New Blog

Although God's work continues in Manila, we no longer play a direct role in this ministry. We pray that God would bless the Manila team and help it prosper. May God continue to call Filipino men and women to himself to the praise of his glorious grace. May those Filipinos draw others into the family of God through their worship and witness. May they be agents of transformation as they look after orphans and widows. May more Filipinos proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in areas that restrict access to Western missionaries. Lord, may your kingdom come and your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

With bittersweet feelings we close this blog and start another. While researching some statistics on the border, I ran into a discontinued periodical named "Borderlines." I thought that would make a great name for our new blog. So please stay in touch at Borderlines.

New Direction

We had a great time visiting with the BEAMM team, and accepted a call to serve on the US/Mexico border with Mission to the World. We hope to go to language school for 9 months to a year. Then I will apprentice under Manuel Padilla, a church planter in East El Paso. This community is 90% Hispanic, and is crucial for training up the next generation of leadership for both sides of the border. Some of the specific needs are for leadership training, and community outreach through sports. I better get my brother Rob to help me out with my soccer skills. After this apprenticeship in El Paso/Juarez, we would like to go to Nogales, Sonora and help start churches there.

Our team has several church plants in Juarez. We train pastors at San Pablo seminary where I hope to teach when my Spanish gets up to par. And we are planning a community center to focus on mercy ministries. We are currently accepting short term teams for English language camps, VBS, and construction projects. Please see BEAMM's website if your church is interested.

The Next Step

This week we will have our second interview with the Border Evangelism And Mercy Ministries (BEAMM) team on the US/Mexico border. This team is a partnership between Mission to the World (MTW) and Mission to North America (MNA) to reach strategic border cities through church planting movements resulting in a transformation of society for the glory of God.

Their goal is: By God’s grace and His blessing, BEAMM will promote church planting movements by establishing a network of churches in each major border city: Brownsville / Matamoros, McAllen / Reynosa, Laredo / Nuevo Laredo, El Paso / Ciudad Juarez, Nogales / Nogales, El Centro / Mexicali, and San Diego / Tijuana. Associated with each church network will be a regional Theological and Leadership Training Center for the training of future pastors and lay leaders, and a Christian Community Center which will provide English as a Second Language (ESL) and skills training, counseling services, job placement, and mercy ministries to the community. Furthermore, BEAMM will partner with MNA in establishing bilingual church movements in local Hispanic communities throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Please visit http://www.beamm.org/ for more details on their vision and work.

After pursuing recommendations on several continents, both Heather and I agree that this ministry would be a good fit for our family. It would use our gifts, our passions, and our experiences. It would use our gifts in mercy and evangelism. We have a passion to see Christ glorified through the planting of local churches. We have a vision for identifying and equipping leaders to plant churches and reach out to the poor. In Wichita, Jeff started an English as a Second Language Outreach to Hispanics, and Heather taught Bible clubs to the kids of the parents attending. We took the Heartland youth to Chihuahua on several mission trips. Jeff's parents and extended family are from Las Cruces and El Paso. We would start out doing a two year apprenticeship in El Paso and Juarez. After that we would like to go to Nogales, Sonora on the Arizona/Mexico border.

We will let you know how things develop. Please keep us in prayer this week.