Is it just a week of over-stimulation, or a reminder to pray? I close my eyes and I see the faces of the kids who came to the VBS in Las Palmas this past week.
Santiago, Zuri, Emi, Donovan, Sara, Logan, Ismael, Mario, Les – there were 70 or more in all. Many from very difficult backgrounds, dealing with very difficult situations. The vast majority no Christian and with very little contact with the Church.
Well, it is a good time to pray. There were many opportunities to share the gospel throughout the week, both through the official teaching times, Bible memory, and group and one-on-one conversations. And that includes not just kids and youth but adults as well. Many seeds were planted.
We praise the Lord for the help of many local believers, and for the help of the team from Hope Community Church. Events like this can bear fruit for years to come, and we pray that that will be the case here. That fruit is not only the community outreach, but the growth of believers as they learn to serve the Lord in new ways!
The team was also involved in other activities during the week. An event to provide hearing aids and reading glasses to some seniors in need, English classes, a basketball tournament. And the important ministry of spending time with lots of people all throughout the week.
Thanks for your prayers for the first day of the VBS in Las Palmas! So far so good. I believe there were 53 kids there today – a great start and far more than last year. If we grow a bit through the week, we should be able to double last year’s number! Lots of great Bible teaching and talks today.
Anyway, I’m just swinging by to share a few pictures to prove that it’s really happening…
You can tell by the buckets on our floor and the drips from our ceiling that rainy season has arrived at last. On Sunday morning I was at the front, just about to lead in a Scripture reading, and I let out a yelp as I got sprayed by water from above. Apparently the rain from the night before was sitting up there, and dripping not only on me but on others throughout the service. Hopefully not much on our sound system!
But hopefully I can be forgiven if I started thinking about the old song Showers of Blessing…
Showers of blessing, Showers of blessing we need: Mercy drops round us are falling, But for the showers we plead.
Daniel W. Whittle
The words are an expression of thanks and prayer. Yes, we’re so thankful for what God is doing in our lives – in our community – in our church – but we want more! Not for ourselves, but for the Lord.
It fits well with Sunday’s study on the lives of Gideon and Barak – imperfect, hesitant men who nonetheless accomplished great things because of their faith in God. As William Carey pleaded – Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God!
VBS promo flyer
So we are looking forward to more great things. In two weeks we’ll be well into a major community outreach event – a vacation Bible school in Las Palmas. We’ll be back at the old party hall where we used to meet for the week (that’s another story), Monday to Friday. We’ll have help from a short term team for the week, and a lot of help from many people in the church.
We’re preparing and praying – asking for those showers of blessing!
The theme of the week is the life of Joseph (otherwise known as Zaphenath-paneah – that tongue-twister was Pharoah’s bright idea) – certainly one of my favourites.
So we would love it if you joined us in prayer – pray for our church as we prepare, for the team as they travel, and for the families in the community. We’ll be having not only lessons for kids and young teens, but also for parents who will be hanging out while their kids are there. So pray that many would come, and that we would clearly share God’s truth and love with them!
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.
While the team from Word of Life was here, we did two events in two neighbourhoods to provide hearing aids and reading glasses to people in need. Various people had signed up ahead of time, many with notes from their doctors.
In the video below, you’ll see a few clips from both programs. The first was in the community of Los Heroes. The church in Jesús MarÃa has had an impact in this community for a long time, and we would love to see this develop into a new church plant. You can see pastor Ismael explaining that we ‘re not with any political party, but that we’re with a Christian church.
At each program, God’s Word was shared, both by local people and through the ministry of the visiting team. Many received literature and a Gospel of John (Gospel booklet thanks to the Pocket Testament League).
The second event was in the neighbourhood of Geovillas Ixtapaluca 2000. Some from the church in Las Palmas have been reaching out to a new group of people in this area.
Shari was helping people get set up with their hearing aids, and is always encouraged to see eyes light up as someone begins to hear for the first time in years!
These programs are part of long term works to reach out to new people in new areas with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have a look – and consider joining us!
We have a busy weekend ahead! This weekend we have a guest from the USA who will be presenting several seminars, focused around Christian living and holiness.
Tonight we start with a workshop for the leadership of all three churches. Then tomorrow a general workshop for adults from all three churches, followed by a youth-focused seminar on the same topic.
The final workshop is hosted by our church, so the youth group has been busy getting ready. Nathanael has been working on origami butterflies, to help decorate according to the spiritual change & transformation theme.
On Sunday we head north of Mexico City to the city of Pachuca, where I’ll be preaching. It will again be a somewhat training-focused sermon.
We would appreciate your prayers for Rod and Mayra as they get everything set up, for our guests, for all those attending, and for us too as we’re a little tired after a busy week and a late night!
Today Camino Global officially unites with Avant Ministries, to create one mission with missionaries in 50+ countries. The work of both continues under the name Avant Ministries.
There’s a lot to talk about, but essentially our ministry will continue – making disciples and planting churches in one of the less reached areas of this hemisphere – central Mexico.
The main practical questions right now may be financial questions – but you can see all updated information on our donations page. If you currently receive our newsletter, we emailed you (if you didn’t get the email, let us know!), and will be sending you some snail mail, which you should receive in about three weeks.
But let me give you a little background and history – and since it’s Canada Day, I’ll focus on some early Canadian connections which you may find interesting.
Avant Early History
Henry Grattan Guinness
Some fascinating things were happening in the mid-1800s. For example, a new preaching evangelist appeared on the scene in Ireland, named Henry Grattan Guinness. Yes, it’s that family – the Guinness family – think beer (the founder of the Guinness empire was a committed Christian, but that’s another story!).
Guinness visited Canada in the late 1850s, and a Canadian in southern Ontario was converted under his ministry – Albert Benjamin Simpson. Bear with me – these threads will soon come together.
Guinness was a friend of James Hudson Taylor, and very passionate about missions (Guinness’ daughter later married Taylor’s son). Simpson, a teenager at his conversion, soon caught the passion as well, in the decades ahead organizing important missions ventures.
Fast-forward thirty years later. Two Canadian women in Costa Rica are praying that God would send missionaries – a prayer soon to be answered by the founding of the Central America Mission in 1890 and the sending of the first missionaries in 1891 (see Canadians, Coffee, and CAM). The C.A.M. would eventually become CAM International and then Camino Global.
Just before the founding of Camino, Guinness’ doctor suggested he go abroad for his health, bringing him back to the USA. In 1889 he inspired a group from the YMCA in Kansas to reach out with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Among them was YMCA secretary George S. Fisher.
Several YMCA members volunteered, and missionaries went out the following year to Africa, and others over the next few years. The early missionaries went out under the mission organization that Simpson had founded.
Early World’s Gospel Union logo
And so unlike Camino, there was a group in Kansas sending missionaries before they had a formal organization – but that organization would be formed 2 years after Camino – in 1882. It was called the World’s Gospel Union, later becoming the Gospel Missionary Union (GMU) – and later Avant Ministries. Like Camino, Avant was influenced by a group of people promoting foreign missions that included J. Hudson Taylor.
Fisher led Avant in the early years – his purpose was to “promote Bible study, consecrated Christian living, sound doctrine, and the preaching of the Gospel where Christ is not named”.
The early founders of Avant included R. A. Torrey, C. I. Scofield (an original founder of Camino), and Luther Rees (also an original founder of Camino – and also important in the founding of Wycliffe Bible Translators – but that’s another story!). But another one of the early founders was Canadian William Holmes Howland.
Howland was the leader of what would become the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada (founded by fellow Canadian A. B. Simpson), but he had just left a remarkable career as the mayor of Toronto (see Toronto the Good). Sadly, Howland died of pneumonia only a year after Avant was founded. He was only 49.
More Recent History
In 2018, Avant approached Camino Global with the idea of uniting the two missions together. The hope was that we would be “better together” as a combined organization, which would have about 500 missionaries in 50+ countries. In November 2018, the boards of both missions agreed to the proposal.
The missions unite today, under the name Avant Ministries (in Canada Avant Ministries Canada).
There is still much work to be done in the offices and fields of Avant as the two missions come together. A lot has been done on general vision and on legal and financial matters, but that’s only the beginning. We would appreciate your prayers as we move forward together, continuing the work that began in 1890.
The missions force of the new mission is made up of about 27% “Millenials”, and 36% “Gen-Xers”, with the other 37% “Boomers” and older. But the work needs to grow, as churches work to send out new missionaries around the world, preaching Christ where He is not known.
Missionaries currently serve in Africa, Asia, North, Central and South America, and Europe.
And so the work continues – for the glory of Christ. Who knows where He will lead, and what He will accomplish around the world! As the early logo above says – “Speed the Word over land and sea!” Lord Jesus, may it be!
