Can you put a number to what God is doing in Latin America?

I spent Thursday and Friday last week at Lake Hart in Orlando working to answer that question! We have more than 600 staff and associates working with Campus Crusade in Latin America and the Caribbean, but have never had a good way to track our progress. We are working on a system, GMA, that will allow local field staff and teams to set their own goals and input their numbers into a cloud-based application. Our leaders will have a tool that will help them to coach staff and manage the resources that God has given us.

For example, if our director of University ministries wants to know how many students heard a presentation of the Gospel in a given country, he will have instant access to that information. Likewise a local team leader will be able to coach his team members to help them reach the goals that they have set for themselves.

Sometimes numbers really do matter as we evaluate the effectiveness of our ministry. We need to know if there exists a breakout strategy in one country that we can implement in another country.

My teammates for this project are Mark Griffen (left), the system designer in Orlando, and Rodrigo Callado from Brasil. We made great progress last week and look forward to implementing the system in several countries in our region in 2012. We really appreciate you prayer!

I took advantage of the trip to Orlando to visit Stephen, Rachael, Leah Rose and our youngest son, Andrew at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Stephen and Leah Rose

Leah Rose walking at Sam’s Club (this is a miracle!!)

Andrew accompanying worship at Creekside Community Church in Gainesville

Last, one more sunset in Costa Rica. We never get tired of God’s creativity.

National Director’s Conference in San Jose

Leaders from 26 Campus Crusade national ministries gathered last week in San Jose, Costa Rica for a week of prayer, fellowship, vision, and strategy. Jeanie and I had been in the country for only three weeks, so our knowledge of Costa Rica was pretty limited, but we had a lot of fun with all of our guests. Fortunately, Carlos Tenorio and his wife Tatiana, our national directors in Costa Rica, supplied the local expertise.

Our theme for the week was Enraizados para la multilplicación, or “Rooted for Multiplication”. The idea was to grow our roots deep in Jesus to be able to build strong spiritual movements throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The theme came from Psalm 1:3 “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”

We divided into different table groups everyday. We had some great times working as teams. Here my table worked together to build  a Lego car, but lacking some of the instructions and a few key pieces (both supplied later in the process).

We were excited to have Andrew with us for the whole week. He worked every afternoon as our main translator for the conference. Those nine years in Bolivia have really paid off! (He is majoring in Business and Spanish at the University of Florida).

Jeanie and I really enjoyed working together with the other members of our Latin America leadership team to plan and run the conference.

The feedback from around the continent was very positive. Angela, one of our directors in Brazil, wrote to all of their staff a few days after returning home:

We have to say that God spoke to us in many ways during the conference, using each of the different sessions we had. The times of prayer were very special to us… It was an experience that brought answers to some of the doubts we had experienced. And that’s how it went, during the devotionals, during presentations made by our directors, in the informal times in conversation, in the interaction that we had around the tables, and also in the special women’s time we had one afternoon (the men also had a time apart).

I can say that for both myself and for my husband, Junior, we saw God highlight some special moments, some ideas, and some words that came specially to answer our questions, doubts and uncertainties. We left San Jose with new convictions and challenges, and our desire is that in some way we might share with you a little of what we experienced and saw during our week in San Jose.

We (Ron and Jeanie) want to thank all of our friends who pray and give sacrificially so that everyone in Latin America and the Caribbean will know someone who truly follows Jesus, and will have a chance to know Him personally.

Blessings,

Ron and Jeanie