NETWORK

July, 2016 – Contact
In the first step of our project, Pastor Fernando Tinoco (International Mission Baptist Church) connected me with twelve pastors from Chimbote, who were invited to attend a presentation about our SamS program.  They were interested about the role of the church in society and how to respond to increased violence, poverty, family breakdown, and drug addiction.  While dealing with these issues, Christians tend to take one of two stands, political militancy or indifference.  In my presentation, I talked about God’s love as the answer to those problems, and their interest in our upcoming discussions grew with great expectation.

August, 2016 – Vision casting meeting
Our second meeting was better than I anticipated, with nineteen pastors representing equal number of churches, plus leaders, a total of forty-five attendees.  My topic was a biblical overview of “God’s agenda”, His intentions for the world, our country, and our city.  The participants were enthusiastic, and our discussion helped them understand God’s purpose to use His church to heal brokenness in all areas of life.  With this activity, we finished the first phase of our project.


TRAINING

September, 2016 – Wholistic Ministry Training (Basic Level)
On the second phase of a SamS project, we teach Harvest eight core lessons. I started by teaching five of these lessons to twenty-five ministers plus ten church leaders.  After the teaching sessions, they testified that the Spirit of God spoke through His Word.  Following the lesson “Irreducible Minimum” that explains God’s priority in the greatest command, love God above all things and neighbor as oneself, Pastor Isidro Gutierrez gave his testimony.  Impacted by the lesson, for the first time in twenty years of marriage, he fixed and served breakfast for his wife and children. This is not a common act of service in our culture.  When his wife asked why he did it, he replied that during the SamS training God helped him understand the importance of serving his neighbor, and that the best way to start was at his home.  Grateful, his wife encouraged him to continue attending the training.

October, 2016 – Wholistic Ministry Training (Advanced Level)
In our second training module, I provided printed materials in Spanish and taught three lessons to twenty-three pastors and leaders, completing the series of Harvest core lessons.  After the training, Sister Yanina Vera (Emanuel Revival Church of Nuevo Chimbote) summoned the leaders responsible for evangelism and small groups in her church to practice what she called “wholistic evangelism”, to preach the message of salvation with practical demonstrations of God’s love. They visited the slum “Nueva Atahualpa” and distributed clothes, shoes, food, and hygiene items and God was glorified.  In the following sessions, the participants will organize study groups and share what they learned.

Chimbote – Training  Materials

Training of trainers

COACHING

December, 2016 – Training of Trainers (TOT)
Unfortunately, the dates agreed with the pastors for our first coaching session were full of other activities and the usual group was reduced by thirty percent. Those who participated, however, were excited as we moved from a teaching methodology of presentations to working in small groups. Attendees discussed Scriptures that provide theological basis for wholistic ministry. Their participation and enthusiasm was remarkable.  Elida del Carpio, a Sunday School teacher, adapted and taught the lesson “The Wheel of Wisdom” to children.  Pastor Freddy Gonzales (Cristo Vive Church) coordinated a seed project showing God’s love to their community by cleaning the area and streets around the church property

.January, 2017 – Mentorship
In this session, we deepened the study and added new lessons from Harvest curriculum.  As we studied the Scriptures together, the Lord brought healing and unity among the participants, while the pastors of Chimbote dealt with divisions caused by doctrinal differences, political appetites, and emotional wounds. The meetings during our SamS project were wonderful opportunities to help heal their relationships and encourage them to start a new ministry style, with unity, collaboration, and glorifying the Lord.


COMMISSIONING

February, 2017 – Planning
In the final phase of our SamS project, I taught participants how to do an “Annual Work Plan for the Church” with wholistic ministry activities.  Their plans included trainings with practical demonstrations of God’s love at the individual level (disciplines of love) and group level (seed projects).  Then, we planned the next phase, when the pastors will teach six Harvest lessons to their respective congregations and guests.

April, 2017 – Commissioning
At this point of our project, a severe flood hit northern Peru affecting almost 1 million people. There were 102 deaths, 141,000 people lost everything, and about 60,000 homes were damaged.  It was estimated that 700,000 Peruvian residents have fallen into poverty due to rains and floods.  Chimbote and the surrounding areas suffered a lot.  Pastors who participated in the SamS training faced an unforeseen but optimum situation to demonstrate God’s love to their communities.  Their learning and commitment to lead ministries that reflect God’s intentions in all areas of life became evident in the six projects described below.  After ten months of teaching, mentoring and preparation, we were able to commission eight participants who completed the program.

Chimbote – Graduate teaching

Chimbote – Commissioning

1. Police appreciation day:  In general, the Peruvian population has low regard for our police. They are known by abuse of authority, corruption, and crime complicity. Understanding that this is a stereotype to combat, pastors trained by SamS prepared bags of refreshments with soft drinks, cookies, fruit, and wet wipe tissues, and delivered them to the police station. The officers were surprised by this positive attention and thanked God for their gesture.

2. Ice cream for street cleaners: In Peru, the summer of 2017 will be remembered as the warmest in the last thirty years. People who work in the open air, such as street cleaners, suffered under high temperatures.  Usually, they are disregarded by society because of their humble work. Pastors trained by the Harvest-SamS Program wanted to acknowledge their value, they bought ice cream cones and distributed them to those hardworking people who were surprised by the love of Christians.

3. Ice cream for taxi drivers: In Peru, taxi drivers work up to fourteen hours a day for a revenue of $20. With the heat wave, they were touched by a demonstration of God’s love: ice cream and refreshing drinks donated by God’s people, helping them stand the heat.  At first, some refused to receive the gifts, thinking that they were trying to sell something. However, after explaining that those were free gifts showing God’s love, taxi drivers received them with joy and gratitude.

4. Water for Vinzos and Rinconada: After the rains, the service of drinking water in rural Chimbote was interrupted. The El Vive Church organized a seed project to buy and deliver drinking water to the people of Vinzos and Rinconada. Church members used their own vehicles to provide water to the needy population.

5. Assistance to Vinzos and Rinconada: Believers from Lima donated over five hundred pounds of clothes, hygiene and cleaning supplies, medicines, and diapers for families affected by the rains and floods in Chimbote. With group work, prayer, and faith we managed to help them.  This was a glimpse of God’s love for them even in the middle of misfortune, having lost everything and being in need of everything.

6. Conference “The Church in Society“: This was a three-evening Conference, when the eight graduates taught Harvest lessons. At the end of the event, they received certificates and printed copies of our training materials in Spanish, which will help them teach each subject in detail.

Seed Project

Seed Project

Seed Project

Seed Project

Seed Project

The SamS project in Chimbote was very fruitful.  It established a self-sustaining SamS team in a new area, with outcomes that showed how participants grew like Jesus.  Here are three of them:

Unity among pastors working in the same city: The meetings and discussions fostered change in the relationships, creating unity among pastors of different denominations and different economic and social groups. Genuine love and friendship made them want to work together, seeking to take the same lessons to new places.

Pastors equipped with tools for discipleship in all areas of life: Moving from isolation to connections, participants experienced the relational component of “disciplines of love” and “seed projects”.  I made an effort to nurture personal relationships with the participants, and encouraged them to do the same among themselves.  This was a practical expression of what we teach in wholistic ministry and a core value at Harvest Foundation.

Sound biblical teaching: When we started the SamS project, we discovered that the prevailing teachings that guided local pastors and church leaders were postmodern materialistic ideas, promising quick increase in church attendance, but not making true disciples of Jesus. As a result, although sometimes churches increased in number, so did violence, poverty, family breakdown, and drug addiction, and there were divisions in church structures where people competed for high positions.  At first, some pastors resisted our teachings, because they were different from what they were used to hearing, what the prevailing culture told them.  But with God’s grace, the priority of the servant heart that the church became clear to them, they changed their mind, their attitude, and discovered ways to do ministry that were more biblical and fulfilling.

I give all glory to God for the conclusion of the SamS project in Chimbote, in which I also learned, grew, and loved more. Thanks to the teams of Harvest Foundation, both regional and global. I am available for a new calling to serve in a SamS project.

THANK YOU

We are grateful to Oscar Ugarte Almeyda, to the Harvest team in Peru, and to the participants in the SamS project in Chimbote.  Your servant spirit and collaboration blessed many people. We praise the Lord for His provision, guidance, and protection, and  pray that this experience may be multiplied in many places for His glory.

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