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.

Peru jungle \ Richard \ May 16

I am now in Pucallpa, having flown from Lima this afternoon. Pucallpa is built along a river that is part of the headwaters for the Amazon. It is the city where church friends Jose and Christy Chacon soon will be working. Though I am in the jungle, there are few trees in this area. 

I can't wait to start teaching tomorrow. It was 90 degrees outside and the church has no air conditioner...just open windows. Hopefully, there will be some fans blowing air around. I was here in 2005. It is good to reconnect with Pastor Enoc who coordinates the training ministry in this area. Six years ago seeJesus had only eight lessons of the Person of Jesus manual translated into one language, Spanish. Tomorrow the leaders in Pucallpa will have access to the completed Spanish manual! In the last two years we have begun other translations into Arabic, French, and Romanian. We have even been asked about a Lithuanian translation.

I spent yesterday with Luis as he drove me from La Merced to Lima. He was the one who drove me to La Merced a few days ago. As we zoomed upwards into the high Andes, he wanted to know what exactly I taught in the Person of Jesus trainings! It is simple, Jesus. One verse led to another. He wanted to know more. While talking about Jesus and the difference between being His follower and merely a church attendee, we had climbed thousands of feet. As he talked, Luis admitted to trying to justify himself but not being able to do so. They were his words, not mine. He was realizing that he was not a follower of Jesus and had little hope of enjoying God forever without a change in his life. He is close to seeing Jesus for the first time. An hour or more had quickly passed. My head started to spin. It was time for a nap.

Later traffic came to a complete stop on the downward side of the steep mountains. We had already crossed the highest highway pass in the world at 15,800 feet. This time I didn’t get sick. Naps always work, along with plenty of water to drink and carbs to eat. Now we were hanging out with other travelers. We couldn’t see down beyond the next curve in the road. We had no idea what happened and how long the wait would be. This is Latin America. It was time to have a party, meet new people, and realize old friends too were waiting along with you. Luis was talking with a driver from another chauffer company, telling his friend stories I had told during the last hour or so. Before pictures from faraway places came out, the word spread that cars had started move again. Luis and I jump into the car. As we rolled down the highway, I placed my computer up on the dash so he could see the pictures of distant lands and family adventures. They certainly know how to multi-task as they drive down the mountainside while gazing at a computer!

Here in Pucallup there are motorcycles and motor-taxis filling the streets and taking people wherever they want. I think there are probably more bikes than people living in the congested jungle city. I couldn’t believe what I saw through the dirty, cracked windshield! It was a fatted pig strapped on the back of one the motor-taxis. The driver was taking the happy family home to a feast to be remembered.

Tomorrow between 20-40 leaders will take a long look at Jesus loving others, even when people turn against him. Six years ago, some participants came by boat four days down the river. I suspect it will happen again this year. They will see Jesus and gain a tool to help their neighbors, friends, and church members also to see and reflect the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is fun to prepare the Bride!

Thanks for expanding your ministry through me.

Peru / Richard / May 12-14

Thursday, May 12 Day 4 – Saturday, May 14 Day 6

I had a fast ride from Huancayo to La Merced on Thursday. Let’s just say that no passed us but we seemed to pass everyone else. We went from 9,700 up to 12,500 and then down to La Merced at 2,500 feet. It is quite the roller-coaster ride.

I must have eaten something contaminated during Thursday. I made many visits to the bathroom that night. I was feeling a little better Friday morning and lead 14 leaders through two lessons and showed them how to teach another lesson in small groups. I started to experience severe pain. Before going to the hospital, I gave each leader a lesson to teach on Saturday. I ended up spending Friday night in the emergency ward. The surgeon said I had an infection but he was also concern about the possibility of acute appendicitis. The church in La Merced provided great care and prayed through the night while having someone with me at all times. One of the ladies was by my side at mid-night, praying for God’s grace and healing power.

The good news is that I don’t have appendicitis. I have an intestinal infection from something I ate. I left the hospital this morning with a prescription of cipro and a list of instructions. My friend Kim Miller, Paul and Jill’s daughter, is praying that I will not eat too much. God is answering her prayer! I can only eat pudding, jello, puree food and crackers for the next 3 days along with a Gatorade type of drink. It’s awful.

I got out of the hospital at about 8:30 this morning and took my time getting to the training today. I got there about 10:15. The groups were finishing the first lesson. I had prepared them to teach five lessons and they started without me! They completed two more before lunch. I had a light lunch that was home-made: clear soup and warm pudding. I will eat again this evening at 8:30PM, probably more soup.

 I can tell that many people are praying in the States and in Peru. We had a great day. I was able to help one young man teach Lesson 10 on incarnating into other people’s lives. I walked him through teaching it. He has special needs. He had been in a car accident and lost the use of his right eye and part of the right side of his face. I think the accident has also affected his reading ability and manner of speaking. He did a great job! As we were talking about walking in other people’s shoes, we heard his story, I told him that he will have more opportunity to be used by God, to incarnate into other lives than we will. He had a huge smile. Thanks for praying.

Tomorrow I go to Lima by car. We will take the roller-coaster again. 

Peru-Day 3 \ Richard \ May 11

As they were hopping on their motorcycle to return home, the Quechuan pastors asked me a question. They wanted to know when I would come to train their people to see and reflect Jesus through the Person of Jesus study. We had just completed a full day of training in Huancayo. Forty Peruvian leaders taught a complete lesson and received insights on how to teach more effectively. Now the Quechuan leaders want to translate the Person of Jesus manual into their language so their people also can become more like Jesus. They have to translate it from Spanish to Quechuan! I don’t speak Quechuan and they don’t speak English. This is a first for seeJesus to have the manual translated from a second language into a third one. We talked a training next April. I have two trips planned to return to Peru, one in September and the other in April. Pray that the Quechuan church will have the Person of Jesus in their language and will effectively use it to show others Jesus.

When I was in Peru in 2005, I came as the pastor of missions at Chelten Baptist Church, where I am still a member and missionary for the church. At that time, I had no idea that I would become a full-time staff member for seeJesus to train leaders throughout Latin America. Neither did I think that I would also train indigenous people in South America. It was the first time that seeJesus had someone to go to another country to train others to use the Person of Jesus study. I went as a volunteer. Now six years later I am back in Peru, reconnecting with national leaders that I had train at that time. I worked with Freddie, Gonzalo and Eloy in Huancayo. They lead the SETE ministry in this region. SETE is directed by Gabe Agosotini, fro Wilmington, Delaware. It is a leadership training ministry in South America. It is a joy to return to Huancayo to help Freddie, Gonzalo and Eloy to prepare the church to be like Jesus.

Gongalo, Freddie, Eloy

I leave Huancayo tomorrow (Thursday) for La Merced to lead another Person of Jesus training for 20-30 people on Friday and Saturday. Thank you for praying. My altitude sickness has gone away and I no longer have a headache! Freddie and I will go to La Merced by car. Pray for safety on the mountain roads.

Thanks, 

Richard. 

Peru-Day 2 / Richard / May 10

Another Group

Wish you could have been here today for the first day of training in Huancayo. There are about 40 people from a variety of churches. Three people came 8 hours by bus. One person walked two hours. Another person came 5 hours. We studied lessons 1 & 6 in the morning. This afternoon I will have them teach lesson 4 in small groups of 5 people. Each one will teach a part of the lesson.

One Group

Freddie Samanamú

This afternoon we had 7 groups with 5 people in each group who taught a section from lesson 4. There were two groups that ended up with extra people. After they taught, I prepared them to teach a lesson tomorrow. I took the extra people and made another group so tomorrow there are 8 groups with 5 people in each group. They will teach either Lesson 2, 5, 7, 9 or 10 in their group. The last thing that I did was to take them through the honesty chart in lesson 12. I had only about 20 minutes. We had a good discussion from the chart. Tomorrow should be interesting. There are twoe leaders overseeing the training with Freddie as the director of SETE (Gabe's group in Huancayo). I will have them help me observe each lesson being taught and make suggestions to the participants after each lesson. We are in a large room so it is easy to talk to everybody for 10-15 minutes after each lesson. It's been a long day - 13 hours, but very enjoyable.

I still have a headache from the high altitude in Huancayo. Ellen asked me via Skype if I had attitude sickness instead of altitude sickness! My hotel room has a widow that faces one of the main streets in this city of 600,000 people. The taxis go all night long. They also talk to each other constantly by tooting their horns to let people know that they are available or that they are approaching a corner or someone better get out of the way! They honk the horn all night long. Thankfully I have earphones that have a noise reduction feature so I had them on all night long last night to reduce the racket outside my window. I will use them again tonight.

Pray for the participants tomorrow as they teach their lessons. Pray that I will be able to sleep well in spite of noise outside. I praise God that my C-Pap (Sleep) machine works in Huancayo at 11,000 feet. When I was here in 2005 I had an older machine that did not work here. 

Peru-Day 1 / Richard / May 9

I left yesterday for Peru. Landon rode with me to the Newark Airport and then left. I waited 5 hours before the flight to Lima. I could not find the electrical cords for the computer so I did not use it. Last night at the hotel in Miraflores, Lima I realized I had put the cords tor the computer, cell phone and mp3 player in a gray bag that I normally use for my sleep machine.

When we arrived at the airport in Lima, there was a small fight that broke out while we waited in immigration.  It appears that two people started to throw some punches. Security guards come but only watched thought the two a few minutes later started again. Tension was in the air. People were nervous. The Peruvians were embarrass that there were no police to remove one or two people. After an hour I finally passed through the passport check. I grabbed my bags. Ricardo was waiting for me on the other side of customs. Soon we arrived at the hotel.

I went to the same hotel, Hostal Torreblanco, where I stayed six years ago. Stayed in the same room. Strange.  It was painted in a new color and now has a ceiling fan with lights. I could close the window and not hear the cars throughout the night. Six years ago I could not because of the constant traffic noise, honking all night with window open. Still I had a fitful night. The fan pushed the hot air around as I had strange dreams. I woke early and spent time praying.

I am riding a bus to Huancayo, an 8 hour ride. There is a movie in Spanish with sub-titles about Vegas. It is easier to read the subtitles than to hear the Spanish. I read Lesson 6 for tomorrow.  I have a headache. Not looking forward to this ride. We are climbing up to 14,000-16,000 feet before descending down to Huancayo at 11,000 feet. As we climb, the mountains are soaring around us. The rock cliffs are around us as we climb through a mountain pass. Rocks with few trees with small groves of trees here and there. You can tell where the river runs because there is where the trees are and some fields where crops are growing. Now we are swaying around the bends as the highway creeps upward through small villages. Maybe I can sleep. I should have bought some bottle water.

Later. We have been in the bus now for more than 5 hours. It is hot in the bus though the air conditioner is running. We went through a short tunnel. It was carved out of the huge rocks. I feel sick. We have slowed down in a small town, dealing with the traffic. Now we are going…still about another hour.

We ate lunch at 12:00 after being on the road for over 4 hours. I have been listening to the Love course, Lessons 15-18. They are playing bingo on the bus. Not sure what the prize is! Lunch did not stay down. After crossing over at the highest point, with the bus swaying back and forth, I had to visit the bathroom. It happened to me when I was here in2005.

I am now in my room at the hotel in Huancayo. Still have a headache from the attitude at 11,00 feet. Hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow. I will teach Lesson 1 and 6. The participants will teach themselves Lesson 4. I am ready to arrive in Huancayo. I had supper with Freddie and Hilda who have used the Person of Jesus with 25 high school students during the 2006 school. Freddie is looking forward to having the complete manual. In 2005 we only had 8 lessons translated into Spanish.

Richard

Last Pass / Bob / May 9

Hey, Team:

The good news is that Crossway gave me Lane Dennis' last laptop.  (It is sweet...the nicest computer I have ever had.) 

But, my friend and IT wizzard, Herb Mann, put Last Pass on it.  It is a wonderful augment because it remember every password in highly secure format.  However, the down side is that it will not let me enter the blog unless I am my personal email user.  So, I am sure there is a way to temporarily disengage it to enter our internal blog but, I'll need to find out how to do that.  For now, I can hop right on via my older (two year old) computer.

All of that is to say...I am up and running.

Thanks so much, Tracy!

Bob

Chicago PL / Steve/ May 6-7

Bob and I had the joy of spending two days with some of the greatest people!  We had a tremendous time together discovering the freedom we have in spending time with our Heavenly Father in prayer.  More to come!

DCI / Richard / May 6

Paul, Steve and I met with Chris Shaw for lunch yesterday. Chris is Argentine who the international director of Desarrollo Cristiano (DCI). DCI provides leadership training and support for the 300,000 pastors of Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina. Of those 300,000 pastors, only 20% have any kind of theological training. DCI does 5 things, can't remember all 5 but Paul has the list. Includes: 1. Internet resource, 2. e-magazine that has 170,000 subscribers, 3. trainings-seminars, 4. book publishing, 5. ?.

We are talking about having DCI publishing the Spanish Persona de Jesús in 5 volumes and  developing a partnership in training leaders to use POJ. We share similar philosophy of ministry, including montorship. DCI vision statement is: Invest in some, Enrich many, Bless All. We like it.

Near future is to see what it will cost to have DCI edit the Spanish POJ and publish it in 5 volumes. More to come in the future.

Reading List / Paul /May 6

This might sound a little boring, but you'll pick up my desire that we learn from scholars more liberal than us, and yet be discerning. I love to read widely and want to encourage that in our staff....you just don't want to get snuckered widely! I emailed this out to our trainers.

Reading List for seeJesus Trainers.

My goal with our current group of Trainers to be finished with the Love Course by August, 2012 and then start going through this reading list below sequentially during our monthly seeJesus Trainer meeting. In order to be part of those Trainer meetings you must be leading a cohort of 3-5 seeJesus Partners where you meet with them on a monthly basis.

My top 9 books on Jesus

1.      Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim. Edersheim is the first Jewish evangelical scholar since Paul the Apostle. That is, he knows Jewish history and writings, but he also knows the New Testament as well. So he was conversant in both the Talmud and evangelical scholarly writings. In the 1870s he taught at Oxford and then went on to Romania to become a missionary. This is the only scholarly sequential life of Jesus out there. I used it for my sabbatical where I discovered Jesus. (Our first group

2.      Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes by Ken Bailey. Ken Bailey is the first scholar to take seriously Near Eastern culture having lived in the Near East for some 30 years. His work on Luke’s Parables is second to none.

3.      Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Ken Bailey. This is a broader work than Poet and Peasant, so it covers more ground, but it is not as indepth on Luke’s Parables as Poet and Peasant is.

4.      The New Testament and the People of God by N. T. Wright. This is the first volume of Wright’s trilogy on Jesus. Wright spends lots of time on background, how people in the 1^st century saw the world. Wright’s principle lens are sociological and political/historical, and like most scholars he shies away from the psychological. At times he over-reads the sociological and political (i.e., his treatment of the Prodigal Son), but he is about 60% brilliant, 30% slightly odd and maybe 3% heretical. But he is a lion in the kingdom.

5.      Jesus and the Victory of God by N. T. Wright. This book is the heart of Wright’s case on making sense of the historical Jesus. Don’t be thrown by Wright’s seemingly distant, scholarly approach. He’s trying to establish common ground with the scholarly community so he will use the language of his community. His trilogy is making huge inroads in mainstream scholar’s view of Jesus.

6.      The Resurrection of the Son of God by N. T. Wright. This last book in Wright’s trilogy is a survey of Greco-Roman world’s views of resurrection. In a nutshell, the Greeks didn’t believe in resurrection and the Jews believed in a future resurrection at the end of the age, not one person getting resurrected now. Anne Rice became a believer after reading this book.

7.      IVP Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. This is about twenty years old, but it is still the best summary of contemporary evangelical scholarship of the Gospels. I almost always consult this. It has some of the typical quirks of the post-World War II mainstream scholarship: Pharisees are not really legalists, Mark is the first gospel written, and cautions about the gospel of John and Acts.

8.      The Person and Work of Christ by B. B. Warfield. His essay here on “The Emotional Life of our Lord” is probably the only serious piece of evangelical scholarly writing on the person of Jesus other than Edersheim’s work. The sermon at the end, Imitating the Incarnation  is in the Person of Jesus manual and just discovered that my friend David Powlison is also using it in his classes at Westminster.

9.      Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckman. Bauckman is a British mainstream scholar like N. T. Wright. This book is just brilliant. He makes a strong case that the uses of names in the gospels reflects eye witness testimony. Last 1/3 is typical scholarly goofiness that gospel of John was not written by John but by John the Elder.

Other helpful books on Jesus and the Gospels.

10.  Sketches of Jewish Social Life by Alfred Edersheim. Great background on daily life in 1^st century Jewish communities.

11.  The New Testament World by Bruce Malina. Great background on what an honor/shame culture looks like. Sometimes he over-reads the shame/honor lens since the guilt/sin lens came out of Judaism and what triumphed in the west. I find Bailey’s practical feel for the shame/honor culture more helpful since it is so concrete, but still helpful.

12.  Matthew for Everyone; Mark for Everyone; Luke for Everyone; John for Everyone by N. T. Wright. I’d highly recommend these four books in his devotional series on the gospels. Wright applies his lens to all four gospels. You just have to remember that Wright is allergic to the over reading of the theological and the personal by evangelicals but he replaces it with his own over-reading the political and the sociological. And like mainstream scholars he tends to shy away from the simplicity of propitiation. But don’t throw him out just because he is odd at times. He can be very insightful.

13.  Conversion in the New Testament by Richard Pierce. A Fuller scholar. Great book summarizing the discipleship lens in Mark.

Sudan Opening / Paul / May 6

In the email exchange below you'll see the results of a meeting that Doug Wallace set up with Michael, Steve Byrd, Doug, and myself. It was a great meeting. I think Michael is going to have Jonathan come to Sudan next May. So it is a whole new field for us. I keep thinking of what Jesus says in John 4, "others have done the hard work and we have entered into their labor." Michael has done and is doing the hard work, and we are entering into their labor. Doug has been to Sudan and found the experience almost overwhelming in terms of the people and the needs. One of the neat little side notes is that I am also working on a women's team going. It is great to have Julie owning that work. Who knows what God might do?

Hi Paul,
It was great to see you this week and catch up a bit.  I really like the See Jesus material and approach and agree that it would have a huge impact on Sudan to simply have more people loving, worshipping, and imitating Jesus in the way he loves.  Let's continue to be in dialogue about collaboration.  I do think that we have a pretty intense schedule this fall, and will just be getting back into a groove as a team, so I'm not sure we'll be able to do anything this year - but let's stay in contact and see what God does.  We will be praying for Jonathan's teaching in Bundibugyo and Mbale this month.  I will let Scott Will know about and see if he is able to attend (but can't make any promises on his behalf.)  I will also consider having our new pastor learn more about your material if he is appointed to our team.
Grace and Peace,
Michael Masso

Michael,

It was great being with you and reconnecting on Tuesday night. I too think Africa would be blessed by an immersion in the person of Jesus. Jonathan is committed to regularly being in East Africa twice a year, roughly in October and May, so if the leaders of Bishop Ngalamu Theological College approve we are willing to do either. It sounds like May 2012 is the best day...assuming everyone in Sudan agrees.

Jonathan,

I'm writing this so you and Michael Masso can meet via email. Michael and Karen are going back in just a few weeks to Sudan. You can get up to speed on Michael and Karen Masso and their team through Facebook at "WHM Sudan" and www.whmsudan.blogspot.com. The team's location is in Mundri is about a four hours by car east of Juba, the new capitol of the south. But you can fly in directly to Mundri with an MAF plane from Uganda. The Theological College looks like it would be a wonderful venue. They have about 16 students now. They use English, although it is not strong. The tribal group around Mundri are the Moru people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moru_people Here's a wikopedia article on them. Doug Wallace, our board member, has been there with Michael.

Paul Miller

Peru pictures / Richard / 2005

 Gabe and me are teaching in Huancayo. In 2005 I taught through a translator. Now I am able to teach in Spanish. The learners are kind to me...they don't laugh too much!

 Gabe and I are in Pucallpa taking a ride in the taxi.Yes, there was room for both of us in the back seat.

Group picture in Pucallpa

Gabe and I are teaching the leaders in Pucallpa. It was an open air type of building.

Peru pics / Richard / 2005

Richard & gabe teaching in Huancayo 2005

I leave on Sunday, May 8, return Sunday May 22, traveling to 4 cities in peru: Huancayo, La Merced, Pucallpa and Tingo Maria. I will have a two-day training in each city, anticipating training 120 leaders so they can lead Person of Jesus groups in evangelism and discipleship ministries. The participants will see me teach several lessons on the first day and they will co-teach a lesson in small groups by the end of the day. They will each teach a whole lesson on the second day and receive teaching tips and evaluation. I am able to teach in Spanish. Pray that I will be understood and I will understand those talking with me.


Here are some pixs from my 1st trip to Peru in 2005. Actually, it was the first international trip for seeJesus. I went as a volunteer, not knowing one day i would be the international coordinator at seeJesus!

At the time i was the pastor of missions at Chelten Baptist, where I still am a member. I oversaw 8 lessons translated into Spanish for the 2005 trip. I went with Gabe Agostini, director of SALT who trains leaders in South America. Gabe is Argentine who lives in Wilmington DE. Our church supports him. When he asked me to go with him to Peru in 2005, I said I would go if I could teach the Person of Jesus. He looked over the material and said it was great; he just needed some lessons in Spanish that the participants could use in their churches. I asked Paul for persmission and Gabe had some friends translate the 8 lessons. I will be returning to the 2 cities where we went in 2005: Huancayo and Pucallpa. Huancayo is high in the Andes at 11,000 feet and Pucallpa is in the headwater region for the Amazon.

I will again team up with Gabe for the second half of this trip (2011). He will teach a lesson in two cities and help me train the leaders to teach lessons.

Jesus Day

Staff,
I had a pure Jesus day last week. I'll tell you the story behind each of these videos.

This first video is absolutely priceless. It was like the priests stepping into the Jordan river holding the ark. You can't think of a worse start! If there was any question or not whether or not I am a charismatic speaker this first video will answer those questions! I've watched it several times and I think out of about 80 people about six are actually looking at me. They had to endure a 40 minute Bible lesson or sermon in order to get lunch. (By the way, I just handed my iphone to their Director of Development, Richard Meekley and asked him to video me. Then I uploaded it to YouTube right from my iphone.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Kui4rDrPg

The awesome thing is that as soon as I began to ask questions and saw that I really meant it they began to come alive. And their answers were right on. Occassionally one of the down turned heads would give a great answer and I had to ask the guys "who said that" and they would point to one of the down turned heads! The most fun question to ask was, "Ok, you are homeless, people are walking by, what do their eyes do?" They quickly said, "Their eyes turn away!" I have to tell you it was the most challenging, but also the most fun I've ever had doing a Person of Jesus lesson. I think of the 80 guys at least twenty participated, which is fairly typical for that large a group. I could even ask them the question, "From your knowledge of the gospel stories, when does Jesus look at people." They quickly rattled off some obscure scenes including John 19 where Jesus looks at his mother.

I did two adaptations to the lesson. The first you can see to my left. I wrote out the text on the flip chart. I always do that if I think there might be problems with either concentration (from distractions) or a problem with reading levels. The first time I did this was when I did a whole Person of Jesus seminar in  a Level 5 Maximum Security Prison in St. Louis. Then when I read the words, I trace them with my finger. It just gives someone who is a marginal reader a little extra boost.

The other adaptation I did was on the fly. With so many people with their heads down and a 280 turn to my speaking...almost a theater in the round...I acted out the funeral scene in the open area in front of me instead of drawing it out. That drew them in more and put me right in the middle of them. It worked pretty well. I was "Jesus" and I would show where everyone else was around me. Then as I went through the different stages I would ask them questions like, "Okay. So where is the crowd now?"

On the opening of the video you'll see a woman with her head bent down. She had some serious mental struggles. Right after I asked the question, "What does looking have to do with love?" someone said "listening." Then God tested me. This woman began speaking at about 300 words a minute while looking down and writing on her tablet. Jill knows I am not a good oral processor. I do much better with reading, and I often do some lip reading. So it was a mini-test. She talked for about a minute, with a long involved question that went something like this, "I know Jesus died for us, and he takes our sin, but in some way don't we also enter into his sufferings?" Isn't that amazing. You just don't know where someone is at.

Here are three guys I ate lunch. The first guy, Nate, is off to Brother John's for his second free lunch. Andre is a Ukranian tailor who is out of work. Listen to what Pilot learned! His response was fairly typical. Pilot also told me that he was the laziest person he knew. I didn't disagree with him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYuCW-lSw7k

In the evening Jill and I traveled down to a Young Life Capernaum chapter in Northern VA. Jill was exhausted but look at her energy and her love for both the Word of God and these kids. What struck us both and you can see it in the video is how well they remembered material from previous lessons. So it was a neat test of transferability. So something Jill adapted is taught by someone else and Jill is going directly to the end user to find out if it is work. It is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYyAdboFlfQ

Event name / Tracy / May 2

I chose the name "pojadventures1" for this blog because of the meeting today. It was about POJ adventures. So if we keep that, we will just have to use the titles of each post as simple markers for the different events being blogged.

So the title line has three pieces of information:
Name of event- country
Name of blogger
Date

This way all the staff can use the same blog for entries and others can look at titles for the specific event they want to write or read about.

What do you think? Respond with a comment.

Try adding your own post.

Practice Run / Tracy / May 2

This has potential! We can keep each other posted on the seminar and travel adventure details. And access it later for Network articles or Appeal letters.

What do you think?