Hi everyone! We hope you are all having a great 2009 so far. We certainly are. God has brought us so much vision and so many fresh ideas and direction! We have finally gotten to the point in our lives and ministry where we cannot do any of all that God has given us without the power of the Holy Spirit. I think this is where He wants all of us, all the time. We are very busy, but very excited at the same time.
LECHUZA
First of all the Lechuza song-writing workshop went great. We successfully conveyed the vision of using their traditional culture to communicate the Gospel message through their native music and dance. They have already started on two songs, and I will be going back within the next few months for follow up. If you want to see a short clip of that trip you can click on the video below.
SCHOOL OF GOSPEL CONTEXTUALIZATION
Big name, big vision, big impact. Over Christmas break, God gave us a huge leading to start a new school within YWAM and its training program, the University of the Nations. The school will prepare missionaries to communicate the Gospel to Non-western cultures. It will teach them to put the Gospel into the context of Oral-based peoples. If a certain people group can understand who God is and what He has done for them, with no other cultural barriers than we will begin to see the Kingdom of God grow like wildfire!
The school will be led by Kristina and myself and we will bring experts from all over the world to teach one of the twelve weeks of the course. We believe this is the way that God is leading us to multiply the vision He has given us both to affect the indigenous of Panama and equip the missionaries who will go out and reach the remaining unreached people groups for the Kingdom of God!
NEW STAFF FOR SOUNDS OF THE JUNGLE!
As our YWAM center is increasing in personnel, vision is expanding and more people are interested in working with the indigenous. God led Kristina and I to invite 6 other YWAM Panama personnel to be part of our Sounds of the Jungle ministry team. All of us are already working with the indigenous in various ways. Some of these people are actually indigenous themselves!
What we all share alike is a vision to bring the Gospel to the native people of Panama in a culturally relevant way so that they can develop an autonomous church. We all share the belief that God made their culture unique and individual on purpose and that only when they find their identity in Christ and who He made them to be, will they begin to see real change in their culture. Not just physical change, but spiritual renewing which changes them from the inside.
Our Sounds of the Jungle team will gather together monthly to pray, seek God's face and how we can be involved together throughout the weeks. We solicit your prayers in this.
ERREBACHE
Some of you may remember the name "Tulio" from our printed newsletter that we sent out. He and his wife are actually part of the Sounds of the Jungle team that I just mentioned. A short-term team who YWAM Panama was hosting went to Errebache, Tulio's village, a few weeks ago. Up until that point, Tulio and his wife, Norelia, were the only committed Christians in their small village. The team impacted their village so much that the 5 matriarchal leaders of the village, accepted Ancoré (Jesus) into their lives! What a great opportunity we have to go there and help give these new Christians some of the first portions of scripture translated into their Emberá language, and (with the help of Tulio and Norelia put these scripture portions to traditional music and dance!!!!! We will leave this weekend with Kristina, Natalie, and the Sounds of the Jungle staff. We will also bring along...
OUR MISSIONS PASTORS
Vince and Diedre Brassard, our long-time friends and missions pastors will be coming to visit tonight. We look forward to this week, getting to know them better, have them see what we do here, so they can take it back to our home church in Anchorage Alaska. We are also just looking forward to staying up late and talking.
MISSION ADVENTURES PANAMA 2009
One other huge thing that happens right after the Brassard's leave is a huge camp that we do every year as a YWAM ministry to get the youth of Panama fired up for foreign missions. Click here for more info. Kristina and I will be leading worship mulitipile times every day for the estimated 400 person crowd. I will also be going with Tulio to an Emberá village, leading a different group of Panamanian youth every day for 3 days, teaching them about cultural redemption and God's heart to reach the lost. Please pray for all the organization in this.
MISSIONARY MOMS
There is much more to say. Kristina is coming along in her pregnancy, the baby is growing and kicking up a storm. Natalie loves to talk and sing all the time. She is such a joy to our lives! Kristina is also leading a mom's group for all the young moms on the YWAM base. They get together weekly at our house and share their experiences as well as go through very good parenting books. They are also planning on ministering in Errebache, teaching on abstinence, and crisis pregnancy training. Abortion is very common in indigenous villages. They are hoping, with a little teaching and love, they can save babies' lives. More on this in the next newsletter.
Kristina is also involved in an expatriate moms' group that meets together semi-regularly. Krisitina is cultivating relationships with businessman's wives, international relations people, Smithsonian researchers who are from Austria, Israel, Peru, China, America, and other places. This just kinda happened upon us and is such a cool opportunity. Natalie is sure getting lots of cultural exposure.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support.
Love,
John and Kristina
