We were there in 2011, teaching on basic theology on the person of the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit does.

Where were we?

We were at Vida Joven’s Pico Escondido camp in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic.

The camp is tucked away up a rutted dirt road on a green mountainside, about 1 hour south of the city of Santiago.  Cool refreshing breezes were on order each camp day through it rained occasionally during the camp.

Jarabacoa is a small destination town (pictured on the plain below from the camp).  People from the city come out to this valley for their summer vacation homes.

Year round residents have motorcycles to get around. Dodging motorcycles and mopeds while navigating narrow windy streets is an art form, as they seemed more numerous than ants in a colony.

We want to learn more!

We were one class in a larger conference that had over 200 participants at the annual training camp for Young Life leaders.

Some were in our class last year and remember the visit with Sam Hale.

Our ministry’s partnership with PRMI, and faithful support from our ministry partners allow a new team to once again stand before these ministry leaders.

The level of interest in our topic is much greater than the year before.  You can see eagerness to learn more and feel the excitement and expectation in the air.

In our short time together, we gave a snack-sized version of PRMI’s Ignite 2 material on the Spiritual gifts, specifically focused on

• How we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in kairos moments.
• How we experience guidance of the Holy Spirit
• How manifestational gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 work in ministry moments.

Of course, there is too much material in a short little space.

Part of PRMI’s ethos is practical lab-time as well, where we break into little groups of 3 or 4 and pray one for another and see if we might experience one of these gifts.

It was this experiential element that went much further than a lecture ever could.

Here are some of the comments received

• “This class opened my eyes to something I didn’t know much about – spiritual gifts.  I want to know more . . . . “
• “You gotta come learn how the Holy Spirit works with us!”
• “This class helped me overcome my fear of the spiritual gifts.  You presented them as if they were normal. . . “
• “You helped me see a better way to use the spiritual gifts.”
• “I want more classes like this.”
• “This gave me a chance to discover my spiritual gifts.”
• “I’m not afraid anymore.”

During one class, team member Susan taught on how we receive guidance from the Lord, dwelling on various ways we experience that guidance.

We had a lab time of personal prayer ministry during class that allowed students to practice receiving guidance from the Lord.

As we debriefed with the class, there were stories of God speaking guidance and some experienced a few of the spiritual gifts.  They got to experience what was being taught.

“I really liked the prayer times in groups of 3.  I got to experience a gift.”

Prayer Clinic

One growing feature of our visits with Vida Joven is a prayer clinic.  People seek out the Dunamis team for personal prayer over very deep issues.   We hear stories of trauma, hurt, abuse, brokenness, but also hope and optimism as people seek God’s guidance for their future.

It is also a chance to bring in others who want to learn prayer ministry.  Some of the Vida Joven staff joined us in this.

While I cannot reveal personal issues, the prayer clinic was a powerful healing time for many of the people who came.  We saw some healing, prophesy, inner healing of deeply traumatic wounds, and even a deliverance.

Staff members helping us with translation got to participate in these sessions and learn some of the practical elements of the PRMI ministry style.

The Outpouring:

We believe Sunday was a significant turning point for Vida Joven.  At a general assembly of their entire leadership, Rafa, their national director,  shared the vision of reaching 540 kids for Christ in the next 3 years.

Realizing they can’t do alone nor in their own strength, all 200+ leaders spent an extended time in prayer.

It started as a small group time of personal repentance.

It moved deeply into a spirit filled moment of intercession for souls, crying out for the young people in this nation, and then a shift to a clamor for an outpouring and infilling of the Holy Spirit.

A description is beyond words for the sense of expectation that moved over that group.

You changed my ministry

One student in particular told us her story of how her ministry has changed in the past year.

She has experienced a deeper relationship with Jesus, a stronger sense of empowerment in ministry, and we bear witness to that.

She lead worship during the prayer time and it’s clear that she’s received an empowerment to do that.

She’s gained a greater confidence in particular because of some personal prayer ministry she received the prior year from our visit.

From the event organizer

A student said to me,

I really enjoy the Dunamis classes.

I ask why?

Because the Spirit of God was always there.

(If you want to contribute to this trip, click here for more info).

©2012 Mission to the Americas. All Rights Reserved.

Last year, we participated in the Dominican Republic training camp in Jarabacoa.

Young Life’s ministry is to help share the gospel with kids.  Their leaders work in some of the toughest barrios, among the urban poor, and often in conditions that most North Americans don’t ever see.  We get to come along side these ministries to help them reach their goals.

They want to double their reach by 2015.

Listen in as Rafa give that invitation:

Again, I am not sure how to have removed the wind noise from the recording, but at least you can hear the translation

“I have seen God use them in a great manner here in Nicaragua, and I want God to use the team in the Dominican Republic as well.”

Read the prior report on the Dominican Republic trip:

• I’ve outgrown my pastor
• Ministry in the Dominican Republic

Another DR Leader writes:

Our volunteers and leaders are very well trained on how to do direct ministry but have not yet been trained well in the person of the Holy Spirit.

The reality of our young people today is that they have a poor concept of who the Holy Spirit is and how He works.

We think that having Chris here will be a great blessing and the spirit of God will be with him to instruct us.  We hope to learn as much as we can from Chris and use it to expand the Kingdom of God.

Help me Fulfill this call:

We’ll definitely need your support to give this training to over these leaders of Young Life in the DR.

We will be focusing on about 40-45 of them for the teaching time.

I’ll need your support to cover the airline ticket.  Tickets are approaching $600.

Donate through Paypal, and let me know by email that it was for the DR trip.  Anything over and above will be used for ongoing ministry expenses.

©2012 Mission to the Americas. All Rights Reserved.

After a 45 minute drive across the country to the Northern coast, I met with the pastor, who is a young guy, probably in his 20s.

He leads a rapidly growing church of young adults just outside the city of Colón.

I’ve been following their growth over the last three years and seeing the impact they make.    I first encountered them three years ago when this church was in their infancy.  Even though they have grown, their passion is still to reach more for Christ.

They invited me to share my teaching with them.

So this night, I spent a brief time looking at the core personal evangelism teaching I give.

While it’s too soon to know the impact of how they practice what I shared with them, they’ve invited me back for a day long workshop to explore what these themes mean in their particular context.

I admire their passion to reach young adults for Christ.  It is contagious being around them.    What moves me more is how they want to be more effective and less obnoxious.  Teaching them how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the work of evangelism will help them accomplish their goals.

©2012 Mission to the Americas. All Rights Reserved.

A church of 300 people or so gathered for a service and our team is leading the ministry time after the preaching.

It’s hot.  There is no air conditioning.

The worship song set had lasted nearly 90 minutes of up tempo worship music that had many people dancing and jumping for nearly the whole time. . .

I was tired

We had been ministering for several days already.

Add the mental exhaustion from

• days of cross cultural communication,
• teaching in a second language,
• and a persistant head cold,
• on top of back to back weeks of international travel and ministry

meant that my body was reaching a functional limit of strength.

By the time the service was moving into the most intense part – personal prayer ministry – I was wiped out.

Stumbling in Prayer Ministry

We had assembled several ministry teams from local church members and spent time going over ministry guidelines.

But the demand for ministry was greater than the number of our teams so we got personally involved as well.

I paired up with another team member to start prayer ministry.  She was fluent in Spanish, but when it comes to healing prayer, we both found we were stuck with not knowing words for interior body parts.

For example:

• gall bladder,
• kidney,
• spleen,
• bladder, etc.

Those don’t usually come up in an evangelism conference.

People were seeking physical healing for interior infirmities, for body organs we didn’t recognize Spanish names for. . .

On top my exhaustion, now add the stress of language confusion. .

Not all prayer was for physical healing

• One man’s store had been robbed.  He wanted justice and the return of his musical equipment.
• Another one wanted faith to believe their prodigal child would come home.
• Another was wanting God to provide a job.

Committing theological mistakes in another language.

One man in particular was a husband wanting prayer for an aspect of his marriage.  After hearing his story, I launched into prayer.

This is where exhaustion overpowered the ability to pray clearly in a second language.

Even after 5 years, I still mentally translate some things in my head before speaking, though it is getting less and less.  I’ve not yet made that switch to thinking in a second language.

I’m in that in between mode where some phrases mentally form in Spanish and some phrases mentally form in English.  In my tiredness, the fine filters that keep everything straight were no longer in place.

I meant to pray:

Thank you Lord for this man’s wife.

Instead, I prayed

Thank you Lord for your wife.

It went on.  Nearly every reference that should have been “her” (3rd person pronoun) came out “you” (2nd person pronoun). . . I didn’t catch it.  My prayer partner did and graciously informed me of this a little later.

It’s really easy to commit theological errors in a second language when one is tired and exhausted.

©2012 Mission to the Americas. All Rights Reserved.

We received an invitation from 5 city churches to teach on the Healing Ministry of Jesus.  This is a new step in the growth of the work for us in Nicaragua, as we move beyond the work with Vida Joven and into the city.

The Healing Conference

Over the course of a few days, nearly 100 people attended the conference.  We taught on the five areas of healing that Jesus brings:

1. Spiritual
2. Relational
3. Emotional
4. Physical
5. Deliverance

Most of the time was focused on Emotional and Physical Healing, given the context of the churches we ministered in.  Each section had a prayer time associated with it, where we moved from theory to practice.

Lots of tears where shed, as Jesus brought significant healing to various people.

The stories are too personal to share here, but people gave testimonies of forgiveness they encountered, forgiveness they granted, freedom, and some reported physical healing as well.

Relational Healing

Sunday morning was my turn to preach.  The church was packed, and the Lord had me focus particularly on relational healing:

• Between spouses
• Between parents and children
• Between friends
• Between pastors and leaders

The ministry time wound up being a time of surrender for people, inviting them to surrender their conflicts, seek forgiveness, and pledge to work towards a solution rather than destruction.

Sunday night

Sunday night was a healing service at yet another church, with nearly 300 in attendance.  Some of our friends from Vida Joven ministered with us.  Team member Sam Hale brought a message of faith and then moved us into a time of prayer ministry.

There was so much need for prayer that even 9 ministry teams were not enough. . .

My reflections

We are intentional not to be the North American superstars.   Historically, I’ve seen a mentality that the “preacher” is the “anointed one” and all personal prayer must be done by this one person.

Instead, we teach how the Holy Spirit empowers each one of us to cooperate with the loving work the the Father wants us to do.  Thus, we encourage local people to form the prayer teams and practice what we’ve been teaching.

Rather than a line of people seeking us out, there are multiple teams that can provide prayer ministry.  This is intentional equipping on our part.

A second marvel for me is the cooperation of the 5 churches that brought our team to Nicaragua.  Praise God for their unity and their sacrificial offering to help continue to spread the teaching in other churches in Latin America.

What’s next?

We’ve been invited back in the fall 2012 for another conference with these churches, and hopefully with more churches participating in the city.  Planning is in the works.

Your gifts support this work and enable us to get airplane tickets for events like this.

©2012 Mission to the Americas. All Rights Reserved.

The leadership team discerned together that God wanted to touch upon three themes in particular:

• A fresh confidence
• Removal of guilt from failures
• Creativity to apply what had been taught.

This went well with a leading I had received about a message on nurturing your evangelistic passion.

As I preached that night, I felt a nudge of the Spirit to change direction by adding another point to my message:

• Worthy

Many of these pastors

• felt broken over past evangelistic failures.
• felt unworthy because of personal struggles.
• carried wounds of emotional hurts in their life situation.

A blog post cannot adequately describe how the Lord used that word to open up some power prayer ministry.   But this word of blessing over these pastors unlocked some healing prayer and restoration to many of these pastors.

We moved into an extended time of prayer and personal ministry, with the leadership team doing much of the personal ministry, mostly for reasons of language.   The Lord ministered healing and restoration during this time..

As I listened to testimonies during the debriefing time afterwards, it was clear to me that the Lord had done a truly deep work in the life of many of these men and women as they were preparing to return to their ministry contexts in the next day or two.

©2012 Mission to the Americas. All Rights Reserved.

After the end of the first session at the Evangelism Training and Cross Cultural missions class in Maracay Venezuela, these two young youth pastors approached me with their question.

They were eager to discuss specifics to their situation.

Further conversations with me revealed a frustration with current methodologies they were using, particularly focused on random contact street evangelism using a gospel script.

Their young adults were not showing up.  Those who did seemed to make a half-hearted effort to reach out to strangers.

After every class, they kept asking me about evangelism strategies.  The class context (with pastors from all over Venezuela) was not the right place to address their particular local concern.

So as classes continued, they kept waiting and asking when I’d address their topic.  I had to keep asking them to wait, so that I could more teaching out there for them to interact with.

Finally, during some free time one afternoon, we sat down and talked.  They had listened to the content and found ways to apply my content to their situation.

Two things in particular caught their attention:

• the persistence of relational evangelism
• the stickyness of relational conversions.

They started brainstorming about ways to encourage their youth group to reach their existing relationships of school peers.

They began brainstorming ways to help their existing group develop those relationship with evangelistic influence in a genuine way.

What excited me the most was to their passion and energy get reignited in the face of the obstacles they faced.  Watching those “a-ha” moments gave me a sense of deep satisfaction that we are living out our calling.

Based on my prior experiences, I know these youth pastors will return and work at implementing some of the ideas they generated.  As a result of some teaching and some evangelistic coaching, they renewed in their vision.

©2012 Mission to the Americas. All Rights Reserved.

We’ve been feeding him lunch these last few weeks and learned more about his story.

He has no income at the moment.

He is staying with a relative and using his savings to support her.

We noticed something yesterday.

He eats 100% of the lunch we feed him.

He gives careful attention to chewing every bite.  There is even a careful and deliberate eating of every single grain of rice.

Our family typically eats rice and can’t quite seem to get every grain, while this man makes sure each grain is eaten.

Connecting some dots with his circumstances and his behaviors, we get the sense that he may not be getting enough to eat in his wanderings.   Brenda observed, “he eats like a man who doesn’t know when his next meal is.”

Typically, our ministry is involved in training the church or conducting classes of some kind.  But this is really the first time we get to feed those in need.

We’ve done food distribution as a church, helped raise funds for food packages, but this is our first time cooking a meal from our own resources.

This feels different to us.  This is a person we have gotten to know.  He is not nameless face in a poor part of town where our ministry often takes us.  He is a friend in need.  We are grateful the Lord has provided for us so that we can provide this meal.

We know enough of this man to know this won’t be a situation for ever, nor do we feel taken advantage of.  We are grateful the Lord has provided enough for us so that we can share.

Thanks to God for the provision to be part of this work of mercy.

©2012 Mission to the Americas. All Rights Reserved.

Note: I’ll be going to the Dominican Republic in March of 2012 to provide training for leaders of that country’s young life ministry.  

If you’d like to make a gift towards this project, visit our Support page, or make your donation on line via the button on the side. If you use Paypal, please email me a copy of the receipt so I can make sure it’s processed correctly.

Below is the video script for those who’s rather read than watch.

PRMI Latin America began it’s work along side of Young Life Nicarauga in the early part of 2000.

Young Life, or Vida Joven in Spanish, is a parachurch organization that seeks to reach teenagers in high risk neighborhoods. From it’s early beginnings in Matagalpa Nicaragua, Young Life Central America now ministers in the barriros of 7 central American countries from Mexico to Panama.

These leaders work in conditions of extreme poverty. Many have come out of gangs, labor in high-risk very poor areas, and do so without resources or funding. Nearly everyone knows someone in the drug trade and the vicious cycle that traps its victims. Two decades of war have ripped the family structure and fabric of society in Nicaragua

Only Jesus can help people overcome their past, find forgiveness and healing, and discover how to help advance the kingdom of God.

Leaders work in some of the poorest social conditions in Latin America:

• Poverty, gangs, crime, and lack of available food.
• Helping those victimized by wars, crime and abuse
• Broken family systems where one might have 18 – 25 half siblings.
• Living on a garbage landfill recycling scrap metals.

Others work among the universities and upper social classes. All are seeking to reach to reach marginalized teens for Christ for the transformation of nations.

PRMI Latin America has made 8 trips to come alongside leaders in this evangelism work and our DNA has worked it’s way into the leadership.  I’ve been part of every team after the first visit.

PRMI Latin America has it’s roots in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on a ball field in Nicarauga upon the spiritually thristy leaders of young Life Nicaragua. Brad Long was there at the invitation of Vida Joven Founders Jim and Sarah Hornsby.

They were just kids, having a passion to reach their generation for Christ, but encountering spiritual obstacles that they didn’t understand or didnt’ know what to do.

Ministering in a context like this can be really messy –

• abuse victims suddenly dealing with their issues,
• hearing stories of being gang raped,
• infected with veneral diseases,
• wounding from assaults,
• or filled with hatred because a sibling was killed in a gang.

After an early visit, the founder of Young Life Nicaragua said to me, “It’s good to have a cry fest here and get things solved, but some of these healings have to go much deeper. We simply don’t have the trained staff here to do it.”

Year after year, we shared the Dunamis teaching with national and area directors who over see ministry to hundreds of teenagers in 7 countries.

Several leaders from that day on the ball field recall what a difference it has made in their life and ministry. The teachings of Dunamis has enabled them to discern what God is doing, how to minister in a team, and given them to confidence to deal with the demonic as they encounter it. Their old worldview of being scared by the supernatural has been replaced with knowing how to join in the work of the Holy Spirit.

Omar Picado, one of the National Nicaragua Directors for Young Life, had this to say (compiled from conversations I’ve had with him):

“I remember the first year I experienced the Dunamis project and felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. Then every year that the group has come, I’ve learned some ways to pray for the youth with whom we work. You’ve taught us how our ministry can be centered in the power of the Holy Spirit. Your annual investment in us help us fulfill our mission: every kid should hear about Christ in their own environment. We are able to see the life changes that happen as a result of the Lord working through us. We are grateful for your work.”

Several of those men and women have stepped into positions of leadership at a national level. Others are overseeing the development of Young Life fields of El Salvador and Panama. This is the impact of Dunamis – equipping young life leaders to reach thousands of teenagers for Christ.

As cross-cultural missionaries for PRMI Latin America, it is imperative we help raise up national spirit filled leaders who can

• go to places we can’t go.
• think like the culture thinks.
• understand the subtexts of issues and meanings.
• Assisting other local leaders to be more effective dramatically multiplies our reach.

With their new knowledge and personal experience of ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit, they are able to do the basic work of evangelism in the power of the Holy Spirit in their own countries. They now have intercessory teams for camps, and ministry teams after talks.

Over the years, we’ve spent time teaching the Dunamis over the years and are now teaching at two levels. Students have grabbed hold of our prayer style and how to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring healing. Others are discovering the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for the very first time. It’s time to start releasing teachers to multiply the reach of Dunamis into the DNA of young life.

Hollman Mendoza, one of the National leaders gives testimony to the fruit of PRMI teaching in Nicaragua: “Many of the things I have learned have become part of my life, impacting my life, and the life of others. You might be here for just a week, but we use what you teach all year long with our youth, and we’ve taught our youth to pray in a similar manner.”

Young Life’s goal is exponential growth over the next 7 years – to double the number of kids they reach for Christ. That means more Spirit empowered leaders, more equipping, and the need for teachers within Young Life. Imagine the evangelistic impact that PRMI Latin America is making: helping leaders cooperate with the Holy Spirit to bring teenagers to Christ.

Because of the work of PRMI Latin America, other Young Life ministries are asking for PRMI Teams: YL Dominican Republic will have it’s second Dunamis team this March. Costa Rica and Panama are at the interest stage. Even leaders from Young Life North America are waking up to the need for Dunamis after watching the spiritual maturity of their Latin American leaders. We are in conversations about a healing week for senior leaders, plus teacher training for Young Life staff to multiply teachers throughout their organization.

©2012 Mission to the Americas. All Rights Reserved.

I sat down and learned his story of how he came to Christ.

He’s a former gang member now serving as a children’s worker in a church.   He loves the Lord and wants these children to avoid the mistakes he made through his teen age years.

Growing up without his father, Francisco found his way into a neighborhood gang in his pre-teen years.  It didn’t take long before he was addicted to drugs, involved in theivery to support his habit, and generally being a menace in his community.

After assaulting his step-dad with a handgun, his mother kicked him out of the house, and he sought refuge with his gang.  But even they couldn’t provide a sleeping place for this kid.  He was homeless.

An uncle searched him out and began inviting Francisco to church.  But he didn’t want to go.  Church was full of wierd people.

But his uncle didn’t give up.  He kept inviting Francisco to church, but also started conversations with him about becoming a follower of Jesus.

As the circumstances brought Fransisco’s life crashing down around him, he finally started going to church.  After 2 more months of hearing the word of God preached and talking more with his uncle, he surrendered his life to the Lord.

In the intervening years, he’s left his gang, worked through his drug addictions, and is now serving as a security guard for the church and serving as an adult chaperone and mentor in the children’s ministry.  He wants to serve the Lord in mission to high risk youth, as he was once.

This man’s life has been redeemed.  It has not been an easy road to walk, but he’s growing in the Lord.

©2012 Mission to the Americas. All Rights Reserved.