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

Sometimes you have to look harder to see the truth.

I have been reading through Mark this week. It strikes me how Jesus speaks the truth, but his followers struggle to understand, to see the meaning. I think I identify with the disciples sometimes!

I saw an example in nature this morning. I took a photo out our window of a tree covered with dried pods and leaves:

 

But if you look really closely, one of the pods is not a pod at all!

May God give us the grace to be truth seekers.

Getting settled in Costa Rica

Greetings from San Jose! We arrived in Costa Rica three weeks ago today, and have seen God do some amazing things in a very short time. We came down in January and bought a condominium, so when we came back in February, our first task was to close on the house. Things are a little different here. The condo is owned in a corporation, so Jeanie and I became 100% owners in a Costa Rican company that owns as its sole asset the condo we live in. We each own 50 shares. I thought I should go for at least 51, but Jeanie said 50/50 . The best feature of our new home is the view from every room. We look out over the city and the mountains. The sunsets are spectacular!

We sold our living room furniture and appliances in Bolivia, so we bought all of that in the first week while we waited for our container to arrive. We found just the right stuff that fit in our new space. The container from Bolivia arrived a little over a week ago, and Jeanie really took charge! In around 3 days we were all unpacked and pictures were on the walls. Jeanie is a real blessing to me, making a home wherever we land.

Transportation was also a priority. We sold a couple of cars in Bolivia and decided to buy just one here. We settled on a 2006 Toyota Corolla, which for me is a dream come true. My dream was to own a car built in this millennium!

We have been so focused on getting settled that we haven’t seen much of the country yet, but we’re looking forward to getting to know our new home. Yesterday we drove about 10 miles to the town of Cartago. It was the first capital of Costa Rica. The highlight is the ruin of the cathedral that had been under construction when the Santa Monica earthquake of 1910 struck. Construction was permanently stopped. The ruins are now the centerpiece of a beautiful park, including gardens inside the ruin itself.

Getting to know the people has been fun. Most of our contacts so far have been realtors, lawyers, car dealers, window treatment guy, furniture and appliance dealers, etc. I have been very pleasantly surprised by the extra effort folks have made to serve us honestly and efficiently. With all that we have had to do in these first weeks, it has been a blessing to deal with such kind people. To be honest, there was one crook among the bunch, but we discovered the fraud before spending any money.

The transition officially ends later this week as our Leadership team meets here in San Jose, followed by our National Directors conference starting Sunday. Our leaders will be coming in from all over Latin America and the Caribbean. Please pray that God will draw us together and that everyone will go home with a fresh vision and stronger walk with Jesus.