Capturing the Vision in Trujillo

Hello! My name is Don Lawrence. I am the pastor at Christ’s Church of Fountain Hills and a member of board of PNHI. On Saturday, June 5, I had the privilege of leading the most recent leadership seminar for our team in Trujillo.

A few things stand out in my mind from this trip. Three years ago when I led my first seminar there, we had approximately 40 people in attendance. The next couple of seminars that I led we had 50-60 in attendance. Last Saturday there were more than 160 in attendance! The leadership base has grown significantly this past year. These leaders have captured the vision of leading others to Christ. Already this year they have had 120 baptisms! The Lord God is bringing fruit to their labors!

While there, I also had the opportunity of participating in a barrio census. 360 volunteers canvassed several barrios filling out surveys from interviews conducted at several thousand homes. It was a monumental undertaking and will give our team greater insight into the lives of those to whom we hope to minister. As you might imagine, this huge project took much planning, coordinating and organizing. This undertaking reveals some special things about our leadership team in Trujillo.

First of all: They think big! This was no small undertaking. It was huge! And they did it!

Second: Such an undertaking takes a lot of participation from everyone involved. The sense of camaraderie and cohesiveness is stronger than I have witnessed there since we started this work in Trujillo.

Third: South American individuals continue to grow and mature in their leadership role. One example is a key couple, Jaime and Patty and their daughter Satya. Jaime and Patty were in charge of the entire census. It was just one of their many responsibilities. They are doing an outstanding job!

Fourth: This team isn’t afraid of hard work. The day before the canvas the three page survey needed to be stapled together. Thousands and thousands of them! I sat amongst an energetic group who correlated, stapled, stacked and counted all the survey sheets. From the directors (Mike and Danell Bukta, and their daughters Skylar and Nicole) to the newest team member, the room was filled with dedicated workers. These same individuals would be among the many who conducted the census the following day. This is just one example of the sense of unity and cooperation that is pervasive among our hard working team.

Space limitations preclude me from going on and on about the leadership of Mike and Danell or the helpful assistance of Tony and Kellie or the song leading at the seminar or the computer work for the power point presentation or the logistical planning for the seminar…….the end result is that our presence in Trujillo is beginning to impact a town with the love and hope of Jesus Christ!

Enthusiastically,

Don Lawrence

Religion Versus Personal Faith

This month we want to share an experience that we had that should be a reminder to us all to strive to know our Lord better and better each day.

Our neighbor was in the hospital last month with cancer. Her family invited all the neighbors to go to a prayer meeting that was being held in our condominum. So we went not knowing what to expect, because our cultures are so different when it comes to religious matters. They had two women that were in charge of the meeting. They started off praying to Jesus for about 5 minutes, which pleasantly surprised us, but than they started focusing their prays to virgin Mary. For the next hour and a half they chanted the rosary. We felt like we were in a cult, because they were just going through the motions with glazed looks in their eyes. For the first time we experienced how religious people act.

Over the years many people confess to us that they are Christians, even when they practice a different religion, for example, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Bahi, to name a few. We try and explain that if you take Jesus out of who He is, you're not a Christian. But of course many people do not see it that way. We’re sure the confusion about Christiany is all over the World. We’ve learned that you first need to ask someone what is their definition of a Christian is before you answer them!

We want to leave you with the following verse from John 5:38-40; “nor does his Word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one He sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

We encourage you to get to know Jesus personally!

Dios te Bendiga,
Mike and Danell

A word from John Hendee

My how the months pass! It is my turn to address each of you again! Mike and Danell continue to be a real blessing to PHNI and the people in Peru. They are doing a wonderful job!

I would like to bring you up to speed on a couple of the changes we are making in the form of name changes. We think that these will help make job descriptions and expectations more clear to those both in Peru and those in the United States.

Since the beginning of our work in Peru we have called our Peruvain missionary families, "Directors". We have changed that. They are now called Church Planting Trainers. That better describes what they are there to do. They aren't there to "Direct" people, but to reach and train them to do the work of the ministry, to reach others, and to plant house churches. We keep emphasizing that now and we are seeing the fruit from it too. We will succeed in what we are there for IF our team trains people in what they need in order to make this a movement, an expanding and reproducing of disciples who are planting churches.

The other name change is Big Sisters. That is what we have called those congregations who are making monthly financial commitments to PNHI and the work in Peru. We are now going to be calling them PNHI Partners. That is what they are. They are Partners with us in carrying out the mission first in Peru, and Lord willing beyond in the future.

We are developing a style that we trust will be usable in many places in the world. We couldn't do it without our Partners. For those who don't know, we have 14 PNHI Partners and they give from $1000 to $3000 a month to PNHI. 95% of that goes straight to the field and is what supports our whole team there.

They truly are Partners, supporting the Church Planting Trainers.

God bless you all.
Love in Him

John and Carla