Philippines Training

Date: May 13-24, 2008

Anita and I went to the Philippines to participate in an ECC church planting training event.

The training was scheduled for five days, until the typhoon hit and knocked out power, toppled trees and flooded areas. Trainees were to come to the training from the city that was most affected. However, the Philippine leaders decided to go ahead with the training, just eliminate one day.

Each of our ECC pastors brought a person to be trained in church planting, about 22 people. There were three pastors from other church groups that also attended the training.

We thank the Lord for His presence amoung us. The church planters received vision and passion from the Lord during our time together. It was fantastic to see young adults grow in confidence during our time together.

For about two months after the training, Jerry, our ECC Coordinator, kept sending me messages about how the Lord is working through the trainees.

• One had an opportunity to share the Gospel with 1500 students at a university, and about half of the students came forward to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.


• One had an opportunity to share the Gospel with a group of people and 50 received Jesus.


• A 14 year old boy who attended the training with his mother, led a gang of 12 to Jesus.

Jerry sent me 9 reports like the ones above over about a two month period after the training.

While at the training, Anita and I were to had the morning meditations. One morning, the Lord led Anita to speak to the group about the story from the Old Testament when the Isrealites were leaving Egypt and before the entered the promised land, they sent out scouts. Some of the scouts said that they felt like grasshoppers. Anita shared with them that they are not grasshoppers! They are strong in the Lord.

The last morning meditation for the week, the Lord led me to share with them from Jeremiah 1:17-19. "Get yourself ready! Stand up and say

to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified of them or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a brinze wall to stand against the whole land-against the kings, it's officials, it's priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord.

The Spirit of the Lord annointed the words and the trainess received the word of the Lord with

gladness.

These promises are for us too! Hallelujah!!!

Dominican Republic

Date: September 19-23, 2008

I went from Mexico City to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to make arrangements for the ECC Latin America Coordinators Seminar at the end of October.

We do not have ministry there, so another ministry leader is helping me make arrangements for our group of 55 from 7 countries.

The ministry leader is the country director for VisionTrust. They have about 1600 kids in several schools, a couple of orphanges and a number of after school programs for kids. It is a much needed ministry in a country that doesn't readily provide education for the public. From the roof of one of the VisionTrust schools in the city, Pablo showed me one small school for a 5 square mile area.

While we were driving to various sites, Pablo showed me some of their ministries too. Pablo also asked me to give a mediatation and words of encouragement to his staff. I thank the Lord for giving me the words that the staff needed to hear.

The boy in the photo is not in trouble, he is the hall monitor!

Old Santo Domingo was very interesting to me, after having been in another Caribbean country with the same language, culture and archtecture. In old Santo Domingo, the buildings that are 400+ years old are well kept. It is a beautiful area.

Mexico City Answered Prayer

Date: September 11-19, 2008

Rich and Anita travel to Mexico City to minister with the OMS missionaries and ECC pastors.

Three years ago I, Rich, visited Mexico City for the first time. At that time, there was a group of young adults on a short term mission trip from Ireland. I joined the group one day as they traveled to various places to pray for that area. One of those was on a vacant piece of property in a growing area of Mexico City. We prayed for a church to be raised, both in people and a building.

During this recent trip, we visited the church that now sits on that site with a congregation of about 200!

We also thank the Lord for allowing us to pass through Houston, Texas ahead of hurricane Ike!

We thank the Lord that He healed this older lady of schizophrenia. She now leads a House Church in her home and is giving help to young mothers living near her.

Mexico City ECC Pastor Development

Date: September 11-19, 2008

Rich and Anita visit the OMS and ECC ministries in Mexico City.

One of the exciting things about evangelism and church planting is the stories of changed lives. When people commit their lives to Jesus, their lives change. It is so exciting to meet people that the Lord has changed their lives. It is also exciting to see many of our younger ECC pastors grow in their faith and in confidence in themselves.

We met two young Mexican ladies that are planting churches in Mexico City. We had the priviledge to visit a house church that Deanna and Carmen have started. We were impressed with the connections these two young ladies have made with old people to young mothers and their children.

World Conference

Date: August 11-22, 2008

Church Planting Training at OMS headquarters in Greenwood, IN.

I was previlidged to plan, organize, coordinate and participate in a church planting training event with worldwide impact, 15 countries of ministry represented.

The leaders were Bill and Bill who have planted many churches in many countries and have trained people from

all over the world. It was a pleasure to work with them and

and to learn from them.

It is exciting to think about the people that will be reached

and the churches that will be started from the 20 people

that participated in the training!

How do you define a church?

The early church in Acts, met in homes. Small groups are a great place for non-beleivers to come to know Jesus and to be a part of a group that can help them grow.

It takes little to no money to start a house church. It is important to invest in the training of people.

Jesus asked us to reach the world. What would a plan look like that would include reaching all the peoples of the world? Would the plan focus on "things", such as buildings, or investing in training people?

How do we reach illiterate people? In many places that ECC works, people are illiterate. We give them Bible pictures so that Bibles stories can be told. One of our most effective evangelists is a lady that is illiterate. This speaks to the power of God in our lives, not to the amount of education and knowledge that we possess.

Relationship with God equals effective ministry for each of us.