Focusing on Lost People............

"Look to the nations, watch and be utterly amazed for I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told. (Habakkuk 1:5)"

So, one week later, sitting here at my desk I must admit that I am utterly amazed. The Church Planting Movement that started in Guerrero Mexico two years ago is gaining momentum day by day. To date, 17 new churches have been planted in a state that had only 47 Baptist churches only 2 years ago. The church in Coyuca is praying and prayer walking their community expecting God to reveal to them another spot to plant the next church. And next year, we'll return, God willing, and continue to participate in this movement. And the key to all this is the concept of "Biblical Multiplication".....................that is, church planting churches plant church planting churches. It's in their 'DNA', if you will.

Here in Oklahoma, we would do well to watch and learn from our neighbors to the south. These Mexican churches, whose main reason for existing is to reach lost people, are experiencing growth and abundant blessings. I wonder sometimes if we've lost our focus.........................

There is something special about church planting. No other avenue so quickly and effectively multiplies the glory of God in the hearts of so many people. No other means has drawn so many new believers into the ongoing communities of faith where they can continue to grow in Christlikeness. This is why Church Planting Movements are so very important.

The picture shows my new friends, Adan and Eugenia, as they prowl the streets of Altamirano, looking for people who haven't yet heard the Good News. Join me in praying for them.

Lazaro Cardenas Group Photo

Some of these guys must just be exhausted..... they went to sleep during the picture taking session !

Final Fotos......the Trip Over the Mountains to Lazaro Cardenas and the Rest of the Group

We left early on Thursday morning - the plan was to go over the mountains this time since we had plenty of daylight. The photos show us eating a quick breakfast at the church before we left. At 7am, the lead deacon stopped by to thank us again for inspiring them as a church to do Kingdom work. He asked that the Guerrero Convention send helpers to stay a week or just a weekend to continue the work we had started. He promised, again, to continue to nurture the individuals who made decisions and asked us to please come back again next year.

Then we left. The photos show us driving thru Coyuca de Catatlan before daybreak. We drove for four and a half hours thru some world class winding roads. After about two hours, we pulled over for one of the seminary students to get out and vomit from car sickness........ I was starting to get sick myself ! I had been over this road twice before and both times we took 5 or 6 Dramamine ......we forgot to bring any this time. On a more positive note, the views are absolutely breathtaking (see photos). This is the Mexico that is far removed from tourist areas.

We finally arrived in Zihuatanejo around 12:30 and dropped off Pastor Wilbert at his church. Then we drove to San Jeronimito and dropped off the seminary students there at the seminary. At this point, I asked Jason to drive because I was still feeling the effects of the winding roads and wanted to get horizontal. Jason drove us all the way to Lazaro Cardenas, where we hooked up with the whole group for the final service that night.

PS- I threw the tarantula pic in there just for fun....... he is a Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula and he wanted inside my backpack

I.B. Altamira, Altamirano, Guerrero, Mexico

We just got back to our room after saying goodbye to everyone at Esmirna Baptist Church, our host for the past 5 days. We ate some kind of Mexican barbque and tortillas after the service. On a side note, I am astounded at the number of tortillas that Jason can eat............ I think he must have an unfair advantage over the rest of us because of his donut addiction. Bad joke. Anyway, Alfaro gave a great talk on leadership - especially as it pertains to church. We should invite him to WRBC.......we could learn some things. I certainly learned a few things about myself. It was well received, then we ate, and then spent an hour taking pictures, hugging and saying goodbye. I was asked maybe 20 times if we were coming back next year. Probably, but I can't commit - I'm not in charge. Tomorrow we leave at 7am for a 5 hour trip over the mountains. It's the short way to get back, just a little more dangerous. The scenery is beautiful, tho.

It's been a great 5 days. We leave with the knowledge that a new Baptist church exists in Mexico - because God stirred in the hearts of a bunch of people and called them to His purpose. It's abundantly clear to me that God works in that manner. When a large group of people feel the Lord stirring inside them and moving them to action, we can feel confident that it's a movement of God thru the Holy Spirit. I am happy to be part of this group because we leave here incredibly blessed. I hope to be here next year to continue what's been started. Oh by the way, this new church is called Altamira Baptist Church or in Spanish Iglesia Bautista Altamira.

We should get back to Lazaro Cardenas tomorrow evening where we'll participate in the final service of the campaign. Then we get up on Friday morning, pack, and head to the airport after stopping at the seminary for lunch. I'm not ready to go home yet. Like being on vacation, it's hard to leave it all behind.

The Last Day in Altamirano

The first picture shows Brother Tony preaching in the final service of the 3 day campaign at the house church. We had almost 30 kids show up and probably 40 adults. At the end, Pastor Moises from the church in Coyuca went to the microphone to thank everyone for all their efforts and promise us that after we leave, he will continue to be in contact with all the new people that came this week - especially the ones who made a profession of faith. We drew detailed maps of how to get to each one's house so he and members of this church could do follow-up.

The bottom picture shows us eating breakfast at 9am on Tuesday morning at the mother church. Notice Jason Blosser has his mouth full again - he ate more than John and I combined ! By the way, I have become a real fan of instant coffee - is this a crazy world or what ??

Pictures from the Roof of the Church in Coyuca

The guy in the middle picture with me is Manuel. He is a third year seminary student working as a church planter in the towns of Atoyac and San Jeronimo - narcotraficante country. I'm gonna keep him on my prayer list - he is a good dude stuck in a really dark place and he's by himself. John Garrett and I worked with him last year in Zacatula, Michoacan so it was nice to spend the week with a familiar face - the guy is a real jokster too. The guy to John's left in the first picture is Tony - another seminary student who preached the sermon in the last service we had at the house church tonite...........it was his first time to preach an evangelistic sermon and he did a great job. Most Baptist pastors like to use a 3-point sermon and Tony had 5 ! On the far right is Pastor Wilburt Martinez (who I've known since he was 14) who is the vice-president of the Guerrero Convention and the fellow in charge of their church-planting project.

Prayer-Walking in the City

Here's a short video of us prayer walking in downtown Altamirano. It's a busy place around lunch time. The instructions were to walk praying silently - no big task for John Garrett ! I can't believe I finally got a video to upload - Gloria a Dios

Frankly......

Honestly, I'm really frustrated. Our van is broken down with rear brake problems and we are getting around in taxis and buses.............and I left my camera in the van at the shop where it's being repaired. So here I am, stuck in the hotel for an hour and a half with no pictures to upload. Even worse, while we were prayer walking this morning, I made about 5 short videos to upload to the blog and for the life of me, I cannot get them to upload. It was no problem at all to load video in El Salvador, but here they just quit uploading after about 10 minutes. We've had to alter our plans today - maybe the Lord just wanted us to slow down and rest a little bit. The scripture that comes to mind is "Be still and know that I am God". OK..............I'll just take a little siesta. I'll upload some really good pictures this evening, 'si Dios quiere' (God willing) !!

God's Secret Truth

After spending a hot afternoon in the neighborhood witnessing to anyone who would listen, we saw two more make salvation decisions at last night’s service. Counting the decisions we’ve seen made out in the neighborhoods, that makes a total of 16. Alfaro preached about Lazarus then Noah gave his testimony. It was all very powerful…….and our sponsoring church is beginning to see that there is no magic bean or mysterious formula to use in sharing the gospel. I see them becoming more and more bold every day. None of the church members had every done door to door witnessing before and they were a little intimidated at first. They have discovered, like so many others in the past 2000 years, that the gospel has a power of it’s own. It’s the power that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 2: 1 - “When I came to you, my friends, to preach God’s secret truth, I did not use big words and great learning” (Good News Translation) ...…..and that’s really good news for the rest of us because it makes it so much easier to share the Good News ! I’ve seen this power instantly melt the hearts of people that I thought would never accept Christ, then later, felt guilty for my lack of faith. There’s a special joy that comes from seeing the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. It makes it a lot easier to tolerate the blasted bugs here in Altamirano :-)

The first Evangelistic Service at the House Church

We had the first service in Altamirano on Sunday night. We sent out teams inviting people of the neighborhood to the service. Brother Noah, the clown, did a little clown show for the children while we were out witnessing. Pastor Wilbert Martinez preached and we saw 6 professions of faith. It was uplifting and affirming. The pictures show the ladie’s yard where we had the service and the clown show. There’s a picture of Pastor Wilbert bringing a message in the darkness. It was very rewarding to see some fruit already.

This morning part of the group went and prayer walked the entire neighborhood. The Americanos went with Alfaro to visit the parents of a member of his church. It was really nice to get to meet the parents of Miguel Rodriguez, a friend of mine and one of the first deacons elected by the Hispanic church. They welcomed us and Jason shared his testimony, explained the gospel and invited them to tonight’s service. We’ll see if they show up.

And so we begin.......................

The plan to plant a church here in Altamirano has been in motion for more than 2 years. Lots of stuff has been happening behind the scenes for the last 6 months. The church has located a 'person of peace' in the town who has been letting a few believers gather in her house for a while. This afternoon....... in fact,in about 45 minutes, we're leaving here to do some door to door evangelism and invite folks to the actual service that we're having at the ladies house. The church's praise band is coming and the plan is to really get busy and invite people........ neighbors and friends first of all. But we're fortunate enough to have with us a member of the 1st Baptist Church of Zihuatanejo who is a clown and the best maker of balloon animals I've ever seen. He is a professional in what they call "globoflexia" - balloon bending. I wasn't too impressed until I saw him in action but he is truly incredible. Anyway, with him participating, we have the opportunity to attract a lot of kiddos to the service, and when the kiddos show up, so do the parental units. And so it begins .....................

Sunday Morning in Coyuca de Catatlan

I slept great last night and got up early this morning when it wasn't completely light and took a picture of our hotel and a few shots of the street. It was very quiet. At 8:30 we went over to the church and waited for the ladies to bring us our breakfast........ we had chicken. It was fabulous. The church has kind of an open court yard and off to one side is their 'family life center' - a roof on poles. Not quite like our church but the food was equal or better than any I'd had at one of our fellowships.

Thru the Mountains to Altamirano

Team Altamirano, all 12 of us, piled in the van this morning in Zihuatanejo and headed north for Altamirano. By the way, the van we traveled in was a gift from the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma to the Convention in Guerrero - your Cooperative Program dollars at work ! These are some of the sights we saw on the 7 hour trip.

Happy to Be Here ! finally.............

After untold hours of planning and even more waiting in anxious expectation, we are here ! Well, everyone except the team from Bartlesville.......they arrive this afternoon. First of all, we owe a huge THANK YOU to Ann and Ron Little for all their work in putting all this trip together. They have managed to recruit the largest team that has ever gone on a Mexico trip with WRBC - 37 people. It' s frustrating work with an enormous amount of details to be sorted out (note the first photo ! apologies to Ann - I'll pay for this later)

In the second photo we have Team Wyoming - led by our ex-beloved pastor (make that beloved ex-pastor - it sounds better) Tim Richardson. In the third photo is Justin Ford and the team from Oakdale Baptist Church in Edmond. This is Oakdale's first trip and we hope not the last. Thanks for coming everyone !

I am posting this from Altamirano, Guerrero - our team departed the other group at 7am this morning and just got here about an hour ago. There are 12 of us in total- 4 Americans and 8 Mexicans. We have our first service in one hour and 15 minutes - I gotta get cleaned up ! More later.........

Why Church Planting is Important

We are honored this week to have the opportunity to work with four experienced church planters - the four young ladies in the second photo. All are graduates of the seminary and one graduated from medical school also. They all are working in little churches that the Guerrero Convention has planted in the past few years. Three of them work with indigenous tribes in the mountainous interior of the state - the lady in pink on the far left is actually working on translating the Bible into one of the many native languages. The ladies in the colorful native dress are from the unreached people group that they are working with. I am not easily impressed (as many of you know) but I am in awe of these young church planters. Their committment is amazing.

The other day, I was looking at an International Mission Board map of unreached people groups and right there in Guerrero Mexico we find the only ones in North America. You don't have to go Africa or Asia to find lost people that have never heard about Jesus. In fact, there are still a lot of Mexican native languages that don't have their own translation of the Bible yet.

So, this week, if you have an opportunity to pray, remember these young ladies. We're gonna spend 7 days working in a strange place but they do it all day, every day 24/7. We leave for Mexico in 12 1/2 hours. My next post to this Blog will be from there.

The Church at Coyuca de Catatlan

Here's the group photo we took last January at the hotel. Deacon Ronnie Little and the members of the Guerrero Convention are shown with the pastor and some members of the church in Coyuca - the little church across the river that's going to help us with the church plant. They are providing some meals, workers and moral support. The pastor has his arm around Ron. Please pray for these folks too - they're going to be stretched a lot this coming week. We leave for Mexico in 42 hours - yippee

The People of Altimirano

This town is full of lost people - there is NO Baptist work here at all. The nearest church is across the river in a little town called Coyuca de Catatlan. And don't ask me why the guy has a bucket on his head - I wanted to ask him but I didn't have the nerve ! These pictures were taken in January 2008 when we passed thru on our Vision Trip.

We're Headed Back to Altamirano to Plant a Church !

This shot was taken last January when we passed thru Altimirano on our annual Church Planting Vision Trip - try to ignore my knee.........I was trying to ninja a shot of this local character with the big cathedral in the background. Let's face it - I'm just not that good of a photographer....... I've got a nice camera, but it takes more than that !

This is the first post of what I hope will be a bunch. We'll arrive there on October 18 in the afternoon. As always, we appreciate your prayers. This week I'm praying for safe travel - there's been a lot of 'narcotraficante' activity and unrest in the area where we're headed. I'm also praying that this first attempt at an official church plant by the Guerrero Convention with the help of an Oklahoma church will be just the first of many. Pray that the Lord is already preparing the way ahead of us - He has stirred within the hearts of the church-planters that this is the place. Pray that the ground is easy to plow there. Pray that we might all see and be encouraged by the power of the Gospel. Pray that when we leave, a fledging house church will exist.

I'm already rejoicing at how God has been working this week in my life. I was unsure until very recently that I would be even able to go. The Lord made it financially possible - in a large part thru my stepfather's paying for my travel expenses. Thanks Neal. God revealed his participation in this project in many other ways as well.

So, the plan is to update this page everyday - with a blog and photos as well to allow everyone to watch our progress as we head off on another of God's great adventures.