Friday morning in Hermosillo, Sonora. It’s 80 degrees with humidity at 85%. I am damp. Yesterday’s drive down was pleasant other than a delay at the border. It gave me the chance to be kind to a clerk at the visa office. His surprised smile when I said, “Muchas gracias, Dios te bendiga” was worth standing in line.
Today begins the next phase in the operation of Instituto de Entrenamiento Ministerial de Fe here in Sonora. We begin teaching the “Planning for Success” course from our second-year program. Until now, all our Latin American endeavors have focused on finishing the first level and empowering locals to teach that content to their own people. (We will complete the current rotation of first-year classes in April of 2020.)
We have presented second and third level material as part of the day time teaching at conferences, or as discrete, topic-based seminars. All the upper-level material is aimed at preparing leaders and ministers to be more effective in ministry. If this works, I will do one of these classes quarterly for the next two years. My hope is that we can get enough of these materials in the hands of pastors that they will be able to use it in their own ministries. In the classes tonight and tomorrow we will be addressing decision-making, vision writing, and effective planning. Good ideas often flounder for lack of basic organization.
I am here for the next 10 days, visiting churches and teaching the first level classes next week. Than you for your prayers. I’ll keep you posted. Dios te bendiga!
pastorvirgil.com 