I AM SECOND - San Antonio

This month we held three "I AM SECOND" training events on college campuses around San Antonio. Over a hundred college students, high school students and men and women attended and learned how to launch an outreach ministry in their sphere of influence, using the free I AM SECOND resources. If you haven't seen the 60+ testimonial videos that we have, go to www.iamsecond.com. If that is not enough, there are 44 FREE bible studies that tie to those quality testimonial videos. We are praying for dozens of outreach ministries to crop up all around San Antonio in the next weeks and months. You can learn about how to use the materials yourself through an "online" training, if you go to https://e3partners.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=4463.

Argentina 2012

Come join us as we plan to minister in Argentina in 2012. We are putting together two church planting campaigns for 2012. The first will be March 9-18 (during most U.S. spring breaks). We will be working with Pastor Beto Chambi and the Evangelical Church. We will primarily be working with Bolovian immigrants, who now live in Argentina. We will be sharing the gospel, discipling through small groups (I am Second groups), and helping to establish several churches in the Pilar/ Escobar area of the Buenos Aires Province. Our Second trip will be October 5-15 to the Sante Fe province. We will be working with pastor and church planter, David Ibarra. We will be sharing the good news of Christ, discipling new believers using "I am Second" reproducible discipleship groups, and helping start new churches. Our strong emphasis in the Sante Fe area is to plant 3rd generation (grand daughter) churches. These are churches that we were priviledged to see birth in previous years. Both of these trips are "family friendly" and are on the e3 website now for churches and individuals to sign up to go. It is always good to plan early! Sign up today at www.e3partners.org/apply We would love to have you on the team as we impact Argentina with the gospel.

July Church Planting Mission to Central Uganda

From July 14 -24 a Texas team headed to Central Uganda to work with two different denominations, whose prayerful vision was to each plant a new church. We thank the Baptist churches in central Uganda and Ggaba Community church for their partnership together in planting the two new mission churches in Mutungo (in the Kanjansi area) and Gangu. God did amazing things during the week in our team and through our team. I want to thank all the team members that came and gave of their hearts and souls in sharing the good news of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The American team was made up of 16 members from six different churches. We especially appreciate our partnership with Austin Ridge Community Church in Austin, Texas for their key role in the campaign. It was a pleasure to work alongside each and every one of them, and their worship pastor, Don Ellsworth. God stretched us all. Because of the great leadership on the team, I was able to spend several days on both sites with the total team. The week started as soon as we arrived on Saturday and never seemed to slow down until we left. On Saturday, we met our translators and Ugandan team members and caught the “overall” vision for the week. Sunday was packed with two church services, leading 10 different Sunday classes, and training 80 Life Group leaders from Ggaba Community church with the “Evangecube” and the “I Am Second” discipleship materials. Our special thanks to the Ggaba discipleship pastor, Eric Byamugisha, for his work (among many others) that put framework to the week. I also want to thank Ggaba pastor and evangelist, Jonathan Kabanda, for his fine work in coordinating the Ggaba evangelism team. It was wonderful to see the partnership in the gospel between the host churches in spreading the gospel.
The week had several highlights for me. Let me share just one that impacted me from each of the sites. At Mutungo, we were working to plant “Rivers of Joy” Baptist Church. Amazing to me was that my translator, Stephen, came from the local Pentecostal church. There was a partnership in the area, with a desire that each and every person in the area would hear the good news of Christ. During the week I saw Stephen grow greatly as we witnessed dozens of individuals trust Christ as Savior. By day two, we picked up a “disciple” (whose name was also Stephen), who learned rapidly to share his faith and to disciple others. We were blessed to have dozens of discipleship visits and to personally launch three discipleship groups in homes using the “I am Second” materials. In fact, the Mutongo team saw 19 such groups start in that community during the 153 discipleship visits with the new believers, helping to give ongoing growth to the 163 new believers in that community. Some of those groups started in homes, in schools, and even in a bar named “Hell”. The next few days I worked with my translator, Prossy, and evangelist Jonathan on the Gangu site. One highlight was meeting five boys walking home from school, the first day. After sharing Christ with them, they all trusted Christ as Savior. One of them, named Alex, spent the rest of the day with us, learning how to share his new faith with many in the community. On the Gangu site we witnessed to 317 in their homes and on the street, just like Alex. We also were blessed to have the openness to share with 450 in schools and over 200 through Jonathan’s film evangelism at night. (We showed the “Jesus film for children” one night and “The Passion of Christ” the other.) Through the week we witnessed 139 in Gangu place their faith in Jesus. It was a joy to see the gospel spread through these two communities during the week and to see two new churches rise up in those communities.

Pastoral Leadership during Missional Church Planting

Whenever I share about the great work that is done by a team on the mission trip, a question normally comes up. It is usually phrased something like this, “What happens to the churches that are planted on the trip?” That is a great question, understanding the call is not to simply “evangelize the lost”, but to make disciples of all the nations. Pictured above is team member and pastor Mark Piland, from Oakhills Community Church (an Evangelical Free Church in Argyle, Texas). Standing next to him is pastor Doe from Mutongo and pastor Moses from Gangu. Just as Mark is commissioned to focus his discipleship ministry in his community in northern Texas, pastors Moses and Doe are left in their communities to help disciple the new believers and equip their churches for the work of the ministry. Every time an E3 trip ministers in an area, we do so by the invitation of a host church, whose goal it is to plant a growing, healthy church in the new community. Come join us on our next trip to either Uganda or Argentina, and see it in progress.

"I am Second" training in Central Uganda

This month on our trip to Uganda, we had the opportunity to see the “I am Second” materials utilized while planting two new churches. We used them in personal discipleship, starting small groups throughout the two communities with new believers, and at the “evening” groups that gathered at the designated church site. These groups will greatly enhance the ability of the pastor in each of the areas to “follow up” the new believers scattered across their communities. Well over 20 groups were started in the communities.
We also took time to also equip our host partner church, Ggaba Community Church. At the invitation of their discipleship pastor, we trained their 80 Life Group leaders in both the Evangecube and the “I am Second” materials. It was well received and we look forward to hearing how it will be used to equip new believers to the 3rd and 4th generations. I also spent time at Ggaba’s Bible Institute in Buloba, training Alumni pastors in the discipleship materials. After the training, they headed back to the dozens of cities across Uganda to put the materials in practice. T
These very practical materials have been a great new resource to our international church planting ministry. They are having a phenomenal impact at home as well. I would be very happy to come to share at your church to assist as you equip your church in evangelism and discipleship. Cell—210-843-9532

Pictured above is my wife Janelle, with a few of the ten family members that live in Gringa's home, where a new church began this week. Here are some of the comments Janelle heard from new believers. When new believer “Anna” was asked why she attended three groups a day, she said, “I haven’t been to church in a long time, so I have to catch up”. When Janelle asked one group what she could do for them, one woman answered. “What you could really do for me is to teach me to share my faith with this ‘evangecube’, so that I can share with my two sons and my ex-husband.” After a small group meeting, one mother gave this prayer request: “Please pray that I can remember everything I’ve been taught, so I can share it with others.”Her daughter, the next day asked this prayer request: “Please pray that I can have more faith, because I know it can only come from God and please pray that I can remember what I have learned so that I can share it with others”.

On June 3-12, we took an eleven member team from San Antonio to the province of Santiago del Estero, Argentina.  This was my 13th mission team to Argentina, and my fifth in the Santiago del Estero province.  We count it an honor to work with pastor, Gabriel Cejas, our regional leader in the province.  He was worked for years with country leader, Eduardo Buldain, and the E3 country leadership in setting a long term "church planting" vision for his province.  This year we assisted two churches of which we had previously been privileged to help establish.  It was a great joy to work with pastors David Navarro and Fabian Santillan.  It has been a joy working alongside both of them in past years, planting churches in Santiago del Estero and Clodimira.  This year was the first "granddaughter" church plants with Fabian and David.  Our team started the week by participating on Sunday in three services.  Firstly, we went to participate in a house church dedication with Pastor David and gathered in groups to pray over the barrio we were to work in during the week.  That evening we drove out to Clodimira to join pastor Fabian.  During the evening we prayerwalked the downtown Clodimira area (where a new church was being planted), worshipped with the church, and trained the workers in how to lead an "I am Second" small group discipleship meeting.  
   During the week our team would sub-divide into two groups for the day of ministry.  Teams went door to door, to businesses and to schools, sharing the good news of Christ and discipling the new believers.  We saw two new churches begin that week; one in the downtown area of Clodimira and one in the home of Gringa in Villa Borges.  It was a joy to work alongside the 55 nationals who participated in church planting on the two sites.  It also was wonderful to see churches from Tucaman send a team to partipate in the church planting campaign.  We also were thrilled to work with several Baptist missionaries, who participated in the church planting campaign.  During the week the team personally shared the gospel with 340 men, women, and children.  It was a joy to see 265 place their faith in Jesus Christ as their savior.  During the week we also went back and discipled 85 of the new believers, through one on one and small group discipleship meetings.  Many church members grew in leadership and by the end of the week many of the church members (and even a few new believers) were leading others in discipleship.  Janelle, told me that when Gringa was asked to lead her first small group discipleship study, she replied, "Why not, there is a first time for everything!".