Growing Pains

Growing Pains

Back in junior high, my joints ached all the time. My mom’s words of wisdom were “Don’t worry, they’re just growing pains.” I grew over 6 inches in less than a year. But the pain was worth the progress, especially during basketball season.

Our family and e3 Partners Ministry both are experiencing growing pains as God blesses us with progress.

A, L and baby Elizabeth

Our daughter "A" has “wonderful” growing pains, as she now is 5 months pregnant! (Easy for this new Granddad to say, huh?) The morning sickness is easing, just in time for the backaches to start! On Valentine’s Day, they treated us to a visit to “Stork Vision.” We crowded around a big screen TV hooked to a sonogram and found out . . . it’s a girl! So now we can pray for little Elizabeth Grace by name. The pain is worth the progress.

We enjoyed A and L’s five week visit here in the States. They are now back in Asia—back to their Ph.D. and language studies, back to reaching out to fellow students, back to daily eating with chopsticks. The pain of seeing them get on that plane is worth the progress being made there. But we’re counting down the days until we go see them this summer, right before A’s July 9th due date.

Joanna: New Teacher . . . Again

Every new teacher looks forward to their 2nd and 3rd year when they have lesson plans prepared, they have learned the ropes, and can focus more on teaching than on daily preps. But this year Joanna endured another “first year” as she felt called to change to teach ESL (English as a Second Language). But the progress she has made toward her goal of ministering in other cultures has more than offset the pain of starting over.

Philip: Eagle Growing Pains

Recently we celebrated with Philip (with proud sister Joanna in picture) as he attained the rank of Eagle Scout, something only 4% of Boy Scouts do. He persevered through literally hundreds and hundreds of requirements that must be finished to get to this level. The toughest were not the ones he did himself, but the ones when he had to lead others to accomplish a goal or complete a project. Some little, some big, but cumulatively very, very challenging.

As is common with many students, there were times he walked away saying “I’ve had it.” But God gave him the persistence to always return to successfully finish whatever task was blocking the trail to Eagle. The pain was worth the progress.

e3 Partners Ministry

Three years ago we began to expand beyond doing only church planting mission trips. We started recruiting national networks of church planting coaches. As God provided funding, we equipped them with training, EvangeCubes, First Steps church planting manuals, discipleship materials and other resources to help them help more churches plant more churches.

I am using skills I honed practicing corporate law more than I ever thought I would as I was asked to oversee this new part of the ministry. Please pray for us as we go through the growing pains of making progress in these areas—

· Setting up offices in 25 countries
· Hiring national staff in each office
· Developing policies and procedures that work across many cultures
· Updating our First Steps church planting curriculum that we used last year to train over 20,000 pastors and leaders
· Registering to do ministry in each country
· Training the first generation of church planting coaches in several of these countries

Thank you.

Thanks to all of you who have partnered with us in going, giving, and praying. Because of you, we get to see all these growing pains as God continues to grow us as His servants.

Blessings.

Mike Jorgensen

Don't Wish Your Life Away / Africa Trip

“Don’t wish your life away.”

I can remember my Mom telling me that as a kid. Don’t so look forward to what’s in the future that you want to bypass what’s coming up first.

I’m struggling with this advice today. Next week A and L, our daughter and son-in-law, return home for a visit from Asia. We’re excited anyway about their visit, but now that A is pregnant our eagerness to see them is through the roof!

But today Curtis Hail (e3’s President) and I head to Africa. The trip is a combination of working out problems and evaluating new opportunities. But probably a little heavier on the problem side of the balance than the opportunity side. So an agenda full of issues to resolve this week, coupled with Alycia and Landon’s arrival next week, leaves me in serious “wishing your life away” mode.

So please pray for our trip as we meet with many leaders—

• Jan 8 to 10—Ethiopia—meetings with Yoseph Menna, our national leader, and leaders from several denominations about partnerships. Planning meetings re new AIDS Cube.
• Jan 11—Uganda—meetings with Joseph Oyuki and Moses Kaziba re 2008 ministry plan.
• Jan 12 to 14—Rwanda—meetings with Rwanda leaders re choosing new national leader for e3.
• Jan 15—Ethiopia—more meetings before evening departure back to States
• Jan 16—return home
• Jan 17—Alycia and Landon, our daughter and son-in-law, return home from Asia!

We need God’s wisdom for all these meetings with key leaders. We need His direction and wisdom for the issues that need resolving, and the opportunities that must be evaluated. Please also pray “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Thanks, Pr-Air Force.

Bolivian Missionaries in Bolivia

Thanks to everyone who gave so our good friends in Bolivia could go on their mission trip to Riberalta, in the north of Bolivia. 20 Bolivians made the trip, as you can see from Enzo’s report below. It always gives us great joy to see the passion they have in Bolivia for reaching their country! Praise God with us as you watch this short online slide show—

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Enzo G. Saavedra
To: Mike Jorgensen
Subject: Trip to Rberalta

Good afternoon Mike,

This are som information from the trip to Riberalata, I will be sending pictures later. if you need some specific information just call us.

7 Mother Churches
7 New points
20 Nacional volunteers
108 Local workers
59 Cubes distributed
1,602 Gospel presentations
1,146 Professions of Faith
793 Discipleships

There were 14 persons that went form Santa Cruz and 6 from Trinidad.

God was good on this mission trip taking care of everyone and giving good fruits.

Enzo

Ethiopia's 9/11

What would you do if fanatics in your town killed some of your Christian friends and burned your church down?

About a year ago while we were commemorating 9/11, Muslims went on a rampage in the region of Jimma, Ethiopia. Many evangelical believers were killed, as well as members of the Orthodox church. Churches were burned. Other churches were turned into mosques.

But our friends in Ethiopia did not shrink back, they moved forward.

"TA" shared with me during our visit in Ethiopia that God brought great glory to Himself out of that persecution. The persecution was followed by a wave of miracles confirming the gospel. People were physically healed as evangelists preached. Some of the Muslims who killed Christians had visions of Jesus as they worshipped at their mosques. Several accepted Christ as their Savior, and then testified to others about the visions they had had.

Evangelicals banded together and shared clothes and encouragement with evangelicals and Orthodox alike. Because of that, evangelicals have been invited into Orthodox churches to preach the gospel.

There are now 520 Kale Heywet (Word of Faith) churches in this region. Their goal is to plant 300 new churches in the next 5 years. Please pray for them as they work to train enough new leaders to pastor these new churches.

Hear TA's testimony by clicking on the link below.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

60 Churches Plant 60 More

Merdekiyos Meja attended our Ethiopia Leadership Conference in early 2005. As the leader of a district that then had 60 churches, he went home “infected” with a vision. He shared that vision for multiplying those existing churches with his district pastors. Today those 60 have planted 60 more! They doubled in less than 3 years! All this took place in a region of Ethiopia that has experienced great persecution from Muslims (see entry above).

As one of their national leaders put it, this is historic in their denomination—an entire district doubling so quickly.

32 of the churches now have buildings, which they paid for with local tithes and offerings. The other 28 meet under trees, in homes and other places.

Please pray that this “infection” will spread throughout Ethiopia.

Hear this testimony--click on link below.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Dancing with the President (Burundi)

Burundi has the same “Country Threat Security Warning Level” as Iraq! The most dangerous level of 5.

But God is at work here. When we arrived last Sunday our hosts casually said “we’ll be by at 6 to take you to dinner at the President’s house.” The first thought this ole Iowa farm boy had was “Huh? I’ve not even taken a tour of our US White House, and we’re going to DINNER at the Burundi Prez’s house?”

His Excellency, President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi (middle of pic on left), accepted Christ as his Savior about two years ago. Now each Sunday evening he has a worship time (this week’s was 3 hours!), followed by dinner. Sometimes he invites local pastors, sometimes international ministry guests visiting Burundi. This week there was a couple from Sweden, 3 other pastors from Texas doing leadership training, our team, plus the nationals hosting each of us.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I’ve never been hugged by a President before. I’ve never danced to praise music with a President before. I’ve never worshipped with a President before. God holds the hearts of kings in His hands. He certainly has a good grip on the President here. Please pray that God will honor his obedience by changing Burundi and bringing peace after more than a decade of civil war.

The President also has his own soccer team that plays around Africa. Its name: “Allelujah FC”!

One more highlight of the night. Two years ago a Burundi pastor named Jérémie attended our leadership conference in Rwanda. I can still remember standing in the lobby of the hotel on my way to the airport. As we shook hands goodbye, Jérémie said “please, please, please come to Burundi.” I gave my standard answer of “we’ll pray, and if God opens the door, we’ll come.”

As I was ushered to my seat at the Burundi “White House,” I was seated right next to Jérémie! God confirmed in those surprising moments that He indeed wanted us there. He gave me good news—his church now has planted 9 churches in Burundi and Zambia, and are planning one in Tanzania soon.

Africa Trip Score: Uganda done / Rwanda done / Burundi completing / off to Ethiopia for last stop.

Blessings.
Mike Jorgensen

Rwanda Stop on Africa Tour

My heart continues to break here in Africa, this time in Rwanda. Once again, people were touched deeply by Joselian’s testimony of living as HIV+. She shared that she doesn’t know which of these 3 ways she was infected—

· Her first husband who died
· Her second husband who left her
· Being hacked by machetes with blood on them during the genocide.

She survived one holocaust only to be infected by another horror. But now she spends her time ministering to the needs of others. God is using her to bring His hope and love to fellow Rwandans. Now she’s trained to share simple truths about HIV/AIDS.

The AIDS Cube training was part of our normal church planting leadership conference. We look upon our training as—

Lecture + Laboratory

Ground School + Flight School

Vision + Action

We always try to build practice time into our leadership conferences. We don’t want people to go home and put yet another notebook on their shelf.

Practice on Day One was prayer walking. Day Two was evangelism for about an hour. 222 people prayed to receive Christ! Hallelujah! The people were so happy, that two of the pastors decided to stay in that area for a few weeks to start 2 new churches in the big area where the people accepted Christ. They also took up an offering to get two new baby churches off the ground!



Plus, about 10 nursing students prayed to receive Christ as their Savior during the HIV/AIDS Cube practice time! Another example of this new tool opening the door to present the love of Christ.

Here's picture of them practicing to use the HIV/AIDS Cube.




Here they hear the gospel from a Rwanda e3 trainer.








Please continue to pray for our Burundi conference going on now (Sept 24-26), plus our last stop in Ethiopia this Friday and Saturday (Sept 28-29).

Blessings.

Mike Jorgensen

Africa Tour / Stop 1 / Uganda

God gave us a divine appointment our first day in Uganda. A lady was at the hotel selling handmade necklaces. She had a sign that she was with TASO [The AIDS Support Organization]. Jeff Sheets struck up a conversation with her, and learned she is HIV+. She makes the bracelets, baskets, etc. to sell to support herself and her 3 kids.

Her husband died of AIDS several years ago. He was a truck driver for the UN, running back and forth between Uganda and Kenya. He knew he was infected, but didn’t tell her until his HIV developed into AIDS. At the funeral, or thereabouts, she found out he had 2 other wives with kids in other cities.

Janet (at left) now is a born again believer. She sells stuff to make a living, but her passion is HIV/AIDS awareness training and encouragement. She said she no longer is sad she has it, because God has used her situation to change many people’s lives.

We invited her to share at the HIV/AIDS Cube training. She gave her testimony and everyone was riveted. Then we went to a clinic and shared with ladies waiting for treatment. She knew everyone at the hospital, and presented to all the ladies. The HIV/AIDS “practice” presentation was followed by the gospel. Several prayed to receive Christ.

A huge problem here is stigma. People often are ostracized because others are afraid they’ll be infected if they shake hands or even get close to HIV+ people. Often people just want to die because they’re so lonely. Or they get bitter and want to infect others—“if I die, I want to take others with me” as one person put it. So they don’t tell anyone, and end up spreading it even more. So learning the truth hopefully will reduce the fear, and thereby the stigma. Plus, and this is The Major Plus, this whole thing opens the door for discussions about real hope and love of God through Jesus Christ.

One thing we have heard over and over from many leaders—government, AIDS organizations, business leaders, as well as church leaders: it is only life change through a relationship with Christ that makes a difference.

This fits in with our prayer, that the Lord would use this tool to bring many into His kingdom and plant many new churches.

Please continue to pray for us as we head next to Rwanda for church planting training Sept 20-23, which also will include AIDS Cube training.

After that to Burundi and Ethiopia.

Blessings.
Mike Jorgensen

Uganda: True Hope Through Christ

Praying to receive Christ after 1) HIV/AIDS Cube presentation followed by 2) presentation of gospel using EvangeCube.

Hallelujah!

Uganda HIV/AIDS Cube "Practice"

Janet (on left) and Josephine (but now everyone calls her "Miracle") share the truths about HIV/AIDS with the new HIV/AIDS Cube.

Africa: 4 Countries in 15 Days

Four African countries in 15 days.

Sometimes I wonder “what in the world were you thinking when you set that up, Mike?” But then I think all the people who might be spared untold agony and grief because of a pilot project we are doing. Not only spared for eternity, but also spared in this life.

25 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to UN estimates. Almost 3 million new infections each year. Some estimate there are 12 million kids orphaned in that region because of AIDS.

Tremendous hurt. Tremendous need. Tremendous open door for the love of Christ to be extended by planting new churches.

So we’ve developed a new Cube. A new Cube that hopefully will open many, many doors for sharing the gospel with the EvangeCube. This new tool is called the HIV/AIDS Cube. Through pictures people can easily learn what HIV/AIDS is, how you get it, how you don’t get it, symptoms, precautions to take, and how to care for those already infected.

This trip is to do a pilot project testing in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia. We want to see what people think of it. The EvangeCube makes sharing the gospel easy. Will this HIV/AIDS Cube do the same? How can we use it to also introduce people to the Great Physician? How can we teach churches to reach out to people with the love of Christ using this tool?

--Pray for wisdom as we learn from our African brothers and sisters, who have lived with this pandemic in ways we don’t understand.

--Pray for God to use this tool to expand His kingdom for His glory.

--Pray for our team (Dr. Zege Tsige, Jeff Sheets, Casey See and me) as we travel Sept 14 to Oct 1.

Thanks for praying.

Mike Jorgensen

BIG Meetings in Bolivia

We’ve all been there. Fork in the road. Key decision. Something BIG happening that may change things for a long, long time.

This is one of those weeks for our Bolivia ministry. This afternoon I leave for Bolivia to meet with the leaders of Campus Crusade for Christ. Jason Ferrell, the associate pastor at Potomac Heights Baptist Church in Maryland, is going, too.

Tito Ramos, national director for CCC—Bolivia, has asked us to partner with them to plant hundreds of new churches in 9 cities over the next 4 years. These meetings are to figure out the who / what /when / where / how of it all.

As I have prayed about these strategic meetings, these verses in Phil. 2:1-4 have come to mind—

Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Please pray that the Holy Spirit will enable Jason, me and everyone involved in these meetings to live out these verses.

Please also pray for our travel. As an organization, we’ve had more travel disruptions with our teams over the past couple months than ever before. Since our time in Bolivia will be very short, we don’t want to a bunch of delays disrupting things.

Blessings.
Mike Jorgensen

Bolivia Summary / Boy Scout Trip

Thanks for praying for our Bolivia trip last week. In spite of all the travel complications (the rest of the team got home about 24 hours late after spending a night in the Santa Cruz airport), God blessed us richly—

· 5 new churches planted
· 91 local believers worked with us and saw first hand a simple, effective church planting model
· 675 professions of faith
· 690 follow-up discipleship contacts (102%)
· Approximately 200 received eye glasses as a result of Philip’s Eagle Scout project, and most of the said “Si” to Jesus when our team shared the Gospel with them after they had received their glasses

You prayed us through a “ends of the earth” ministry. Now we need your prayers for our “Jerusalem” ministry.

Philip and I are involved in a Boy Scout troop. In fact, Philip now is the Senior Patrol Leader (sorta like the president of the Troop). Philip and Trevor (who went on the Bolivia trip with us) and the rest of the Troop left Saturday morning, about 14 hours after we got home. Both are a bit under the weather from the exhaustion of the Bolivia trip. I am flying to Albuquerque this morning to meet them.

This is a high adventure trip through New Mexico, Colorado and Oklahoma. They visited Carlsbad Caverns, and we’ll be fly fishing, rock climbing, white water rafting, canoeing, etc. on this trip.

Please pray for us—

· Healing for Philip and Trevor in the midst of this challenging, but fun, trip
· Safety
· For us to be lighthouses of God’s grace and love
· For open doors for us to share the love of Christ

Here’s a short online slide show of their launch last Saturday, plus where they’re headed.

Troop 751 High Adventure Tour

Thanks for praying.

Mike Jorgensen

All of Tokyo Comes to Christ

Yesterday Kyle went to a new village named Tokyo. After the first house, a terrible sand storm blew in—so bad they couldn’t see the next house.

“Do you want to leave?” Kyle asked the translator. “No,” she replied, “they haven’t heard here yet.” So they ducked behind a wall to break the wind and prayed the storm would stop. It did, less than a minute later.

After a few more homes, they could see a thunderstorm coming across the mountain ridge. They prayed again and continued. Later they could see a horseshoe of rain surrounding them, but none in the village.

They met Javier (in picture next to Kyle), who told them to go see the mayor of the village, a necessary protocol here. As they shared the Gospel with him, he interrupted and said “my whole village needs to hear this. Can you come back tomorrow? I’ll ring the bell . . . everyone will come.” They agreed and headed back to their team’s evening meeting in another village.

As they arrived in the main village the next day, a man on a bicycle was waiting. “The village is waiting for you.” Kyle was surprised because it was hours before the scheduled meeting, but he and some of the team hurried on.

As he entered Tokyo, they rang the bell to call the village to meeting (click on picture below to see an example). 40 to 60 assembled at this traditional call to come together. Kyle began sharing, but midway through the presentation his translator stopped translating and started passionately preaching about the pain, sacrifice and love of Christ for them. Kyle was stunned, but not by her taking over. He sat speechless as he understood every word she was saying in Spanish, which he could not do before or after those sweet few minutes in the presence of God!

Quechua Call to Meet

When they asked who would like to receive Christ as their Savior, the entire village assembled on that mountainside raised their hand and prayed to receive Christ!

As Kyle tearfully shared this with our group, he told us “I came out of obedience to a call for my daughter and me to come, but I never expected to be blessed like this.”

God is answering Your prayers powerfully! Please keep praying!

Seeing the Light / Eye Clinic

Our son, Philip, collected and processed donated eye glasses for Bolivia. Today we were blessed by distributing many to the residents of Villa Alegria, a Quechua village overlooking the airport of Sucre.

Click below to see a short slide show of the happy recipients in the midst of other pictures of our trip here.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wow in Sucre

Wow! God answered your prayers powerfully over the past 24 hours.

Many Quechua have made professions of faith. Yesterday LS, Lindsay, Leah, Kyle, and Matt did some relationship building on the soccer field. As they started to play, some young ladies asked if our group wanted to play them. Well, let’s say that the little Quechua ladies in skirts beat the pants off the e3 team! But many responded to the Gospel after the game, and 35+ came to the evening meeting, where another 10 professed faith in Christ.

Leanne´s grandmother has stabilized and may be improving. Thanks for praying for her and their family.

See some more praises in the posts below.

Prepared People

Many people trusted Christ in the Judicial District. Yesterday Enzo and I went to find the team working there. We looked and looked and looked, but we couldn´t find the team, so we decided to go to another area. Before we could catch a taxi, a lady hurried up to us. "Are you the people wanting to rent the apartment?"

"No, but we'd love to talk to you about why we're here."

Nora was the first of many to pray to receive Christ in that upper class neighborhood! God prepared her heart before we arrived. We thank the Lord we couldn't find a taxi quickly! And as she prayed to receive Christ, we saw the team rounding the corner on the street down the hill.

3 Generations in Sucre

Today I went to visit the area in which James, Mike H, Amanda and Glenda. 15 year old Amanda has a spiritual grandchild here! This morning she trained (first picture) 13 year old William and several other kids to share the Gospel. Then William went out and shared Christ with 13 year old Victor, who received Christ (second picture). Amanda to William to Victor--3 generations!

Team Sucre NEEDS Your Prayers

Team Sucre has had more than the normal challenges. Big delay getting here because of weather in Miami. Several churches did not show up that had committed to work with us. Our local coordinator is out of commission because of surgery. Translators from Sucre did not show up (so we especially praise the Lord for the ones who came from Santa Cruz to help us!). The grandmother of Leanne (one of our e3 leaders) had a stroke and is partially paralyzed.

In other words, there are many, many opportunities for God to display His glory here as He answers prayer! So please pray for us!

Below are pix of the pastors and translators working with our team! We are working in 5 areas with 4 mother churches.

Jason, Joyce, Tracy, Sarah, Abi, Troy and Elaine met a 12 year old girl yesterday when they visited their area to prayer walk. She asked “are you the ones who sent the boxes?” God already had prepared her through the Samaritan Purse Christmas boxes! Pray that God will direct all our teams to the people He already has prepared to believe in the Good News.

Sucre is the home of the Bolivia Supreme Court. Also, the commission writing the new constitution meets here. Sam, Leanne, Philip, Trevor, Hal and Woodlyn have a unique opportunity. They are working in the “Judicial District” where many lawyers and judges live. It is one of the highest class areas any teams of mine have ever worked. It will be difficult getting to the key leaders that live in the magnificent homes in that area. Pray for God to open doors to the hearts and minds of this strategic group of people.

The team of Joe, Taylor, Chandler, and Mike R were prayer walking last night in their area. They stopped to talk to a Quechua lady. She invited them to come back today to speak to about 15 ladies who are attending a cooking class. Pray for God to introduce us to many “persons of peace” through whom we can reach groups of people.

James, Mike H, Amanda and Glenda are working in an area that overlooks the huge soccer stadium here. Pray that God will so change lives here that people will be more passionate and enthusiastic about the Lord than they are about the national focus of soccer.

The Tickets

I get a lump in my throat every time I look at a new short video our son Philip and his buddy Nathan made. Click here to take a look at it.