Raul has been with our church and ministry for years, and he and his wife are very faithful members who are growing in discipleship and in their walk with God. Raul heads up our jail ministry (you can see a couple photos of Raul in the maximum security wing below). He and several others from our church minister to both men and women in several jails in the San José area. Raul also has a heart for young people who are growing up in poverty, surrounded by crime and other bad influences like drugs and alcohol.

During the next several months, Raul and his wife will be making several short-term (one- to two-week) trips to Nicaragua to continue to seek the Lord’s direction. Their desire is to minister in an area called Masaya and to work with the prisoners in the jails in Tipitapa (just outside Managua).

If you remember Raul, please pray for him, that God would confirm this new direction or close the door completely. I’ll do my best to keep you all informed as to what’s going on.

Thank you very much.

~Greg

Afterward, we took a break, had lunch, and then headed over to the central park where we planned to open-air preach as Mass let out. We found out that the church had been damaged in the last earthquake, and wasn’t open until later on… so no preaching in front of the Catholic church this time around. There were lots of people in the park, though (it was a beautiful evening), so we finished up by passing out more tracts and witnessing to more people.

We had a great week and we want to thank all of you who were praying for us! We are in so much need of revival here in Costa Rica (and Latin America) — we need a revival in evangelism (a revival among lost souls, and a revival of biblical evangelism) and we need a revival among God’s people (especially the pastors and leaders of local churches: May they hunger and thirst for righteousness!).

I shot about an hour of video Saturday. Below are the links to an eight-minute summary of the day. I’ll be posting the rest of video in ten-minute segments later this week and next.

Here are the links to the quick, summary video (it’s the same video, just different formats):

• Flash video out on Blip.tv (you can click the image above to get here, too).
• High Resolution mpeg4 (best quality)
• Low Resolution mpeg4
• Ogg Video (for Penguin people)

Please continue to ask the Lord for revival in Alajuela and Costa Rica — revival among the lost (that they might be soundly saved) and revival in the church (a revival of sound doctrine; a revival among the pastors that would lead them to a profound desire to read and study Scripture, and feed their sheep with sound, biblical exposition of the Word of God)

Here are the links to the video (it’s the same video, just different formats):

• Flash video out on Blip.tv (you can click the image above to get here, too).
• High Resolution mpeg4 (best quality)
• Low Resolution mpeg4
• Ogg Video (for all you Linux Geeks)

Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine… Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. [1Tim 4.13-16]

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. [Hos 4.6]

The event: Intentional evangelism and pastoral outreach. From Monday, February 16th, through Saturday, February 21st, several of us will be in the city of Alajuela all day, everyday. We put together a “missions edition” of our Revista newsletter; it’s designed to be a complete and biblical presentation of the Gospel, and also a tool to offer help and resources to church leaders and pastors (e.g. our Biblical Discipleship program, seminars, workshops, etc.).

We printed up 10,000 of the Revista to take to Alajuela along with about 20 of our “pastor packages” (a small gift for pastors in the area that includes my book How to Study the Bible, Mark Cahill’s book One Think You Can’t Do in Heaven, some key discipleship material, and examples of our Gospel tracts — my son, Kevin, is holding one of the packs in the picture).

• We will be going door-to-door with the Revista, passing it out on the streets, and giving it away after open-air preaching.
• Saturday the 21st we will be evangelizing at the Farmers Market in the morning (preaching, witnessing, passing out the Revista and tracts), and then in the evening we are planning on doing some open-air preaching in the central park after Mass lets out.

The area: Alajuela. The city of Alajuela (population: 50,000; about 10 miles northwest of San José) is the capital city of the Province of Alajuela (population: 700,000). A province in Costa Rica is like a state in the USA — we have seven, as you can see in the map (click to enlarge).

• Obviously, with only 10,000 Revistas and 20 “pastor packages,” we will not even make a small dent in the reaching Alajuela with the Gospel and sound doctrine. But, we are committed to do what we can with the resources God has give us. So, we’re asking for your prayers — that you would ask God to get the literature into the hands of those who need it, and that He would use it save the lost and bring the saved to a sound knowledge of the truth of Scripture.

The need in Costa Rica. I’ll have more to say about this later on, during the course of the year, but let me just say this for now…

• The glaring need in Costa Rica (and, frankly, in all of Latin America) is sound doctrine — biblical theology (a sound and biblical understanding of Who God is and what He is like). Many church leaders here are men with a heart for God and a zeal for the work of the Lord, but not having had the opportunity to receive good theological training, it’s been difficult to effectively carry out the mission of “making disciples” both here and abroad.
• The failure in the Latin America Church to establish an “orthodoxy” (correct doctrine) has led to an even more serious failure in “orthopraxy” (correct practice). For example, in the area of evangelism, the great majority of churches and ministries are preaching a false Gospel because they do not understand Who God is and what He is like. In the area of basic “church life,” ministries are rife with non-biblical activities and practices while the sheep are starving — not being “nourished” in sound doctrine. Bad practice follows bad doctrine. But the reverse is true also: Sound practice follows sound doctrine (both in evangelism and church life).
• With the Revista and the “pastor packages” we aim to try to meet this need head-on. The Revista is an evangelistic tool that has a biblical presentation of the true Gospel. It also has information and links to resources on our web site that will be of interest and help to leaders and pastors. Of course, our intention with the “pastor packages” is to get sound teaching materials into the hands of the men who are feeding God’s people and training them in the mission of making disciples.

We are limited, but God is not. We have limited resources, but we are thankful for those we have and are confident that God will supply all our need (Php 4.19). Offerings from our people here and income from our soccer field business are funding this entire operation. Our desire is to first cover the capital cities of each of the seven provinces in the country and then we will select strategic areas within each province to do the same: Outreach through literature distribution, witnessing on the streets, open-air preaching, and “pastoral help.”

We need prayer. Please pray for us as we strive to preach the Gospel to those who have never heard (most have heard the modern Gospel of “accept Jesus in your heart and you’ll feel better”) and to teach sound doctrine to those who desire to hear.

• The pic (above) is of the “team” that went today (from left to right): Jorge, me, Alex “Bimbo” and Marco.
• If you’d like to see some pictures, check out my Picasa album. Jorge manned the camera and did a bang-up job, like always.

www.dougpearson.org

Doug grew up in in the Kansas City Metro area where, after the Lord saved him, he was trained up at Kansas City Baptist Temple. Later he was led to participate in the missions revival of native pastors all over the world called “Greater Grace World Outreach“.

In 2002, he moved to Baltimore to attend Greater Grace World Outreach and had the opportunity to be discipled by pastor Tom Schaller. From 2002 to 2006, while at Greater Grace, Doug helped plant a church in Philadelphia.

In 2006 that he was sent by Greater Grace to India where he’s had the joy of working with native pastors, teaching Bible college in Mumbai, and discipling men in the church. He’s also planted several churches in North India and Nepal. He travels to Nepal twice a year where he disciples native Nepali pastors, and travels with them to preach Jesus up and down the mountains in sight of the Himalayan range.

Doug has a tremendous heart for God, the Bible, discipleship, and missions. He trusts the Lord and walks with Him daily. Please log onto his site and get to know him a little bit. If the Lord leads you to pray for him, great! I know he would also be very encouraged by an e-mail letting him know you’re lifting him up in prayer and interceded for his needs in India. His e-mail addresses are:

• douglaspaul7ATyahooDOTcom
• dougATdougpearsonDOTorg

Ministry opportunity in Medellín, Colombia

During any of the first three weeks of September, 2008

I have a tremendous open door in Medellín, Colombia, and would like to extend an invitation to whomever would like to participate.

During the last week of September, the national “Book Fair” conference will be held in Medellín. There will be thousands of people in and out of the convention center every day and Fernando Garrido (pastor of La Biblia Dice church, Medellín) has obtained a booth and will be able to put up a “display.” Obviously we are making plans to preach the Gospel, and pass out literature, Bibles, and promotional materials for his church and biblical discipleship.

Here’s the plan…

I would like to arrive in Medellín before the week of the Book Fair with a team from the United States. We would spend a week together ministering with Fernando and his people (mostly in preparation for the Fair, but also focusing on the team members, too). Here is an example of a possible itinerary:

• Arrive on a Saturday and get settled into houses (we will likely be able to put team members with families–members of the church; that means you would not have to pay for room and board).
• Sunday would be spent at church and getting to know the members.
• Monday through Friday we could have teaching sessions in the mornings on missions and cross-cultural ministry. In the afternoons, we could apply the principles we’re learning in the mornings out on the streets. There are several large universities in Medellín and many of the students are eager to speak English with native speakers (gringos).

These types of “open-air outreach” activities on a short-term missions trip are very powerful and life-changing. We spend time in the morning talking about the “theory” (learning biblical principles of missions and cross-cultural ministry) and then we hit the streets in a cross-cultural setting to apply those principles in “real life.” It stretches your faith and opens your eyes to the harvest!

I would like to say that I have ministered on the streets and in the universities of Medellín many times, and it is completely safe. Most of the “bad reputation” the city has is because of its history. Much has changed in the last ten years.

Special Needs

Fernando is going to need literature (tracts) and Bibles for the Book fair. We are also hoping to do an “iPod Outreach” in order to get people to take our “Good Test” and explain the Gospel to them. That means we’ll need at least one iPod.

We would, therefore, like to ask the team coming down to invest in a much of this material as is possible. Fernando will also be printing up additional literature in Medellín (if someone would like to fund that effort, that would be great!).

I can give more details to those interested in considering pulling a team together to help. Just shoot me an e-mail.

Medellín

Medellín is a very developed city that has a population of over 4,000,000 people (larger than the population of the country of Costa Rica). The need is great; there are only a handful of non-catholic churches (“evangelical”) and the great majority struggle with doctrinal issues because of a lack of Biblical training and teaching.

God is doing a great work in Fernando’s church and the door is wide open throughout Medellín for evangelism, church planting, discipleship, and leadership development.

Would you prayerfully consider going with me in September and investing in the work of God in Medellín, Colombia? I can assure you that it would also be a tremendous eternal investment in the members of your team. They’ll be exposed first-hand to cross-cultural ministry on the streets of Medellín!

Evangelism, according to the Bible, is going out to where the sinners are, preaching the cross of Christ (Law and grace; justice and forgiveness; wrath and love), and leading the lost to repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When that happens with two or three sinners, then those two or three new converts can gather together and… you got a church!

Todd Friel addressed this issue on his radio show yesterday (Monday, March 31, 2008). You can listen to the 2.5 minute clip here if you’d like. When I heard what he had to say, I remembered a couple of messages I preached at a church in the States a couple years ago. I was one of several invited speakers and the thrust of the conference was church planting in the region’s growing cities (amen! wonderful vision!). I spoke first on the Mission God gave us to seek and save the lost, and my second message was about calling men to repentance. The two-part series centered around these two foundational truths:

1. If we are not actively evangelizing (which is our Mission: “seek and save the lost”), then we will fill our churches by transfer growth. We’ll be the new church in the new suburb that attracts the “already churched” that are looking for a change of scenery.
2. If we are not actively calling men to repentance in our evangelism efforts, then we will fill our churches with false converts (lost people who think they are saved because they “prayed a prayer” or “accept Jesus”).

If you’d like to listen to those two messages, I’ll put the links below to the mp3s. I would like to say this, though, before you listen to them: Please do not mistake my passion for a “mean spirit.” I was sick the whole week of this conference and a bit out of sorts, so I wasn’t feeling well at all. Coupling that with a “passionate delivery,” and some have taken the passion with which I spoke as me being “mad and angry.” To the contrary, I am very excited about these concepts and am putting them into practice here at Eastside Church. Also, since the church that hosted the conference is where many friends of mine attend, you might hear “casual comments” or jokes that I’d not use in another context (one in particular comes to mind with a friend of mine from college who brought me some water and I said he’d make a good wife someday; it was a “jab in the arm” to a friend of mine, so please take it in context).

The important thing I think we need to understand is that we don’t see “church planting” in the Bible as a means of evangelism. Paul’s “missional model” of ministry was to evangelize first (open-air preaching, outreach in the Jewish synagogues, etc.) and then gather the new converts together for weekly preaching and teaching. Evangelism was first and that resulted in a new church. Paul didn’t hang out a shingle and say, “We’re here! Y’all come!” He did the “heavy lifting” of “cold-contact” evangelism first (and continually), and then started a church with the new converts God gave him.

This is the five-step Pauline pattern that we are trying to following here (and will develop more in the next year as we make plans to start a new church):

1. Evangelize (go out to where the lost are and speak to them about Jesus Christ, heaven, hell, repentance, etc.).
2. Start a church with the new converts God gives.
3. Disciple them (establish them in the faith and train them for the Mission).
4. Develop local leadership.
5. Missions: Go and do the same in another “key city” (leaving the previous work in the capable hands of the committed leaders that were developed during the process of biblical discipleship in the local church).

Church planting is not evangelism. It should be the natural result of evangelism so that the new believers can experience fellowship, encouragement, discipleship, the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, etc. Without a clear focus on evangelism, we’ll simply fill our churches by “transfer growth,” and the lost will never be reached.

1. First message: Radical Zeal for the Mission
2. Second message: Calling Men to Repentance

~Greg

He was able to spend quite a bit of time with pastor José Guerrero and La Roca Fuerte church, explaining discipleship and showing them how to use our discipleship material. Will met personally with José, he taught various times during the week, and then he was invited to preach during their Sunday services. There was also plenty of time to visit with some of the folks he got to know while in Monmouth a year o so ago.

Here are some pictures of José, his wife, Will, and the congregation.

We would love to be able to go back to the Monmouth area later this year — possibly focusing more effort in the Galesburg area (a larger city than Monmouth). There are several Hispanic congregations in and around Galesburg, and it would be a wonderful opportunity to have some sort of conference for area pastors and their people. The idea would be to focus on the mission of evangelism and discipleship, and to encourage them to diligently grow in sound doctrine. But, for now we have no plans to return, just a lot of desire to see a good work done among the Hispanics of rural Illinois.

Thank you all very much for praying for Will. We appreciate the hospitality of the Dean and Julie in Monmouth, and that of Josh Green in Kansas City (Will was able to visit friends at the Kansas City Baptist Temple after a week or so in Monmouth). Thanks for taking care of my friend!

Many of you know Will; he’s one of the “up and coming” leaders here at Eastside Church, and my right-hand man in most every area of the ministry here. About a year to two ago, God opened the door for Will to team up with Mike Blake and Maple City Baptist Church to reach out to the Hispanic community in Monmouth, IL. He spent approximately six months with Mike in Monmouth and made many contacts among the Hispanics there. Those contacts are still bearing fruit!

Some of the friends Will made while in Monmouth now attend an Hispanic church close to Mike’s Maple City Baptist, and the pastor (José Guerrero) has invited Will back to Monmouth to teach a week-long conference on biblical discipleship. We are excited, to say the least!

Will is to arrive in Monmouth next week, the 6th of February, and he’ll be teaching the rest of that week in the evenings about biblical discipleship, presenting our discipleship material as a key tool for that ministry. Since he won’t be coming back to Costa Rica until the 18th, we’re hoping he has the opportunity to catch the train to Kansas City and visit with friends. (For all you KCBT’ers, please look for Will on Sunday the 17th. I know he’d be very encouraged if you’d find him and love on him!)

This trip came up quite suddenly because of a number of odd circumstances, so we’re having to move quickly to pull together all the details. Please pray for Will, pastor José Guerrero (U.S. resident originally from Mexico), and the “Roca Fuerte” church in Monmouth, IL. May God give them a passion to win souls and preach the Word of God!

I would like to clarify one thing about the trip, since it’s already been brought to my attention that it could cause some confusion if someone doesn’t know all the details involved. Because of financial problems here in our ministry we had to give Will “unpaid vacation” during the month of February. So, Will can’t pay for his ticket. The church can’t pay for his ticket (we can barely pay our own rent!). And we’ve just experienced another church cutting our support, so we’re not in any position to pay for it. But, God is faithful and has laid it on the heart of a man in Monmouth to pay for this trip. His name is Dean, and he’s a farmer that lives and works in the rural area around Monmouth. Dean has a tremendous burden for the Hispanic people in his community and has been a constant encouragement to us in our efforts in that city. Dean is a member of a church that belongs to the denomination called the “Disciples of Christ.” Obviously we (that denomination and our ministry here) do not agree on every doctrine, essential or secondary. However, I do not believe that should inhibit our choice to receive Dean’s generous gift with a thankful heart. Neither Dean nor his church have asked for any influence whatsoever on the material being presented and taught during this week’s discipleship conference at José Guerrro’s church. They are just happy that Will can return and continue to minister to their Spanish-speaking community! But, I do feel the need to let you know and to also give credit where credit is due; I am thankful that God put Dean in our path to provide for our needs.