplish the remaining task.
LIBERTAD: ARABS IN MOROCCO AND YEMEN presented by new facilitators.
This week we have been praying for the Arab ethnic groups, mainly those found in Morocco and Yemen.
We had the debut of two new Latino facilitators who have committed to the movement, to be part of the intercession movement for the world's least reached ethnic groups.
We ask for your prayers for Elena and Hugo who from these weeks will begin to help us within the movement.
MEETING WITH EAGLES OF PEACE LATIN AMERICA
For some years now, Eagles of Peace has been preparing new Latino international workers. With offices in Albania and Guatemala, they have a fast sending strategy to send trained cultural workers with full support and proper training to different projects with unreached ethnic groups.
This week we had a meeting with Gilbert, the director of the preparation center for stage one (upstream), who was able to explain in detail the process they follow to send workers quickly and responsibly.
It is wonderful what the Lord is doing without us realizing it. We are currently working on a MOU for the stage 3. The continuous training and connection of workers for teams and projects in the least reached ethnic groups in Asia, mainly with Animist, Hindu and Buddhist communities.
MEMBER SUCCESS, Missionary's Journey timeline
We have already started the brainstorming process for the MEMBER SUCCESS project. We began to design a cross-cultural worker timeline in order to do a "Hazard Analysis of Critical Care Point" (HACCP) of the Latino workers.
We will be working intensely together with Diogo, our director os Member Success, during the following weeks to understand where there should be proactive care, in order to prepare tools for the care and continuous training of Latino workers.
Hispanics and Brazilians are coming together for helping the new missionary forces coming from our countries to have long-term success in their mission and seeing lives transformed by the teachings of Jesus.
Comments