Peru / Richard / Summary

Training Group in Tingo María

I returned home from Peru a week ago Sunday, exhausted but satisfied. There were 134 leaders who attended the Person of Jesus trainings in Huancayo, La Merced, Pucallpa and Tingo María. It was exciting to watch 115 leaders teach a whole lesson. They now are prepared to lead Person of Jesus groups in their churches and neighborhoods, as well as in jails, hospitals, and schools. My pray is that many will begin new groups where friends and neighbors will see and reflect the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

If the 115 leaders start groups with 10 people in each group, there will be 1,150 people seeing Jesus in new ways. Their lives will be transformed by hanging out with Jesus. If each person from the groups start loving like Jesus in sacrificial ways, they will affect at least 10 other people in their communities. The impact of the Person of Jesus training has the potential of changing 11,500 people!

Discovering Jesus

Some ask me if it is worth going to a country like Peru to train leaders. Boy, I cannot think of anything better to do than to have 11,500 people seeing Jesus and loving others in new ways! Whole communities can be changed because of two weeks in Peru. This trip has been the hardest on me health-wise. I had altitude sickness, spent a night in the hospital with intestinal infection and returned home with a severe cold that still lingers on. I rode in planes, buses, vans, motorcycle taxis, and cars…sometimes all night long. But, I would do it all over again to have 115 leaders ready and willing to help others see and be like Jesus.

I finished the trip teaching in Tingo María with Gabe. There were 40 leaders who taught a full lesson. I led the training on Friday (May 20) and left that night by bus for Lima. Gabe observed and evaluated the leaders after they taught on Saturday in Tingo María, while I met with leaders in Lima setting up the next trip to Peru. I will return in September to train leaders in Lima, Chosica, Piura and Tacna.

Overnight Bus to Lima.

What is my biggest need to return to Peru in September? Some may say it is health. Certainly I want to be healthy and not have more infections, colds and altitude sickness on future trips. Ellen and I also want to continue to grow closer even while we are separated during the trips. It is hard on her as well as on me. The thing that hinders me the most in making more trips is financial support. If I was fully supported, I could make 6 or 7 trips each year to train more people to disciple others. My current support status is 69% with a monthly support need of $2,409.

Please pray that more people will become financial partners in training leaders around the world. We are helping them to be disciple makers so others will see and follow Jesus.

Thanks for sharing in this ministry,

Richard

Peru / Richard / May 20

Over 40 people came to the Person of Jesus training in Tingo Maria. They were excited to learn how to show others the wonder of Jesus through an interactive Bible study. As they started to see Jesus loving others, they started to share. There was only one catch. I had one day to teach two lessons, train the participants to teach part a lesson that afternoon, and prepare them to teach a full lesson on Saturday. I also trained Gabe to lead the training and teaching evaluations on Saturday. I headed to the bus station to catch a Friday night ride at 7:45PM to arrive in Lima eleven hours later on Saturday morning.

Peru / Richard / May 19

This was a travel day from Pucallpa to Tingo Maria by van. We climb upwards in the jungle and as we climbed, there were trees, waterfalls, rivers and landsides. The highway, at one point, was washed down the hill into the river. A make-shift muddy road allowed a single line of cars and trucks to pass. We waited until it was our turn to move forward as the on-coming traffic waited for us.

Uganda / Jonathan / May 23

Today was the first day of the Jenga POJ training here in Mbale. We had about 35 participants from 17 different partner churches and ministries associated with Jenga. We started the day with Lesson 1 - it was clear that near the end of the lesson, when asked what stood out when they first read the parable vs. reading it after going through the Lesson together, they were blown away by Jesus' attention on the widow.  One person said afterward, 'I'd never even seen that there was a widow in that story before, my focus has always been on Jesus and the power of the miracle.' Praise God that Ugandans are seeing Jesus in new ways!
After a tea break, we split into groups of 5, and each prepared a section of Lesson 4, and then taught it around in the group.  Their small groups were buzzing through the entire process.  I made rounds and asked some questions - it was not so much about the mechanics (nothing to write on for each person, so the discussion of the lesson was just that - discussion), but more about the ideas Lesson 4 is trying to call attention to - 'How do we treat people like objects? Who do we treat that way? Who do you find it easy to judge?'  Important questions that we discussed as a large group when we re-convened.
After the small group training, we finished with Steve Firmin leading Lesson 6.  I felt like it was a good way to spend the day - focusing on the first unit, beginning with Compassion and then looking at two obstacles to our loving the way we see Jesus loving in Lesson 1.  And the best part is - they really seemed to enjoy it and 'catch' it! Thanks so much for praying.
Tomorrow, we plan to teach a lesson on Jesus' honesty, something on dependence, and maybe even faith.

Wednesday will be a day of visiting some work projects and Ugandan friends.
Grace and peace to you all - and please continue praying for us!

Uganda /Jonathan / May 20

 Last night, I led Lesson 1 with the group here ( Bundibugyo). It is a group of approximately 20 teachers from Christ School, which was formed by World Harvest's team many years ago. They were receptive, and seemed to enjoy the lesson. I introduced the Person of Jesus study and its uniqueness and talked about its usefulness.
Today, we started the day with small group leader training with Lesson 4. There were 5 groups each with 5 participants. They took a while to discuss (2 hrs).
Some of the comments after they finished were: "judge yourself before you think about others." "we need to feel compassion for others like Jesus did." "if each person did small things in showing compassion, and not judging, then Bundibugyo will be much better for the people. If do not judge our students, but try to help them all the time, they will be number one in their class."
More to come on the training with the Christ school teachers.
Tomorrow we fly back to Kampala, then we're on to Mbale. It's "coast to coast" Uganda style!

Peru / Richard / May 18

I went with Gabe Agostini, International Director for SETE, in 2005 to Pucallpa where we trained a large group to use the Person of Jesus study in small groups. At the time we only had eight lessons translated into Spanish. Now all 48 lessons are translated. Pastor Enoc directs the SETE training ministry in Pucallpa. It is a joy to return with Gabe to help Enoc train others in the jungle of Peru.

Enoc, Gabe & Richard in 2005

Rolando also participated in the training in 2005. It was great to be with him again. He had to ride one bus for seven hours and another bus for eight hours to come to the training. He is responsible for 17 churches in northern Peru that has a total of 295 members. Now he can use the whole Person of Jesus study, all 48 lessons, with his churches!

Today in Pucallpa 25 people taught one complete lesson from the Person of Jesus manual in small groups. They also received feedback on ways to improving teaching others. In all, there were 30 people who attended the training. Here are some of the things they said about what effective them most in the last two days:

“I learned much about Jesus – his compassion for people – his indentifying with common, personal problems.”

Enoc and Richard today

“I have to change many things that I have been doing wrong.”

“How to love has greatly impacted me by making me examine my own life in how I love others.”

“Apart from learning how to use the inductive method, the Lord has spoken to me how he wants me to look, to act and to love my neighbors as I also love Him.”

“I have been affected most by what we studied on Compassion and Incarnation.”

Rolando (white shirt) leading a group today

“For me the teaching was beautiful. I was able to know more of God, growing more in knowledge and how to use this method of teaching.”

“This was a new way for me to know my Lord who knows me. I have learned to how to look through the stories from the Bible.”

“I have been helped in many ways in this training because it deals with problems that we face today, as Christians who at times are legalistic and self-righteous. It is also helpful for the non-believer by showing the sure way to go and that way is Jesus Christ.”

“We gained a powerful tool to examine in a very profound way the love Jesus has for those who were lost around him.”

“I have been given the opportunity to learn how to teach others.”

“The deepness of Jesus’ life and how I lack in living like him.”

“It helped me understand the motives Jesus had in doing the miracles, not just to do something but to actually meet the needs of individuals, whether that be healing someone, feeding the 5,000, or raising the dead to life.”

‘I learned how to lead a group!”

Thanks for making a difference in the lives of others through me.

Uganda - Jonathan - May 19

Hi all - this is my first ever blog post, so I'm a little amazed that this is actually going to be on the Internet! Wow! Anyway - having to follow Richard's posts will be a challenge, but I'll do my best. We arrived Kampala yesterday, and had a great night's sleep (well, at least I did...haven't spoken to Wade or Steve yet) at the hotel, and we are off to Bundibugyo in Western Uganda in a few hours. We will tour the World Harvest team's work this afternoon, and have the first session of our training this evening from 5-7pm (approx 10am-noon your time). Steve and Wade did great on the trip, but it was obvious that two days of travel had taken it's toll by yesterday evening. Nevertheless, we are grateful for your prayers, and trust that this will be the first of many opportunities to see the gospel through the life of Jesus change the African church. Hopefully, I can be as faithful a blogger as Richard! Peace.