Today as I am flying back from the beautiful country of Panama, I find myself reflecting on the exciting things God has done in the short span of three months.
January started with a blast as each country in South America, along with Brazil and Mexico, appointed a person to be a part of my church planting team. These ten team members met me in Quito, Ecuador where we worked together for five days. Together we evaluated several church planting resources and developed strategy plans. Each team member built a strategy plan based upon their country’s needs and desires.
For example, Ecuador is planting 200 churches in the next five years and selected the Indigenous people as one of their target groups. While Columbia is looking to plant more 300 churches and identified several major cities as targets. This event has sent a spiritual shock wave throughout Latin America of which we will not know the full impact for years, but I can assure you that God will be greatly glorified as a result of their hard work and passion.
February was marked by several countries training their local teams and launching their new plans. In Argentina, our coordinator trained his team and formally launched the plan to focus on urban areas and plant 800 churches. While in Costa Rica our coordinator was surprised by his local team when they questioned his desire to plant 200 churches and challenged him to increase Costa Rica’s goal to over 500. We praise God for the vision and faith of this team!
By March, we also launched our first church planting initiative in Brazil. In one small region, our first conference yielded over 100 men and women recognizing that God was challenging them and calling them to be church planters. And today I am flying back from the beautiful country of Panama where I met with the church leaders of each country in Central America. Together we began the process to plant over 5000 more churches. Praise God, every leader has caught the vision and pledged their full support and participation to plant churches in their regions. Very soon you will be hearing reports of the great success we are having in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, and others.
Thank you again for your partnership in this church planting initiative. As a result of your faithfulness in prayer and giving, thousands across Latin America are hearing the Good News and experiencing New Life in Christ.