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!".

Third Generation Church Planting

In 2007, we had the privilege to work with Pastor Fabian Santillan, planting a church in his back yard. (Pictured with Sandy Marek, Church Plant Coordinator with E3). During the years the church has matured to the point of planting a new church this year in the downtown area of Clodimira. This was not the first year we had worked with Fabian. He had participated with us six years in both the Santiago del Estero province and the Sante Fe province. Iglesia Jesucristo me Esperanza of Clodomira, the church that was planted in his backyard in 2007, now has caught the vision for the church planting movement. Clodomira has 22 barrios and Pastor Fabian's plan is to establish 10 churches in barrios surrounding the downtown. A church member, Dora, has already donated some of her land and opened her home for the next church plant in Barrio Mendilarzu. In Barrio Fatima, Lorena Gauna's home is used for children's ministry every Saturday. In Barrio Ramon Carrillo, there are weekly meetings with youth, adolescents and women. In Barrio Juan Domingo Peron, there is also an ongoing children's ministry. We are excited to work with pastors, like Fabian, who have a vision for their towns, cities and beyond. This year Fabian involved the local Baptist missionaries, as well as churches in Tucaman province that sent a team to participate in the church planting campaign. We are excited to see what God does in the future through leaders like Fabian. This year the church in Clodimira received some special training on how to start “I am second” groups in their community. Pictured above is the small group discipleship training for the church members on the Sunday before the campaign. This small group discipleship training equipped the church members to follow up new believers through natural "home discipleship" studies.

This March's trip to Santiago del Estero, Argentina, was a special mission trip for me, because it involved my wife, Janelle, and daughter, Beka.  This is the sixth year that my daughter, Rebekah, has gone on mission with me.  During the week we ministered to many individuals in both Clodimira and in Villa Borges in Santiago del Estero. Pictured below with my daughter, Beka, are two "sisters in law", Estella and Vanessa, and Vanessa's niece, Clara.  Estella and Vanessa came to Christ outside the home of their mother in law, Blanca, on Monday.  They attended the small group study at Gringa's home every evening and grew in love for each other and for the Lord.  Each night Estella would go home and share the Bible story with her sister late into the evening. On Wednesday, I visited both ladies in their homes and taught them how to share their new faith with family and friends.  Estella went right away and shared her faith with her neighbor!  When Vanessa was taught, she shared with her niece, Clara, who trusted Christ right in Vanessa’s own home.  Vanessa brought Clara that evening to the new church gathering that was meeting in the house of Gringa. Clara and Rebekah, both fourteen, enjoyed getting to know each other that evening.

Training Leaders in Uganda

After the first week of ministry in Uganda, the team departed for the States. I remained for the next several days to train Christian leaders in the central Ugandan area.For three days I was blessed to teach at the Gaba Bible Institute in Buloba, Uganda. The Bible Institute has over 100 men and women who have come from 4 countries to be prepared for ministry. I enjoyed greatly teaching classes for three days on Evangelism, Discipleship, Christian Ethics, and Spiritual Leadership. On Wednesday I was enjoyed being able to address the whole student body at chapel

Later in the week I was able to focus a full day of training for the leaders of 30 Baptist churches in the central Ugandan area. We thank the leaders at Kampala First Baptist for hosting the Leadership Development training, focusing on church planting movements. When we talked on evangelism, we took an hour “practicum” as we went to the streets of downtown Kampala at midday to share the gospel. I was just as surprised as the church leaders, when we saw 41 trust Christ during the lunch hour in downtown Kampala.On Saturday, before departure for home, I spent the day with members of Gaba Community Church and Bethany Community church in training for the upcoming July campaign

Ugandan Police Force Comes to Christ

A surprising event happened while we were ministering in Naluwondwa. One day while I was discipling a couple in their place of business, the local police chief stopped by. He was excited to hear that we were sharing “good news” from God about his son, Jesus Christ. He invited us to visit and share with the police at the police “station”.

When we arrived at the police station, the police chief gathered the whole police force and their families to hear the gospel. After hearing the gospel, ten prayed and placed their faith in Christ as Savior. They invited us to return “as often as we could” to share more about Christ and how to follow him in discipleship.

One of our team members returned the next day and found an eager police chief awaiting our time of sharing the Scriptures. Over 15 gathered for a time of looking into the Scriptures and asking “lots of questions”. Seven more policemen took the step of faith to trust Christ as Savior. The study will continue led by James, the new pastor at Naluwondwa. It was so encouraging to see the whole police force of the village open to the things of the Lord.

March 2011: Mubende, Uganda

During this month we saw an eight person US team head to the Mubende Province of Mid-Western Uganda to share Christ and assist in the planting of two new churches. We partnered with Ggaba Community Church from Kampala and Kyengeza Community Church from Mubende, with the focus of planting two new churches in the villages of Kanseera and Naluwondwa. Our host pastor from Mubende was Pastor John Magaba from Kyengeza Community Church, whose vision was to plant two new churches; one in Naluwondwa and one in Kanseera. We praise the Lord for the work that was done in presenting the gospel to so many men, women, and children in the villages, with such a great number placing their faith in Christ. We were also blessed to return for follow up discipleship gatherings with over a hundred men and women.

I had a few experiences that really touched me and I wanted to pass them along to you. Here are the “shortened versions”:

1. On Tuesday I met Jilbert Kayitesi, a boda-boda motorcycle “taxi” driver in Naluwondwa. After hearing the gospel, he and seven other boda-boda drivers placed their faith in Christ. The next day I met with Jilbert and a couple others for a discipleship study. During that time, Jilbert showed great interest in learning how to share Christ with others. For the next few hours Jilbert led me to his family and friends and shared with them (with a little assistance) that he had trusted Christ as his Savior. He was encouraged when his wife, Juliet, and another of his fellow boda-boda drivers prayed and placed their faith in Christ. That evening at the “church” meeting at the local secondary school, Jilbert brought 7 of his friends to “church” and even helped to lead the small group Bible study with his friends at the evening’s gathering.

2. On Monday we met Peter Zwiwe, a businessman from the local village of Ngabano. He was weighing “ground nuts” (peanuts) to take to market. We started to share the gospel with him and he stopped us and said that he preferred that we waited and told the story to him and his business associates at the same time later in the week. I thought that he was simply putting us off and didn’t want to hear, since he told us that he would not be able to meet with us until Thursday afternoon (three days later). When we tried to contact him by phone on Thursday to drive over to his nearby village, we found his phone was turned off. So, my translator, Innocent, and I prayed and decided to take transportation over to the Ngabano village, with only the slight hope that we would find Peter there. Upon arriving at the village, we found a local man that was able to direct us to Peter’s place of business. Peter greeted us warmly and told us that the power had gone out in the village and that his phone was not able to be charged. He gathered his workers, the local taxi drivers, and several other businessmen from the local stores (a total of 32). He said, “share with us the story from God”. After sharing the gospel, we saw 22 of those gathered placed their faith in Christ. My translator, Innocent, said he would come and help Peter start a “church” in Peter’s place of business. Praise the Lord.