In the past, when playing various card games, I’ve heard my friends use the phrase, “Go big… or go home!” I’m here in Trujillo, Peru, where a Team Expansion worker applied that advice to missions. Shew… makes me tired just thinking about what they’re doing here. Simultaneous outreaches to 7 barrios, university students, and professionals. They’ve built 7 community centers, psychological counseling for those who need it, assistance to beaten and battered women, “CHE” and a medical clinic (with another one on the way), micro-economic business start-ups, and even larger business start-ups to provide jobs to those in the barrios with some of the profits being used to sponsor new leaders in local churches. One business, a snail farm, has grown so rapidly that it is now said to be the 3rd-largest snail production facility in all of South America. They’ve got a dairy farm, a new guinea pig operation coming on line, and they do Bible storying (orality) like it’s going outa’ style. They teach “Character First” to every member of the staff and virtually every new worker and believer. There’s a new women’s village in the works for ladies that have been abandoned. They’re involving Peruvian professionals in reaching out to the poor in their own city, which gives them all the more help addressing citywide problems. We’ve noticed a distinct change in the people in the barrios we’ve visited. As a result of the teaching, they seem to have much more dignity and a higher self esteem than they would have had otherwise. There are sports outreaches in the works, educational groups, kids outreaches, a new “Amigos en Accion” outreach that pulls together buddy groups, a car wash business, flower vender carts, and even knitting groups. The list goes on.
Now all this would be impressive under any circumstances. But what I have a hard time understanding is how they’ve launched all this in less than 3 years! Shew. Makes me tired just thinking about it.
All of which caused me to ask, what *does* it take to ramp up missions today? What will it take to make this kind of *incredible* impact on a city of 1 million people. I’m doing some thinking about that. One of the key conclusions I’ve drawn is — it takes a mover and a shaker who will allow God to work through him or her… to become a vision-caster for the project. Then it takes a battalion of people coming alongside the vision-caster, each taking his or her slide of the pie, carrying out his or her role with excellence. Only God could have caused all this to come together in such a short time… but he chose to do all this through the hands of hard-working visionaries. Only two of these families are from the USA. The rest is being carried out by Peruvians, with the help of a few Chileans along the way. It’s astounding.
Makes me think that sometimes we underestimate what God can do. Makes me admire those who will tirelessly labor, and makes me want to tell them that their labor will not be in vain.
Your labor won’t be in vain either. Let’s all turn our work over to God, ramp it up as much as we’re able — for His glory and His glory alone — and let’s finish the task of the Great Commission so that His Name will receive the credit it deserves.
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