Love God Serve Others

A Christmas Party for 500 Children

admin — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:46:49 +0000

We just wrapped up our Agape Christmas weekend where we hosted our biggest Christmas party EVER with over 500 children and about 200 adults in attendance. It was a beautiful weekend where the love of God was lived out and shown to children who normally receive very little and who NEED to feel God’s love in their lives desperately. THANK YOU to everyone who helped to make this weekend possible.

With the help of our faithful donors, we were able to bring children to our new ministry center for this event. Approximately 350 of the children were children who live and work in the inner city of Quito and receive nutrition in either the Genesis 7 nutrition center or one of our partner ministries. The remaining children were from the economically depressed neighborhood surrounding our ministry center. All of the children were excited to have the beautiful campus where they could run and play and enjoy the gorgeous sun shining day.

The day’s activities included a carnival, field games, crafts, coloring, a Christ-centered worship service which offered each child a chance to receive Christ and pray for their needs, a nutritious hot meal, and lots of great gifts. Their gifts included: either a doll or matchbox car, coloring book and crayons, pencil, bag of sweets, a framed photo of themselves, a long-sleeved shirt, new shoes and some of the girls received handmade dresses.

Preparing food for this big of a group over a 2-day period was a challenge in our small kitchen. We had the help of Narcissa, a sweet Christian lady who cooks for many of our visiting groups. To put in perspective, our grocery list included: 50 chickens, 400 pounds of potatoes, 3 crates of tomatoes, 30 heads of lettuce, 30 cucumbers, 100 avocados, 20 boxes of milk, 20 blocks of melting cheese, 35 gallons of cola and 700 tangerines!

Thankfully, all of the logistics came together beautifully and the day was without a hitch and FULL of smiles and laughter. It was a beautiful expression of the Father’s love for His children and we are blessed to have been used as a vessel to help make it happen. We pray that each of you have an equally blessed Christmas season.

Here you can watch a video recap of the day’s events:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Merry Christmas,

Bobby, Tamitha, Jordan, Jonathan & James

30 Churches in 5 Days

admin — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:14:53 +0000

Revival has broken out in Uruguay! After fifty years of spiritual drought, the church of Uruguay began to pray for revival. As they prayed, cried and fasted, God birthed a vision in the hearts of the pastors and leaders in Uruguay to plant fifty churches. During the past two years God has blessed their faithfulness and obedience to this vision and enabled them to plant thirty new churches.

I have the privilege of working with Uruguay’s new church planters. I have heard their testimonies and their passion to reach the lost. We have trained and sent them out to be effective witnesses and pastors in their communities. Each church planter is making a tremendous impact for Christ.

A group of nine pastors led by Kevin Wallace, Lee Nash and myself, went to Uruguay in November. During a four day blitz, we held revival services in thirty churches. On the fifth day, we had training conferences with the church planters and ended our visit with a large evangelistic crusade to about 2000 people.

Everyone was blessed by our visit. Each church planter received training and encouragement. Our revival services were marked by many salvations and miracles. We were challenged as we heard the stories of the church planters and visited their projects. One Pastor, Marcos, who has been enrolled in our church planting process, grabbed me and hugged me tight and through tears, said, “Thank you for this training process that prepared me to be a pastor and allowed me to fulfill my calling.” His words and passion have left me more convinced than ever that it is critical for us to train and prepare our church planters so that they may fulfill God’s calling upon their lives.

Revival has broken out in Uruguay! We thank God that He has given us and you the privilege of sharing in this revival. Please help keep the fires of revival burning as we continue to train and encourage church planters across Latin America. World Mission Project #102-9094

Bobby

Honduras is Hot

admin — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 03:00:03 +0000

Reflecting upon my recent trip to Honduras, I find myself experiencing two extremely different emotions. One the one hand, I am extremely excited! The people of Central America are passionate for God. Only one word comes to mind to describe the church that I encountered there – HOT!!!! In Honduras and Guatemala alone, we planted more than 500 churches last year. During this intense week of training and planning, we are confident that more than 3000 churches will be planted in Central America during the next few years. All I can say is WOW! God is great and He continues to bless His church.

On the other hand, my heart is extremely heavy. Much of Central America continues to be ravaged by poverty and violence. The local newspapers were filled with stories of assassinations, murders, kidnappings, drugs and violence. In fact, recently one of our pastors, who had denounced the violence and drugs in his community, was killed while baptizing new believers in the church. Armed men burst into the church with machine guns and shot the pastor and many members in retaliation for the pastor’s words of peace. Again, all I can say is WOW! The sacrifice of our Central American pastors is overwhelming.

Historically, the church has flourished during times of intense suffering and persecution. What is occurring now in Central America now is no different. In the midst of intense pain and suffering, Jesus Christ continues to offer hope through His church. Thank you for partnering with us to train and send out 3000+ church planters in Central America who will offer the hope of Jesus Christ in the midst of intense persecution and suffering. For $100 per month, or a one time gift of $1200, you can help ensure that our church planters receive Biblical training, mentoring and practical resources, like Bibles so that they can effectively share the Gospel “until all have heard.” Please send your tax-deductible gifts to World Missions, P.O. Box 8016, Cleveland, TN 37320-8016 and designate your gift for Latin American church planting Project # 102-9094

A Promise in Action

admin — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:25:25 +0000

John 12:32, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”

Jesus said if I be lifted up then I will draw all men unto me. I am continually amazed at how our Latin American church planters take this simple promise to heart and put it into concrete actions. Last year we trained more than 850 church planters and this year we are going to train and send out more than 1500 church planters. Praise the Lord!

The passion and complete abandonment for Jesus of these church planters continues to inspire me. Listen to some of their testimonies:

From Uruguay: “God has given us great goals for the church we are planting. We hope to have 80 members within 6 months and within 1 year; we plan to open a feeding center for children. Please pray for all of these things to happen in Jesus’ name.”

From Bolivia: “I used to be the type of man who spent his time drinking with his friends. When I came to know Christ, my life changed completely. Now I am working for the Kingdom of God as a Pastor. Please pray for our church to continue to grow and multiply.”

From Columbia: “I used to be an abusive drunk. God shed His mercy on me and saved me and changed my life completely. Now I use the things I experienced to help others come to know Christ. God helps me to preach salvation and do His work. I pray He will help me to reach my town for Him.”

I hope that their stories touched your heart like they touched mine. I pray that these testimonies challenge you “Lift Jesus up” this week.

We are approaching our goal to plant 8000 churches throughout Latin America. If you would like to partner with us in training and sending church planters, please contact us or send a donation. Please pray for me as I will be in Honduras next week to launch an initiative to plant 3500 new churches in Central America. Later this month I will lead a team of pastors to preach in 30 new churches that we have planted in the past 2 years.

Thank you for supporting our work to plant new churches UNTIL ALL HAVE HEARD!!

Campus Choir Rocks Ecuador

admin — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:11:50 +0000

In July, Lee University’s Campus Choir brought a group of 80 to Ecuador for a mission trip. Choir directors, Jimmy and Johnna Phillips, led an inspiring and energetic group of choir members as they ministered throughout Ecuador. Also, accompanying the choir were several medical professionals who brought many supplies and medications along with them.

Throughout the trip, medical clinics were held in 6 different locations, assisting over 1,200 people. The medical professionals were a tremendous help to the people here by diagnosing and offering solutions for various problems. Each patient was able to receive a supply of vitamins and various other medications as needed.

The medical help was a great blessing, which was made even greater by the miraculous hand of the Great Physician Himself. After visiting the medical professionals, each patient would hear the Gospel message and receive prayer. During this time, MANY miracles took place. It was like the stories in the Bible were coming to life right before our eyes as blind eyes were opened and the lame began to walk again. In all, over 120 people were healed and over 100 people received salvation!

Here are a few stories of the miraculous events:

- A lady came into one of the clinics on crutches – had been on them for quite some time – and left healed with her young daughter playing with the crutches going down the street.

- A young boy came in with one blind eye and was healed – HE COULD SEE!

- An older man was healed of a cancerous tumor in his side.

- Another lady came in and could hardly stand straight or walk and left running down the street she was so excited that she was healed.

We praise God that He still heals and deliver!

One of the clinic locations was our new ministry center (Agua Viva). This was only the 2^nd event ever held here as we had only purchased the property weeks before. We were still unknown to this strict Catholic population, yet they came to our event with smiles and gratitude. The people were greatly touched by the ministry of the Campus Choir group and this event helped to establish our ministry among the community.

In the evenings, the choir performed at various locations around Quito. In these events, many lives were touched through the powerful ministry of Campus Choir. One location was at the nearby San Luis Shopping Mall. This was the first time EVER in this history of this mall that they have allowed an evangelical Christian group to perform. They did place restrictions that were very difficult for this Spirit-filled choir to abide by, such as no lifting of hands in worship nor outright proselyting. It was moving to see the choir members holding each other’s hands to prevent the accidental breaking of the rules and then to look out at the audience and see THEIR hands lifted and tears flowing as the Spirit of God moved even in the midst of restraint.

Thank you to Campus Choir, medical professionals and Lee and Marsha Nash who coordinated the trip on behalf of Redemption Point Ministries. You all definitely blessed Ecuador in ways for which we are still seeing the fruit.

Festiniños Guayaquil

admin — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 03:43:19 +0000

Last weekend was our first time to hold a children’s ministry event on the coast of Ecuador. It is amazing how different Ecuador is from one region to another. Where we live, high in the Andes mountains (10,000 feet), it’s always a nice, mild temperature. We don’t even have air conditioning or heat in our home. But once you come down from the mountains, you quickly remember that we are right on the equator because it is H-O-T!

Our trip, was met with problems before we even got started. The bus we planned to rent was in a wreck so we had to scurry and find an alternate. Then, the day before leaving, half of our teen helpers became sick and couldn’t go (we feared we might get the bug also). We considered canceling, but knew that God had a plan and we refused to let the enemy stop us.

Our event, which consisted of teacher training and a kidsfest service, was first held in the city of Guayaquil. Boasting the largest population of any city in Ecuador, this city has a reputation for being fairly dangerous as there is great poverty and desperation. During the first night of our teacher training, there was a huge gang fight one block down the street that caused us to worry a bit; but, thankfully, the police broke up the crowd quickly and we remained safe behind the iron gates of the church yard. The teachers here truly embraced their calling as ministers and committed to doing more in their churches as we foc

used on the importance of children’s ministry. The kidsfest service was powerful as many children crammed in to hear the Message.

After 1 1/2 days in Guayaquil, we traveled outside a remote city called Daule to repeat the same teacher training and kidsfest service. Here, we were met by people so hungry for training that they actually arrived ON TIME, which if you have any experience with the Latin culture, you know that is a rare occurrence! We weren’t really sure we had the strength for another high-energy day in the heat with half of our team out sick, but in our weakness HIS strength is made perfect! After 4 hours of teacher training, we held a kidsfest service in the street. The kids and parents kept pouring in as our sweat kept pouring out. Approximately 500 kids clustered around our little tent, that wasn’t nearly big enough to block the sun, and listened attentively and responsively to the message of salvation. Many of them received Christ for the first time on that hot and steamy road.

Over 2 1/2 days, we held teacher training for 140 children’s ministry workers, and shared the Gospel with around 800 children. The lesson to be learned here is that it is NOT by our strength, but only through total dependance on HIM that these things can be accomplished.

Click here for more photos of our weekend.

Festiniños Video

admin — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:58:43 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Festiniños Event at New Ministry Center

admin — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 14:39:21 +0000

We signed the papers to finalize the purchase of the property on Thursday of last week. By Friday afternoon, the place was crawling with activity as we kicked off Festiniños 2012 (Kidsfest).

Our first event was training children’s workers. There were roughly 80 people who came to discover new ideas for teaching children about God’s Word. Some teachers even rode in busses for over 10 hours to participate in this training. All of these teachers left feeling empowered, equipped and inspired to do more for the Kingdom of God through children’s ministry.
On Saturday, the property REALLY came alive. Now, if you know anything about Latin America, you know that time is flexible. If we say something will start at 9, we expect to actually start at 10. Imagine my surprise when on Saturday morning at 8:30 there was a long line of kids waiting to get in the gate. They were EXCITED!

Approximately 200 children between the ages of 6 and 12 attended this 2nd annual Festiniños event. Most of these children came from the various churches in our area. However, since this was our first event to host at our new ministry center in the community of San Fernando, we wanted to also include our new neighbors. We went door to door and found 30 kids within this age range and offered them a free ticket to attend the event. More than 20 actually came.

It was a special joy to see children from the community participating. Since this will be the first evangelical church in the community, we were unsure about how our ministry would be received. Often times, here in Ecuador, there is a great divide which can lead to hostility between the Catholics and Evangelicals. But, seeing the families send their children to our event, certainly helped to calm these worries. As the first kids church service began, I stood at the edge of the tent and saw these neighborhood children laughing and enjoying the songs and I began to weep at the realization of this dream and the anticipation of the ministry opportunities yet to come.

Throughout the day, we had 3 kids church services, 2 meals and a carnival complete with cotton candy for everyone. It was a day filled with laughter and the love of Christ. The altar times were special as many children received Christ as their savior, prayed for healing for family members and were genuinely touched by the Holy Spirit.

We know that this event has helped to further reiterate the importance of children’s ministry. More children feel the liberty to praise God and understand that they too, are called to worship and serve Him. More teachers and pastors understand the value of their calling to teach children, not just be babysitters.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make this event possible. We were blessed to have the Kids Power Company ministry team from Daystar Church in Cullman, Alabama. This team of 15, led by our friends, Steve & Angie Patrick, tirelessly worked to prepare for the event, share their knowledge with the teachers and then to share the Word of God in a mighty way with the children. Their anointing was evident as they allowed God to use them to impact lives.

See more pictures here

Sincere Passion for the Lost

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:02:01 +0000

God continues to inspire our church planters in Latin America to abandon everything to win the lost. Recently in one of our church planting rallies, a university professor in Chile heard about a community that desperately needed to hear the Gospel message. At that moment, God laid it upon his heart to plant a church in that community. Out of sincere faith and obedience, that night he resigned his job as a distinguished professor and left his comfortable lifestyle to offer God’s plan of salvation with the lost. He, along with his wife and their small child, drove all night to get to this community. When they arrived, he got out of his car and immediately began walking the streets and preaching the simple message of a Savior who came and died for their sins. With nowhere else to sleep that night, this precious family slept in their car. They continued to preach the gospel by day and sleep in their car at night for several weeks. God honored their humble faith and obedience and within a short time, more than 100 people had come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. They now have property and are constructing a church.

In 2011, more than 850 Latin Americans have answered this call to plant a church. Many of their stories are similar. Pray for us as we coordinate this church planting initiative in Latin America and train these new church planters. Perhaps you would like to connect with one of our church planters and sponsor their training for $100 per month for one year. If so, please contact us.

Big News… Project M:25

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:11:41 +0000

Throughout the history of our ministry, sometimes God’s plan has happened so fast it felt like a whirlwind just took over our lives. The end result has always been a beautiful advancement of His plan. Even though the whirlwind might feel wild for a bit, every moment is worth it.

Welcome to “Whirlwind M25!” We just got word this morning, that our offer to purchase property was accepted. Our ministry will soon include a 2 ½ acre campground. This campground will serve as an outreach center to its surrounding impoverished community. This community has NO Christian church – this will be its FIRST one to bring the light of Jesus Christ. We will offer meals to the children, tutoring and enrichment classes as well as children’s church services. We will also offer help for the elderly of the community and other outreach opportunities. The campground will also serve as a retreat center for the kids of our partner feeding ministries in the city. From time to time, we will invite these children to a special retreat to escape the harshness of city life while learning more and growing closer to God.

Here is a video that shows the property and talks more about our plans:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is truly one of those God opportunities! We are able to purchase the property at HALF of its appraised value. We have a couple of key donors who are working to help us raise the money for the purchase (PRAY for this effort). Truly EVERY door is swinging open as God shows His might to make this happen. It is ALL God (and it’s happening FAST)!

We feel it proper to call this expansion of our ministry, Project M25 (based on chapter 25 in Matthew), which will encompass all of our current and new benevolent ministry activities. From now on, as you hear us talk about Project M25, that will include the outreach activities at the new campground and it will include our work at other feeding centers. God has a grand vision for helping “the least of these” here in Ecuador.

We will have more details coming soon… as soon as we can catch up with this whirlwind! PLEASE keep us in your prayers because we NEED them. (This is all in ADDITION to Bobby’s current work in Church Planting throughout Latin America.) And please send donations to help make this project happen. We need operating funds quickly to get this up and running. We also need work teams to come and help improve the property. Every bit counts as God pulls His people together to accomplish amazing results.

Thank you for your support and prayers!

Bobby, Tamitha, Jordan, Jonathan & James