Great group of learners

This is a group of great administrative people who have come to Santa Cruz for two weeks of training in managing the resources God provides through effective accounting systems. We want to make sure the funds that our donors give are used properly! They come from Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Venezuela and Brazil.

This weekend we took the whole group to the Guembe Butterfly park. It has a huge aviary and an enclosed butterfly area. In this photo we are at the top of the observation tower above the aviary.

They have hundreds of species of butterflies at the park. The guide showed us the entire life cycle of the butterfly.

Butterflies usually land at the sweetest spot.

Lunch at Old Key West

I have been in Orlando for a couple days of meetings. We've been talking about our new organization/culture change that will carry us forward in the next few years. Part of that change is combining all of Latin America and the Caribbean into a single area under a new leadership team. Exciting times ahead!

Whenever I come to Orlando, I try to see our son and daughter-in-law. I had lunch today at Disney's Old Key West resort. One of the best free secrets of Disney is that you can go to Downtown Disney and enjoy a free ferry ride to a couple of different resorts. It was a beautiful ride and a great day.

Leah Rose is just blossoming these last couple of months. She will be one year old on April 20. Hard to believe!

Hanging out in Medellin

This week I have been in Medellin, Colombia to spend time with our ministry leaders and get to know what God is doing there. The ministry has exploded there with 23 ministry centers in the city/state and thousands of people involved. The commitment to evangelism and discipleship is very strong with lots of new people in every meeting. People are coming to know the Lord!

This week Medellin hosted the South American Games. Saturday morning at 7 am I met with 100 students from one region of the city who gatherered to pray before heading over to the games to share Christ with the students. Although sharing Christ was officially banned on the site of the games, the students led 130 athletes to Christ - all off site, in the streets and restaurant areas surrounding the games.

This is the view from my hotel room. Medellin is a large, very modern city. What a contrast with the small community we live in in Bolivia!

Ministries around the world struggle to win adult men to Christ and see them mature in their faith. In this photo I am with a group of guys who are involved with our ministry. There are groups of men like this that meet all over the city at all hours of the day, starting at 6am. They are involved in a very intentional discipleship process. I have really never seen anything like it. The curriculum they use requires four years to complete.

God is doing great things here and we are learning how we can apply the lessons learned here to ministries in other countries.

Blessings,

Ron

Now that's what I'm talking about!

At lunch today a young man named Mario came for perhaps the third time to our pizza lunch/bible study. I had to ask his name again, as I had forgotten it. There were around 20 who came today, perhaps 30-35 will join us tomorrow.

Since it had been a while since I had seen Mario, I asked him to come with me over to the pizza place in the food court and help me order the pizza. As we were talking, he shared that his father had died two weeks ago. I told him how sorry I was and then we re-joined the group. We studied Matthew 5:10-16, the passage where Jesus encourages His followers to be salt and light. Mario had some great comments that really added to the conversation, comments that came from personal experience. He shared that his parents spoke Quechua and that he did not begin to learn Spanish until first grade.

After the study I learned that Mario had received Christ about three years ago, and that as a result of prayer, his father trusted Christ as Savior a mere hour before his death. His mother still lives in a small village outside of Potosi, Bolivia. She is struggling with the loss of her husband and is not yet a follower of Christ.

I invited Mario to come to my office so I could give him a copy of the Bolivian version of JESUS Film. The DVD includes eight languages, including Quechua. I put the DVD into my laptop to show Mario how the menu worked. As he listened to the Quechua version with Spanish subtitles, his eyes welled up with gratitude, "My mother will understand about Jesus!".

I gave him three copies of the DVD and a charge: Share it with your mom and others back home in the village. I asked him if they had a DVD player up there in her highland village. He assured me that they did and that in only three weeks, he will be going back home to visit his mom. "I want to be a missionary of God's love". Will you pray with me for Mario and his mom?

Church Led Movements in Bolivia

On Friday and Saturday I met with our Church Led Movements team with Campus Crusade in Bolivia. They were joined by a pastor from Venezuela who is implementing similar strategies there. We spent the time reviewing our philosophy of ministry, vision, mission and plan for 2010. In the photo at left, I am sharing a devotional on the life of Paul.

These guys are great theoreticians and even better practitioners. They have a heart to see a viral movement of church planting in South America.

The Grandchildren

Just a quick post to say we're back in Bolivia after a great time in the US. Here's a photo of Jeanie and me with 75% of our grandchildren: Anna Kate Tolbert, Wesley Paul Hanks and Cooper Andrew Hanks. (Leah Rose Burgin visited Grandma Jeanie in NC the weekend before)

Dad's proud

Yesterday I went to Andrew's varsity basketball game. Andrew is a junior at the mission high school, and has played for the last couple of years. Yesterday he was the leading scorer as his team demolished the opponent. He scored 18 points! The score was 58-6.

Here is a link to the news article.

The story is good, they just got Andrew's first name wrong.

Ron

"Lucky's" luck ran out

A couple of months ago I wrote about our dog, Jazz. He was a solid and steady German shepherd who had guarded our house for eight years. He died this week.

Monday morning I got an urgent call from our cleaning lady at home. She told me that Jazz had been staggering around and moaning. Then he went into the laundry room and crawled behind the washer where he lay foaming at the mouth. I headed for home and stopped at the veterinary office on the way. Two of their young vets came with me to the house. When we got there, Jazz had already died. It was very sudden.

As the young women veterinarians looked him over, they determined that he did not have rabies (death would have taken several days) and that he was not poisoned, like with rat poison. They said the most likely cause of his intoxication and death was ingestion of a poisonous toad. I had the sad task of digging a very large grave for Jazz. My only experience with dying animals has been a slow decline and then a joint decision with family and the vet to put the animal down when nothing else can be done for them. And of course the vet handles disposal of the body. The sudden finality of this kind of an accidental death is hard to deal with. While the vets were at the house, they caught up our other two dogs on their rabies vaccines.

We'll miss Jazz.

Just abiding

You know what's cool? Talking with six Bolivian guys about abiding in Christ. The Spanish word for abiding is Permanecer. That's kind of a cool word that you can figure out even if you don't speak Spanish. Permanecer: to stay, remain, make yourself a permanent fixture. That really describes what I want to be with Jesus. As they talked they had some great insights that helped me to consider the concepts.

Take some time and read John 15: 1-10.

Ron

Feeling some pressure

My Christian friends in Bolivia warned that the passage of the new constitution and the re-election of the socialist president would bring near certain persecution of the church. I am afraid they were right and we are seeing just the beginning. Let me give you three concrete examples:

1. The government is ramping up the official registration requirements for all churches. Our church has complied, but at considerable legal expense. Small national churches don't have the resources or savvy to comply. The estimated cost is upwards of US $1000 from start to finish. Enter the official MAS party which is offering "assistance" to local indigenous churches to "handle" this issue for them at no cost. My Christian friends fear this is the beginning of an officially sanctioned church, similar to the church in China.

2. The official government TV station is running a dramatic piece showing a heavily accented North American preaching the Gospel with a heavy dose of "learn to tithe, or else". The Gringo tells the listeners that failure to give will result in God's wrath. The poor Bolivian, Silverio, just can't give enough and the result is that his house burns down. Enter the friends from the MAS government political party to help. They tell Silverio that they are his friends, they are from his own culture. They will freely give him the help he needs: food, clothing and so forth. You can draw your conclusions about the message they are sending about Christ's church.

3. The socialist government, now officially secular, has scheduled elections for Easter Sunday, April 4. On election day in Bolivia no meetings or assemblies are allowed. No vehicular traffic is allowed. All church services must be cancelled. Is it a coincidence that the holiest day on the Christian calendar is targeted?

Please pray for Bolivia, and treasure the freedom that you have to assemble and worship.

Ron

Back to work after Christmas Break

I am enjoying the first couple of days back in the office after a nice break over the holidays. Jeanie, Andrew and I enjoyed relaxing at home. We had guests over for Christmas and New Year's Eve, ate lots of cookies and fudge and saw Avatar together. It was a great time!

Over the New Year holiday our oldest kids, Stephen and Sarah and their spouses Rachael and Dustin got together with our three grandchildren, Wesley, Leah Rose and Cooper. I can't resist borrowing a photo from their blogs:

Thanksgiving in Amboro National Park

While Jeanie was in the U.S. with our new grandson, Cooper, Andrew and I spent Thanksgiving weekend at a remote camp in Amboro National Park. It was two hours in by 4x4 and then two hours hiking each day to get to some spectacular spots: first a beautiful natural pool and then the next day up to a waterfall. Here's a video of what we did and where we went.

You'll see another kid in the pictures. He is our guide, Mario. I called him Surefoot because while Andrew and I were slipping and sliding on the muddy trails, he never slipped once and he wore flip flops.

Blessings,
Ron

Just call me "Lucky"

Three years ago we bought our house outside of Santa Cruz from some other missionaries who were returning to the U.S. In addition to buying the house, we agreed to keep the security system and the monthly maintenance charge. By that I mean the german shepherd, Jazz, and his considerable appetite for dog food. He had a scary reputation here in the neighborhood that has kept the house safe for many years.

Jazz was older when we got him, and reached the point this week that I thought he might be on the downhill slide. He had a baseball size tumor on his abdomen, an oozing swollen infection on the elbow of his front leg, and he's almost blind-though he gets around the yard he has lived in his whole life just fine. I took him in to the vet for an "estimate". When I called back, Dr. Ximena told me that although he is old, he isn't ready to die. So he stayed at the hospital for a couple of nights, had surgery to remove the tumor, the infection was treated and he was ready to come home. He hopped out of the car when we got home so excited to be here.

I think we have our "security system" for a while yet.

A New Grandson!

I am about 10 days late with the announcement, but we are the proud grandparents of a new grandson! Cooper Andrew Hanks was born to Sarah and Dustin in Washington, D.C. on November 20. He weighed 9 pounds.

Jeanie arrived a couple of days later to help out and she is in Grandma heaven!

Trip to Cidade de Embu

Wow, it's hard to believe our week in Brazil is over! Saturday morning our Brazilian staff took us to an artisan village called Cidade de Embu, which has as its centerpiece a Jesuit church dating from the 1600's. It had beautiful woodwork and furniture, paintings, porcelain, textiles, leatherwork and ceramics. It was amazing just walking through block after block of quaint shops.

Thanks to Ralph and Mary, Gary, Mark, Doug and Jackie, Rosemary, Clifford, Jim, Dan, Janelle, and Dale for investing a week to see a little of what God is doing in Brazil. We hope your memories will stay with you. We appreciate you. Que Deus te Abencoe Sempre!

Ron

Faith REALLY DOES come by hearing

Friday afternoon we met with our JESUS Film staff in Sao Paulo. It was exciting to hear their vision for expanding the ministry from 7 to 27 cities in the coming years. The movement is truly nationalized. I am so encouraged by their lives and by their burden to connect lost Brazilians to Jesus.


In the evening the Sao Paulo team organized an outreach event that our team attended. Jim Green the Executive Director of the JESUS Film was the speaker. As he shared the love of Christ, several people made life-changing commitments to follow Jesus. Two guys from our team, Mark and Ralph, shared what it has meant to them to be followers of Jesus.

One of the guys who attended was a taxi driver named Edson. A year ago, one of our ministry partners, Phil Kenney from Faith Comes by Hearing rode in Edson's cab and gave him a set of CD's with the complete audio New Testament. Edson told us how he had listened through the set four times! The most astounding thing to me is that he didn't commit his life to Christ until after he had listened through three times to the entire New Testament. He is now in a discipleship group.

Below is a photo of Edson sharing his story with Jim Green of the JESUS Film.

Brazilian youth at the Crossroads

Friday morning we left Sao Paulo to go out to the small town of Sumare to see our JESUS Film Crossroads strategy in action. Crossroads reaches into public schools with a message of hope about HIV/Aids and Christian values that will last a lifetime. We visited a ninth grade classroom.

The lesson was taught by Edson, one of our CCC staff guys, and his wife. It included a great story that involved volunteer student actors acting out a skit that taught about unseen/unknown dangers that may lie in our path. It was very moving to see how engaged the kids were and how effective our staff was. My friend Janelle Searles, a photographer with the JESUS film got these shots.

Blessings,
Ron

Sertão

We went out on Wednesday to the town of Esperanca in the Sertão region of Brazil to meet Pastor Bruno. He has planted 36 churches in the region using the JESUS Film! As a part of their follow up, they use the Proclaimer listening device. It has the dramatized New Testament on a memory chip and has a sound system that can fill a small room.
We met a lady who has planted a new small group Bible study using the Proclaimer. Here is a photo in front of the house they meet in. Later that evening we went back to see the group in action. There were about 10 people, men and women who gathered to grow in their faith as they listened to God's word.




While we were there I met a young man, 23, named Luziano. He works in the local rock breaking trade (for roads), a labor intensive, back breaking job. He injured is leg in a motorcycle accident and will be off the job for at least 8 more months. No job, no income. We prayed for him and he was part of the listening group later in the evening.

Farther up the road we stopped in a small town and visited with some of the locals. I talked to this group of men in my broken Portuguese. They laughed when I asked if they were local older gentlemen's club. There was a 91 year old man inside the house that came out to "meet an American". A small group gathered around us and when we told them what we were doing they asked us to stay and show the JESUS Film right there. Because we were showing the film in another location that day, we promised that the local team would come back soon to show the film.

When we did show the film later that evening, I got this shot of a boy who was transfixed by the Story of JESUS for children.

Visit to Castanhal

Yesterday we went to the town of Castanhal where we got to hear the story of Pastors Aldenor, Luis Fernando, and Fernando. About six years ago they showed the JESUS Film in a neighborhood. Of the 100 people present, 68 indicated that they wanted to become followers of JESUS. God has built a church around these precious folks. Here is a photo of some of them in front of the new church that is under construction, but already in use:

Later we went to a new neighborhood to work with another local church that was showing the JESUS Film in a neighborhood for the first time. There were 142 people who came out for the film. At the end 86 children and 16 adults prayed and received Christ.

I got to talk with one 36 year old man who raised his hand when they asked who had prayed to received Christ. We had shared popcorn during the movie. I don't think I have ever seen a more serious, thoughtful decision to follow Jesus. I gave him an illustrated version (like a comic book) of the New Testament. (that's him in front)

Up the Amazon

I am in Brazil this week with a great group of leaders and friends of the JESUS Film movement from the U.S. Yesterday with went with one of our partnering missionaries to visit river villages on the Amazon.

We left Belem on a small bus met up with the Brazilian missionary and set out in his boat. We had to walk along a series of logs to get down to the water, then step through a small river boat and up into the bigger boat. How to describe the boat... Have you been on the Jungle Cruise at Disney? Let's say Walt got it about right.

We landed at a small island that can only be reached by boat and met two families that have become followers of Jesus. They are learning more about Him as they listen through the New Testament on the Proclaimer.

In the afternoon and evening we went to another island and a town of about 2000 people who desperately need the Lord. The adult population (say 16 years and up) was about 80% drinking and/or already drunk. Very sad. We showed the JESUS Film to 44 precious children. 34 prayed to receive JESUS. He is really their only hope.

Today we'll meet with a group of pastors in Belem who are planting churches throughout the region.

Blessings,
Ron