Bolivia: Burger Churches?

In Texas we have a lot of Cowboy churches. Churches that reach people with similar interests who enjoy a similar culture.

Sunday we asked people what groups they are part of when we spoke at the church we helped plant three years ago. We were talking about the person of peace principle from Luke 10, an example of which is the woman at the well in John 4. We challenged them to be the key that unlocks the Gospel for their groups, networks, workplaces, neighborhoods.

At the end of the service the owner of a chain of hamburger fast food restaurants talked to Enzo. [Their restaurants are sort of like the McDonald’s of Bolivia, since McD is not here.] “Will your team speak to the employees of my restaurants? We have 200 in Bolivia, and 20 here in Santa Cruz. We will gather the employees at the beginning or end of their shifts to hear the Gospel.” So today Steve and the Vidor team (Linda, Terry and Lloyd) have appointments at four of the local restaurants!

We are challenging this church to start discipleship groups wherever people receive Christ . . . possibly right in the restaurants.

Please pray for open hearts, and also the discipleship of all the new believers. We are doing our best to model follow-up discipleship in all the areas. We want to have what Jesus called “fruit that remains.” Today and tomorrow are our last days to accomplish that.

Thanks for praying for us here in Bolivia. Everyone is doing great, although people are getting pretty tired from the long days.

Blessings.

Mike Jorgensen

Bolivia: Misc Links

Click here to see more pictures on Facebook

Click here to see some of our work areas via Google Earth

Bolivia: Why Swine Flu?

When we heard several days before we came that they were having a swine flu "issue" here, my first thought was "why now, Lord?"

This week we have seen at least part of the reason. Every team had many teenagers come to Christ, and many of these new believers then have worked with our teams. So youth have come to Christ, then led friends to Christ, then helped disciple them . . . all this week.

Last night a 13 year old new believer performed a "Jesus Rap" he wrote this week. I'll try to post the video online soon.

Without the swine flu precautions here, they all would have been back in school every day! But a school break was extended for two weeks, and the start back to school next Monday, after we're gone. Thank You, Lord, for this blessings.

Please keep praying for our Bolivia team. Today is maybe our hardest day--saying goodbye to new dear friends. It is amazing how working side-by-side with people serving God bonds hearts so quickly. Even though we don't share a common language or culture. It is the power of the Holy Spirit and the joy of seeing God work as we walk the dusty streets of Santa Cruz together. Plus see people come to Christ and begin walking with Him as they begin to be discipled.

As Alex, my son-in-law to be (in 10 days!), said this morning, "I'm so torn right now. This has been the best week of my life. My fiancee is at home, and I want very much to see her and get married. But I also so much want to stay here with all my new dear friends." So pray for us all as the transition process back to life at home begins tonight as each team has a closing celebration in each work area.

Quote of the day: "I came here expecting to serve. What I didn't expect was being so much like a wrench--begin a tool that God uses to do His will." From PJ Charles, inventor of EvangeDreds, which now are spreading like wildfire in his area.

The "Burger Church" planters went to 6 restaurants yesterday. More on that in a future report. Keep praying--there are several more today.

God has given us the priviledge of seeing over 500 people say "Si" to Jesus this week. Please continue to pray for the leaders and workers in the 6 areas in which we are working to have a vision, a strategy and the commitment to follow-up with all these precious new spiritual children.

Blessings.

Mike Jorgensen

Bolivia: How fast can God change a life?

Ten days ago Gonzolo (with guitar in picture below) was working in Spain. After he was stabbed while being robbed, his mother convinced him to come back to Bolivia.

Four days ago, after returning home, he trusted Christ.

Yesterday, after only three days as a believer, he started working with Cameron. This week he will share his new faith with many.

God has so many ways to get us on His plan. Some nice and some painful. But His will is done.

Here's Cameron (in light t-shirt) practicing with Bolivian team about how they will do evangelism in new subdivision (shown in second picture).

Bolivia Precious Moment

Each morning our team here in Bolivia gathers for breakfast, testimonies and worship. Precious moment yesterday morning when mom Michelle broke into tears sharing about daughters Tessa (age 9) and Ella (age 7) using the EvangeCube yesterday to share Christ with people.

Bo, their dad, told how Tessa shared Christ with one lady. As Tessa's eyes scanned between the very pregnant lady and the EvangeCube, she clearly presented the gospel. Perhaps spurred by a mother's love for little children, the lady listened very intently. Then she prayed to receive Jesus as her personal Savior.

Lord, what are You doing in the lives of our team?

Dozens of people are praying to receive Christ as the teams of Bolivians and Americans share about how Jesus died for their sins and offers eternal life only through faith in Him. Please pray for them to be open and eager to be discipled into a full life walking with Christ.

God has answered the prayers of this family exceedingly, abundantly already!

Bolivia Surrender

As a team we've been talking and praying about surrender. Surrendering everything to God. Big topic the first two days.

Today Enzo (e3 national director) and I were headed out to visit the MBBC team. We stopped to change some money on the way. When we got back in the car to head out . . . nothing. Wouldn't even turn over.

My first thought . . . "here we go again . . . why don't things work here like they should?" Not wanting to give in any more to this tempation to murmer, my next thought was "Lord, what do You want to accomplish through this?"

Almost immediately a car parked next to us, and a family got out. In a city of almost two million people, the lady says "hola, Enzo." We had stalled in front of the apartment of a former student of Enzo's, from way back when he taught high school for a little while.

Since I evidently had a mechanical lobotomy when I was younger, I knew everyone would be better off if I just stayed out of the way. So as her husband helped Enzo, I tried to engage in conversation with the lady with my very limited Spanish.

IF (and that's a big IF) I understood her correctly, both she and her husband are now doctors. They work at the Christian University here, serving as doctors and professors. On the weekends they volunteer doing medical clinics for the poor. So we invited them to participate in our medical missions trip in September to Sucre!

Since it was too late to go to the area, we then went to my favorite restaurant in Bolivia—Sakura 2. Hole in the wall place that serves world class chicken, plantains, yucca and French fries. Because of the swine flu scare here, the waiters were all wearing masks. Does this make me feel safer? Or not? How about you?

As we got our food, we heard another “hola, Enzo.” A lady and her new husband were walking in. Turns out his family lives in Sucre. His father is a recovering alcoholic, and now his parents do conferences to help families of alcoholics. So another Sucre connection within a few minutes.

Oh . . . you’re still wondering about the car. Enzo and the man tried his battery in the car, and it started right up. So with it running, they put the old one back in. We took it to a repair shop . . . they checked the battery . . . said it was good . . . maybe a drop of oil shorted out a connection (?) . . . for a little while . . . don't really know . . . stop bothering us with a car that is running fine?

Seems to be working fine now. Just had problems at the doorway of the two doctors. What are You up to, God? Time will tell.

Friday Bolivia Report

Great day today. Breakfast. Worship. Orientation. Met our 30 translators, who helped as we met the leaders of the areas where we will be working. Dinner. Very relaxing day to get caught up from our long travel day yesterday.

On each e3 mission trip we follow the model of ministry given us by the Apostle Paul, the parts of which are summarized in this diagram.

Today we focused on prayer. We prayed for many things, including surrendering this week to the Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus. Now we wait to see what He will do. It's gonna be exciting, whatever it is.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we begin the work. We'll continue praying, and add the evangelism part of our ministry. Please pray for us to be totally open and surrendered to what he wants to do through our teams of Bolivians and Americans, connected through our wonderful translators.

Check out the pix of the teams below.

Blessings.

Mike Jorgensen

Crossman/Olson/Ward Team

Scott & Sherry, Birken & Kelly, and Bo, Michelle, Tessa & Ella meeting with their translators and host church leaders.

Chens/Harpers/Mercedes/Cragers Team

Jim & Michelle, Todd & Wesley, David & Josh and Robbie & McKenna meeting with their translators and host church leaders.

Jim/Michelle/Christyne/PJ/Alex/Mary Team

Gaylord/Maria/Christine/Vivian/Wei Team

Gaylord, Maria, Christine, Vivian, Wei and their Bolivian ministry partners nicknamed themselves the "Chinebianos" team, a combination of "Chinese" and "Bolivianos."

Mason/Laurie/Cameron/Libby/Sarah Team

MBBC team getting to know their translators and local church leaders.

Steve/Linda/Terri/Lloyd Team

Where are we on Life Events Stress Meter?

Photo l to r: Alex, Joanna, Philip, Woodlyn, Alycia holding Ella, me.

Ever take one of those Life Events Stress Tests? The kind that measure if you’re likely to go bonkers if you have too many major life changes? One of those tests where even too many good things can raise the old stress meter?

I’m married to the same wonderful wife. We live in the same house. I work in the same office, with the same great team, and for the same organization—e3 Partners. Our kids continue to walk with the Lord. But other than that, just about everything has changed in the past few months.

I decided to take one of those online stress tests just to see how close our family is to going bonkers. Oh, no! It said we had an 80% probability of stress related illness! But what it did not factor in is the grace and peace and strength of God lavished on us. But here is a recap, so you can be praying for us!

Note--many of these things are great things! So we’re not complaining! But coming all at once is a blessed challenge. So here’s what’s up with us, taken from the Life Events Stress Test list--

Addition of New Family Member: Yeah, we love this one. Elizabeth Grace (Ella) joined our family 11 months ago, born to Alycia and Landon who have been living in Asia. We can’t wait until they come home this week for a 5 month visit.

Marriage: We love this one, too! We rejoice that Joanna is marrying Alex on Aug 1st! They both will continue to teach at Bryan High School, where Joanna teaches English as a Second Language (ESL) and Alex leads the school choirs.

Beginning or Ending Formal Schooling / Outstanding Personal Achievement (On a stress test? Yup!): Landon just finished his Ph.D. in Asia. They are coming home for a few months, then heading back to a new city in Asia in December. Landon will be a professor there.

Son or Daughter Leaving Home / Changing to a New School: After graduating from high school a few weeks ago, Philip is looking forward to Howard Payne University this fall, which is Alycia and Landon’s alma mater. The August 21st drop-off date already is marked on our calendars.

Death of Close Family Member: Woodlyn’s mother passed away in early May. Fortunately Woodlyn was able to spend about 6 of her last 8 weeks by her side. Picture above was taken at the graveside service.

Personal Injury or Illness: A couple weeks after her mom’s funeral, Woodlyn had surgery to remove some precancerous cells. We are praying that her follow-up check-up shows they got them all.

Major Change in Responsibility at Work: My transition from the international side of our ministry at e3 Partners to our I am Second project has been wild . . . and great fun. I am Second has been an “exceedingly, abundantly” blessed project as almost 1 million people have visited the website, each spending on average over 9 minutes watching the videos about Jesus changing lives. Even though we have only promoted it in Dallas, people from 191 countries now have visited.

Our vision is to “inspire a revolution of Second.” Which means helping followers of Christ live like Jesus really is First in their lives. Tall order in our materialistic consumer culture. We are writing small group curriculum to go with the videos on the website. Plus redesigning the “Get Involved” and “Find a Group” sections of http://www.iamsecond.com/ to make it easier for churches to partner with us and people to use these new resources.

Fortunately, I can still continue leading church planting teams. In July we have a team of 35 going to Bolivia. Then in November we are taking about 25 from our church to Ethiopia to open up a new area for e3. Plus I continue to serve as our Africa Continent Director until we transition that role to someone.

Change in Financial State: Like many in ministry, we have seen our support fall substantially. July 1st was our 17th anniversary with e3 Partners, known as Global Missions Fellowship way back then. So we trust Jehovah Jireh to continue to provide for our family as He faithfully has done over so many years. He is able and we delight in being “stranded on omnipotence,” as someone once said.

Thanks: Thanks to all of you who have prayed for us, gone with us, encouraged us and financially supported us over the years. We are here because of YOUR partnership in the Gospel.

For the Fame of His Name,

Mike Jorgensen

Divine Interruption

I have the best job in the world.

I love my job. Daily we get to see God’s hand at work. I love the national directors and US Team Leaders I’ve been working with the past 4 years. We have seen much spiritual fruit (see blog posts below) as we have transitioned our ministry focus to serving our national partners as they plant new churches. Our World Conference last month was a joyful celebration of all these blessings, and a look toward many new initiatives coming online. I couldn’t imagine a better job.

So I got a real shocker about 10 days ago. That morning I was just strolling along on my morning walk. Enjoying the fresh air. Not thinking about anything in particular. Quite frankly, simply enjoying not having any crushing deadlines after the joyful chaos and crunch of the World Conference.

Then He spoke. It wasn’t audible, but it was clear and compelling. Along with it came a physical sensation that confirmed this was not an ordinary thought racing through my head, but directions from our Commander-in-Chief.

The words were as simple as they were direct—

--I have a new assignment for you.
--You are to focus on I am Second.
--Your contribution to the international ministry is complete.

My mind raced. More ideas tumbled about in the moments following, and I’m not sure how much was from the Holy Spirit and what was my mind figuring out “so what does all that mean?” Time will tell.

I power-walked home to tell Woodlyn and Philip. That evening I was able to talk to my good friend and boss, Curtis Hail. Then over the next few days we talked to Nathan Sheets (I am Second creator and team leader) and the rest of our leadership team here at e3. Everybody is a go!

Lots and lots and lots of details to work out. I am scared and excited all at the same time. As we’ve discussed what this might mean, three popular things from our culture stand out--

· Starbucks: how can we help people and churches start thousands of new groups (more than Starbucks) to reach out to our culture to evangelize and disciple people attracted to Christ through the I am Second campaign?

· iPhone Apps Store: how can we harness the creativity of individuals, churches and ministries who want to develop materials and strategies for I am Second (like Apple has done with developers of applications for its iPhone)?

· Facebook: how can we develop web functions to create an I am Second virtual community (like Facebook) to communicate, train leaders, get materials, etc. to use with I am Second strategies, especially to multiply new groups (just like we do internationally)?

Right now we are working on all the ripples this causes as I transition from my current role to this new assignment. Curtis Hail and our Cabinet are prayerfully and carefully deciding who and when. I definitely do not want to drop this baton, for our international ministry is the heart of all that e3 does. It is our main ministry, and probably always will be. So please pray for God’s direction and empowerment to pass on this leadership role to His choice in His way.

e3 Wild Year 1: Fingerprints of God

This has been a wild year. Wild economically. Wild politically. Wild on the high seas as pirating off Africa is now a growth industry.

It’s also been a wild year at e3. But wild in the good sense, in the exciting sense, in the wonderfully unexpected sense. Wild in the sense that we see the fingerprints of God all over many good things happening.

I am Second. Earlier this year a major donor / friend of the ministry asked one of our staff for ideas for an evangelism outreach in Dallas. The verse burning in his heart was “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. “ He loved the ideas our creative team came up with, and excitedly asked if e3 would do them. “But we’re an international church planting ministry, and this is a local evangelism project,” was our first thought. But we concluded that this was God opening a door, so we accepted his request.

There are three parts to the I am Second strategy. One is lots of local media—billboards, TV ads, radio spots, etc. They point people to the second part of the strategy-- a web site with videos of famous people and ordinary folks sharing how Jesus is first in their lives. The third part is to hook them up with local churches that have committed to follow-up with them. Check it out at http://www.iamsecond.com/.

Now comes the wild part. Over 100,000 visitors hit the web site in its first 10 days. From 130+ countries. A “fan club” on Facebook gets over 500 new members a day. We’re already hearing sweet testimonies of people accepting Christ after listening to the videos and talking to their friends.

Lots of hard work has gone into this project, but it came up out of the blue. Totally unexpected and unsolicited. With the fingerprints of God all over it.

(this post continued below)

e3 Wild Year 2: Michael Jordan of Church Planting

Last Spring we hosted a church planting “celebrity” named Dr. Curtis Sergeant in our office. We have known about him for several years, mainly watching from afar as he spoke at conferences. Curtis pioneered many of the strategies now used by missions agencies around the globe to initiate church planting movements. We were honored he even took the time to come by our office. But we were more than shocked when he shared that God had awakened him at 4 am that day with the message to “join e3.”

Since he’s an acknowledged world-wide expert on church planting, we were willing to make whatever changes he suggested to our ministry. Early on I asked him, “What do you think of our First Steps church planting curriculum?” Since I have spent much of the past several years writing, testing, editing, and prototyping First Steps, and then training our national networks of coaches how to use it, it was with fear and trepidation that I even asked that question. Much to my joy and relief the answer was that it was “right on,” with simply the need to add some tactics to accelerate church planting even more.

Again, something totally out of the blue with the fingerprints of God on it.

(This post continued below)

e3 Wild Year 3: Shark Fin Impact

Notice the “shark fins” below? We look at 3 key things as we evaluate the effectiveness of our ministry—people equipped, people evangelized, and new churches established. The foundation of our ministry for 20 years has been our US teams and staff. The foundation lines of each graph are the blessed fruit the Lord of the harvest has given our US teams and staff the past 10 years.

Three years ago we began to build on that foundation. We focused more attention and resources on developing networks of national church planting coaches to continue the ministry after our teams return home. The “shark fins” below show the multiplied ministry God has given us from that added strategy. (The reason there are dips at the end is that not all the stats are in for 2008.)

Equipped Nationals: blue is by US teams and staff / red is by national trainers

Evangelized (professions of faith): blue with US teams / red by national teams

Established (new churches): blue with US teams / red by nationals

Wild, isn’t it? Again, the fingerprints of God all over this “shark fin” ministry acceleration. And this is before the impact we know God will bring through Curtis Sergeant’s influence and coaching.

You are a Big Part of these Blessings. We thank the Lord for our faithful partners who support us financially and prayerfully. Your investments of time and treasure bear much eternal fruit.

May the Lord Bless You Richly in the New Year.

Mike Jorgensen

Asia Visit Slideshow

Woodlyn and I had the joy of visiting A, L and E in Asia for a couple weeks. Our first grandbaby, Elizabeth Grace (they call her Ella), is now 5 months old. Here's a short slideshow that captures some of the joy of our visit. Warning: it is unapologetically grandparentish!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Bolivians Go On Mission Trip

Here's a report from Julia in Bolivia about a team of Bolivians who did an e3 style campaign. This mission trip was to an area where about 20 people (including a pastor) were killed several months ago in a clash between a crowd supporting the socialism of Bolivia's president and a pro-capitalism group. The area has been under martial law since then.

God showed his glory in Cobija, even the enemy was trying to discourage the missioneries and local workers using the police and sickness, nothing stopped the plan of our Mighty God! According to the testimonies of the missioneries; the people never thought that God love them and to see people go to their own houses to share about it was a surprise for them. The families open de the doors not only of their houses , the door of their hearts. Some were afraid because all the social problems that happened, but God showed them with hope and love.

Thanks for your economical support, for your prayers; you make possible these.

God bless, Julia


COBIJA - PANDO

CAMPAIGN: November 14 - 22, 2008
Missioneries: 22
Local workers: 48
New churches: 6
Strengthened churches: 1
Gospel presentation: 805
Professions of faith: 624
Follow up: 434 (70%)
Attending Celebration Meeting: 350