Stephen had a checkup on his left eye today and we're praising God for the amazing change in his vision. The doctor said it's healing nicely and his vision tested at 20-40 today. Before the surgery, notwithstanding the cataracts his vision without glasses or contacts was 20-400.
The surgery on his right eye is tomorrow morning so please pray that it is successful, without complications and his recovery is normal. We are scheduled to fly back to El Salvador on March 16, so his final appointment with Dr. Lee is on Wednesday, March 15.
We spent all morning Friday meeting with Shelly Davis, women's ministry leader at Christ Chapel. The session was on the importance of having a vision, mission and core values for our ministry and, more importantly, how to go about it. Our church, Vida Nueva, has all three of thelse, but we do not specifically have these for our women's ministry. We definitely put this on the to-do list for when we get back to El Salvador--well, after the women's retreat which is the first weekend of November.
After lunch we also met with Wendy Lyon who shared how to make a person, spiritual timeline. This activity/exercise forces you to think about your spiritual life through the years since you first made the decision to follow Jesus. As you draw it, you will see that the line might not have been straight, that you might detoured off the path but that God has been faithful the entire time. You have an opportunity to honestly reflect on your relationship with the Lord. If done with a small group, the women are invited to share (but aren't required to) their timeline with others. It is a great way for others to see that they are not alone and that everyone has had ups and downs in their Christian walk.
We left the church about 4:00 p.m. to drive to the site of the Women's Prayer Retreat--more on that in my next blog post.
Today all of Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva, San Salvador, met together for a Koinonia service. It's always an amazing time when 1000+ voices are lifted in praise.
One of the special treats today was to hear a stage full of Vida Nueva kids sing "Cada Dia Empezar De Nuevo."
The second special treat was a tag-team sermon from 2 Kings 2 by Pastor Julio and Pastor Steve.
The sermon also included a very moving video which highlighted the current conditions here in El Salvador and ended with a plea for Christians to step up and make a difference.
The Pastors presented the vision for the next five years. There were four parts:
- Continue to expand the kingdom:
- By calling on each individual Vida Nueva member to share Jesus with at least 20 people
- By planning and carrying out at least 20 evangelistic activities each year
- By organizing and conducting 20 new, creative ways to present the gospel across all of our campuses
- Continue to transform lives:
- By continuing one-on-one discipleship with new believers
- By increasing the number of people involved in small groups and creating 120 new groups during the five-year period
- By growing mature leaders through IDEM (Institute for Ministerial Development)
- By encouraging believers to continue their spiritual growth by enrolling in seminary classes
- Reach the "other half"
- By providing increased resources/teachers in both the children's and youth ministries
- By beginning a program targeted at helping parents rear spiritually strong children
- By continuing to expand New Life Christian School through 12th grade
- By encouraging interested church members to consider adoption
- Expand MetroAmerica 020
- By strengthening our current mission churches so that they become self-sufficient
- By planting two additional churches out side of El Salvador; considering one plant in a city in Central America or the Caribbean and the second in a city in Mexico or Colombia.
- By raising up new pastoral leaders to meet the needs of the church here in El Salvador as well as in the new church plants
In addition to the four parts of the vision, Pastor Julio and Pastor Steve presented the following challenges, centered around facilities
- Finish the children's area at the Lourdes campus
- Construct new facilities at the Apopa campus
- Unify the Miravalle and Crown Plaza campus in a new location
- Form a new campus in another sector of San Salvador
The service ended with a call for 21 Days of Prayer and three days of fasting. Please join us in praying God's guidance for Vida Nueva.
Since our church has multiple sites, every three or four months we have a joint "Koinonia" service. Yesterday more than 1000 member of the various Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva sites met together to hear Pastors Julio Contreras and Steve Kern present the 2014 vision for the church and witness the ordination of 24 new deacons.
As you can imagine it is amazing to hear and be a part of more than 1000 voices singing praises to our God. Yesterday's music included "Our God," "Great is Thy Faithfulness," "We Adore You," "In Christ Alone," "The King" and "Praise and Honor." Some of the songs you will recognize, but others were originally written in Spanish.
Pastor Julio presented the 2014 vision for the church, "Expansion3.0," which included:
- Continuing to advance all of the ministries of the church
- Sending a two missionary couples to Bogota to plant a new Vida Nueva church
- Adding additional services at the Lourdes and Apopa sites to accommodate growth
- Remodeling the sanctuary at Miravalle and constructing an anex for the administrative offices
- Offering seminary classes online
- Offering a new cycle of IDEM (discipleship 2) classes
- Searching for God's strategy on how to unify the Miravalle and Crown Plaza sites
- Establishing the program "Love and Respect" to reach married couples for Christ
We also witnessed the ordination of 24 new deacons who were nominated by the church members and approved by the pastors. There were new deacons from each of our four sites (Apopa, Crown Plaza, Lourdes, Miravalle.) What a blessing to see Godly men willing to take on a greater leadership role in the church.
Pastor Steve preached from Acts 11:19-25 focusing on the importance of having the hand of the Lord upon the church/the believer, seeing the grace of God in the life of the church/believer and working with purpose of heart to see people added to the Lord.
It was an awesome service and one typical for a Koinonia (started at 10:00 AM and finished at 12:45 PM.)
