CAN YOU PRAY TODAY?

Gary and Diane are at OMS headquarters this week in Greenwood, Indiana and had asked my sisters and I to be praying for them today as they have the majority of their training responsibilities today. Could you join Emily, Carrie, and our families in praying for my parents to train and lead with confidence that they are going where God is leading as they train other OMS folks? Thank you!

AMAZING NEWS and request for fervent prayer!

As we have explained over the last years, we have been blessed to be able to participate in this ministry to the prisons in Latin America.  The success is God’s and the major workers are the volunteers in each of prisons who are there week to week instructing and encouraging the inmates in their discipleship and growth who deserve the credit.  Our role is one of encouragement, counseling and coaching of the trainers and to a much lesser extent assisting in the actual training of the individuals.

The results that are being achieved in Honduras by the volunteers have been significant enough to draw the attention of the leadership of both Prison Fellowship International and One Mission Society.  Through a series of meetings and communications it was decided to work toward a co-operative program between PFI and One Mission Society to go to the prisons of the world in a broader but also a deeper level to make an impact on this people group.

 

Agreements have been reached and the development of this program is taking place even now for targeting 10-12 countries in the World for 2016. 

Training Coordinator for TPJ-T&M Project 

With that said, we have been approached with the suggestion that we consider a role as the training coordinator for the project for all non-Spanish speaking nations targeted.  At this time it looks like those nations might be Philippines, Cambodia, Bangladesh, India, South Africa, Kenya, Bulgaria and Spain, Burkina Faso, Togo. 

As training coordinators, we would be expected to attend each of 2-3 Regional Training sessions to participate in the training of the First Generation of Trainers from each country in that region.  We expect to train at least 2 people from each country in this Generational Cycle.  Then subsequently, we would attend and assist in the training of the next generation of trainers, expected to be 10+ individuals that will then go throughout their nations sharing this program with both believers and un-believers that are interested. 

Assisting in the training of both the first and second generation of teachers would be probably two to three other trainers from OMS.  The suggestion is that I would –co-ordinate the training and Diane would be the Facilitator/Coordinator to handle the logistics for the program in the first generation training sessions.

A few other projects have been mentioned for our attention and consideration as well:

1)      Training Data Base Development Coordinator – OMS has trainers worldwide with many ministry partners for a multitude of different Church Multiplication Programs.  There has never been an established data base that could be accessed to find resources regarding the availability of trainers and materials based upon location (geography), languages for teaching, languages spoken, possible availability for teaching a week long class as well as by program, like T4T (Training for Trainers), VCP (Village Church Planting) and T&M (Train & Multiply.) We were asked to serve as coordinators for this project offering a “big picture” and “user friendly” oversight to keep the project focused on usability of those accessing the program.

2)     Interim Church Multiplication Facilitator to Colombia for the Prison Ministry – Working with Lacides Hernandez and his staff at Confraternidad de Carcelaria de Colombia  (PFI-Colombia),  In the absence of the present CMF due to health concerns, we have been asked to fill in for the next 6-9 months at a minimum to assist this co-operative ministry to achieve long and short term goals with regard to their work in the Prisons of Colombia.

3)     Continuing responsibilities as Church Multiplication Facilitator to Honduras – Existing roles

These represent a very large scope of projects that have not 

been totally firmed up yet but should be within the next 60 

days.  We are asking for prayers for wisdom to assist us in 

evaluating these projects and our capabilities to meet the needs 

of the project.

Miguel - A Man and His Ministry

Miguel (left), Erasmo Ramirez (center left), Herasmo Ramirez (center right), Gary  (right)

During our January 2016 visit to Honduras, we had the privilege of meeting Miguel C. who was a recent graduate of the Train & Multiply Program that Herasmo Ramirez, our National Coordinator, had trained in Tegucigalpa.  Miguel heads up the volunteer organization for prison ministry. not only in the church he attends, but for the entire denomination of the Nazarene Church in Honduras. 

Miguel told us his story. which began in Honduras where he was born.  When he was ten years old, his entire family moved to the United States.  They settled down in Southern California and not long after, Miguel said he got mixed up in the gangs in Los Angeles and all over Southern California.  His parents divorced, his father had deserted them, and it was the natural progression of things that as a teen he joined his friends in the gangs.

 

Miguel said he became a very ruthless, very bad man and said there is little you could imagine him doing that he wasn’t doing.  He said, “I was a very, very bad man.”  He acknowledged he had done many horrible things and really placed no value on life.  The burden of guilt that he was carrying for all the evil he had done weighed heavily on him. He said he remembered often playing Russian Roulette, spinning the cylinder of the gun and not really caring if he lived or died. 

He was eventually arrested and convicted, and was sentenced for a very long time to the prisons of California.

Miguel said he merely existed in the prisons for a number of years when a lady visited the prison and talked to him and others about Jesus Christ.  He said the Gospel resonated for him and before he had really come to know a lot about the Bible he had come to know Jesus through prayer and experience.  He said everyone thought he had gone crazy because he was preaching Jesus throughout the prison. 

Eventually, as his lifestyle demonstrated to others in the prison that something significant had happened to him, his efforts to evangelize in the prison started showing results.  He participated in the Christian worship services and became recognized as a leader of the Christian prison population not only by the other inmates, but by the prison authorities. All of this eventually led to him being paroled after only serving 15 years of his 30 years to life sentence. 

Miguel said he felt led by the Lord to return to Honduras to serve the communities where he started out, trying to reach them with Jesus before they made the mistakes that he had made. That eventually led him into the prisons in Honduras where he serves in full time ministry for the Nazarene Church.

After taking the Train & Multiply course, Miguel recognized that this was something that he could use and work with in the prisons.  He was excited to see how he could “train and multiply” the disciples inside the prison.

During our week-long visit, we were privileged to be there and participate in the first class for Train & Multiply in a new prison, the National Men’s Prison in Tamara Honduras.  This prison has approximately 2,500 inmates.  The prison authorities gave him permission to begin teaching in the Casa Blanca Cell Block, one of ten blocks in the prison.  They also asked for a commitment from him to go into each cell block and do the training so the program can grow throughout the entire prison.  

Ten men began the training and an additional six individuals listened from the periphery of the open classroom area and were offered the opportunity to join the class if they wanted.  It will be exciting to see how God grows the body of believers in the prison.

We are so blessed to be able to participate in this ministry to the lost.