Mexico Mission Trip (3 of 3)

Overall, we were impressed with the partnership the BGCO has established with the Guerrero Baptist Convention. To make this a true partnership, they are pairing local churches in Mexico and churches in Oklahoma to truly work together to plant churches. The leader in Guerrero is organized, smart, prayerful, and strategic. Pastors of the church plants were eager to be about the work of the Lord and reach their communities for Christ.

While the whole region of Guerrero is being adopted, we are looking in and around Acapulco for our church plant. It was a bit odd knowing that we were to pick which of the 18 churches we visited pastors/churches we wanted to work with – the pastors we visited knew this was happening too! Fortunately, we had our dates set for 2013 and are working with a church that had already planned a crusade that week. There were several other pastor/church plants more than worthy to work with as well.

I was amazed by some of the stories of sacrifice being made by the pastors we met. One man moved from Cuba to Mexico (without his family, because he felt called of God to Acapulco – his family is try to move to Mexico legally). Several of the pastors moved their families to the neighborhoods they were trying to reach, giving up comforts of their own home for their calling. Pastors were gladly sending members to plant new churches without regard for how big their own church was. The pastors we meet we true Kingdom minded men.

This partnership will not be without its challenges though. Mexico is infamous for the drug cartels and violence associated with them. Many people are scared to travel to Acapulco for this reason, and although it is not nearly as bad as the media portrays it to be, it is a true concern. Also, we will have to deal with people wondering if you can really do a “Real Mission Trip” in Acapulco.

It is my belief that once people visit the city, see the people we will be ministering to, and experience the work God is doing all of this will be resolved. Until, my challenge is to pray for the 15 new church plants, pray for God’s provision and protection, and pray asking God what your role in His work in Acapulco should be.

Mexico Mission Trip (2 of 3)

Day 2 – October 23: Sam arrived the night before. We met for breakfast around 8:30, ate with 3 local pastors, and then our church plant tour. Our first meeting was at a weekly pastor’s prayer meeting. Although we arrived late, most every pastor waited for us. The wife of that church’s pastor fixed us lunch (some sort of fish with rice), and we were off. 

We visited 13 different churches that day. It was really encouraging to see the work being done in Guerrero. We did not venture too far outside of Acapulco as the majority of the population is located within a few miles of the primary city. It was nice to meet some new friends. We returned to the hotel worn out a bit after 10:05PM.

Day 3 – October 24: Our day started with breakfast, then we got picked up again by the church planting strategy coordinator for the Mexico Baptist Convention, Calet (he was our host the whole trip). The agenda was to visit 5 more church plants and continue to decipher how God was leading. Much like the previous day, it was constant moving from one church to another, taking time to visit and pray with each planting pastor. The primary difference was that the churches were further spread out. 

The final church we visited was on top the point of Acapulco. Community members do not consider themselves part of Acapulco. There were 120 homes in this neighborhood and it was also the latest target area for a church plant. One widow donated two plots of land to build a church, and a sponsor church is arranging to purchase two more plots of land. The hope is to create a retreat center for churches to use to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

Day 4 – October 25: We woke up early and flew home.

On Mission (Run to Win)

This past Sunday, August 12, I had the opportunity to preach. Continuing with our sermon series (The Real Church) I felt led to preach about how The Real Church is On Mission. The sermon came from 1 Corinthians 9:16-27 and focused on how the real church Proclaims Christ Crucified, Proclaims Creatively without Compromise, and Proclaims Conscious of the Crown. It was awesome because God showed up and spoke through me! May we all be on mission and run to win! Click this link to listen to the sermon.

Kanas City Family Mission Trip

August 1-4 our church went to Kansas City for a Family Mission Trip. Christy & I decided that we would take all of our children with us, including Clay who is only 19 months old. I wasn’t nervous about taking the kids for the afternoon and evening activities (we rested in the afternoon and put on a VBS for FBC Platte City, MO in the evenings), but we both had some concern for how they would do in the morning.

We worked with a ministry called Hillcrest Transitional Housing, which assist homeless families get back onto their feet and off of the streets. We painted, cleaned, pulled weeds, worked on a playground, and even built a brand new playground set. To our delight, all of our kids did great. Chloe (6) was a true helper and go getter. Coleman worked hard, wanted to paint, and brought the adults (along with his big sister) water. Clay even got in on the act, picking up stuff to throw away (rocks included) and wanting to paint! It was a phenomenal trip for all of us.

In addition to my family, we had 11 other families go to. It was really great to see how well everyone worked together, and how hard they all worked individually. FBC Platte City were great hosts. Hillcrest gave us plenty of work to do. We saw over 25 children pray to receive Christ, and we left feeling as though God had used us in a great way.

For anyone thinking about taking your family on a mission trip, let me say that you should definitely do it!

The 5 "Be's" of Evangelsim (by Mike Bergman)

I saw this post today from Mike Bergman at SBC Voices and decided to share an abbreviated version of his post with a link for those desiring to read the whole thing. Basically, these are 5 tips for evangelism that are a little different from most evangelism pointers, here they are:

1.     Be talkative – if you are going to share, you’ve got to talk

2.     Be friendly – the Gospel is offensive, you cannot be

3.     Be authentic – be yourself and share with your personality

4.     Be different – a saved person is transformed, be different than a non-believer

5.     Be prayerful – the Holy Spirit calls, pray they receive Jesus

These are 5 good tips I hope you found worthy of thinking about as well.

11 Helpful Tips for Mission Trips

I read this article today and found it helpful and interesting, so I am sharing an abbreviated form of it here. For the full article from the original source, click here for Jeremy Parks post.

1. Know the difference between Missions vs. Ministry: Ministry is about loving people. Missions is about loving people so that His kingdom might expand into the hearts and minds of people. Mission teams usually need to be about missions, not ministry.  

2. When in Rome, Eat as the Romans Eat: Eat what you are given, when you are given it. Never refuse, make faces, joke about, or make a big deal of what’s offered, it is typically their very best they have to offer. Eat like your grandmother was serving you your meal.  

3. Flexibility: You’ve go to go with the flow in regards to your schedule, job changes, tasks, and inconveniences… go along and get along.  

4. Just accept it: Don’t critique the choices that the missionaries make: food, shopping, clothing, schooling, driving, how they spend their money, how they educate their children.

 5. Don’t be high maintenance: Consider not going if you are diabetic or hypoglycemic, an extremely picky eater, if you must have air conditioning, or if you are a vegans, vegetarians, and gluten-free eater… leave your diet at home too!  

6. Minister to the missionary: Financially, personally and vocationally, do whatever you can to encourage others. Remember that you could very well be the only American Christian they see and spend time with all year, always be a source of encouragement to them.  

7. Practice your testimony. Be able to share your story in 3-4 minutes.  

8. Learn the Language: Make an attempt to learn the basic of communication with nationals, whether through gestures common to the people or through some basics words, but do it without constantly asking the missionary.  

9. Partner: Unless you possess a special set of skills that is needed in a variety of locations, find a missionary, a strategy, and a people group with whom you can partner for a few years.  

10. Think: Show a willingness to use creativity and the wealth of resources we have in the United States in order to present high quality work and projects.  

11. Learn: Most missionaries are forced to use out of the box techniques for reaching people for Christ, pay attention to what they do and apply it to your work back home. Go with your cup empty, not full!