Facing the Challenges, Celebrating Victory

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

By Dave and Barbara Miller

The e-mail from Argentina brought news like we like to hear: fifteen persons have decided to follow Jesus as Lord! Evangelist and church-planter Ernesto Gonzalez says it happened like this:

"Focusing on the 2x20 Challenge, students and professors from the Daniel Warner Institute, together with believers from several congregations, traveled sixty miles to Azara one weekend in May. We went house to house praying for residents and inviting them to our programs for children, youth, and families at the community sports complex. There we were able to share the plan of salvation with more than three hundred people. Fifteen persons came forward to indicate that they accepted Christ in their hearts. The Church of God in Alem, together with the students of the institute, will take turns going to Azara every weekend to disciple the new believers."

A few months ago, a young woman from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, shared some more good news over lunch. Viviana Pardo had been witnessing to her boss for several years with no apparent impact. In 2009, Viviana attended a training seminar with the Global LEAD Alliance in Paraguay and went home to offer classes in Bible-based leadership skills. Her boss, eager to improve her business acumen, enrolled in the classes. Halfway through the three-month course, the woman became a Christian! She now worships in a house church and, according to Viviana, has become an enthusiastic evangelist in her own right.

We are thrilled to be a small part of these stories. For instance, Dave first met Viviana at the Global LEAD Alliance network, which exists throughout South America to reproduce this type of transformational training. We officially launched the 2x20 Challenge at the Inter-American Conference last February, inviting Church of God congregations to plant two new churches in strategic communities by the year 2020. Ernesto—along with a score of leaders from around Latin America—accepted that challenge, which resulted in his leading the team to Azara. You will remember our request in the last Chronicle, asking you to pray that this initiative would bring fruit. Well, thank you! God is answering.

Now when you pray, please ask God to raise up workers to make disciples throughout Latin America in communities like Azara who will join Viviana to spread the good news in the workplace.

Intercede for Barbara and Dave to successfully renew their Bolivian identity papers and close the deal on the purchase of an apartment upon returning to Cochabamba this month—two important steps to ensure long-term residency.

Cuban pastor Carlos Lamelas, his wife, and two daughters arrive in the United States this month as political refugees. Pray that resettlement in Texas under the auspices of Citizenship and Immigration Services will go smoothly. It will be another huge challenge, as you can imagine.

Dave and Barbara Miller serve as your regional coordinators for Global Missions in the Latin America region. If you would like to financially support their ministry, you may contribute online by clicking here. Or checks can be mailed to Church of God Ministries, PO Box 2420, Anderson, IN 46018-2420. Write Project 42.10067 in the memo line to assign your gift accordingly.