As I type, Pablo is finishing up the last lesson for this first session of the Timothy Leadership Training for the 2017. Man, can that guy TEACH! The worship has been great, watching these pastors soak in the teaching has been incredible, seeing their faces and hearing their stories has been amazing.
If you have not done so, I HIGHLY recommend that you head to Facebook and check out the Paradise Bound Ministries page to view videos and photos from the weekend.
PBM has been in Guatemala for 18 years and desires to reach the beautiful people of Guatemala. This has been done up until 2013 through house builds and medical clinics. NOW, we enter into the era of including the pastor's training: TLT.
The first class was 19. The second class was 21. This third class is 23, and we have around 115 pastors on the waiting list! The end of May finds myself (Justin), Dan, Hermano Jesus, Pablo, and Darvin heading to Chiapas, Mexico to help out with the first class of TLT there with another 25 pastors!
What we are seeing is when these pastors, who previously had no training and only the CALL of God, receive encouragement, theology, counseling training, and a deeper well of the Bible and the Spirit of God: They become alive! These men and women go from here to their home villages and share Christ deeper and more passionately. We are seeing more people come to know Christ than through when teams come down here for the house builds and medical clinics. Now, we are still called to the house builds and clinics, but it is clear that the pastor training is equally as important to who we are at PBM.
The thing that gets me is this: This is not in our budget. Yet, PBM continues to go forth with TLT because we see the Fruit of it. It costs us about $600 for each Pastor to take the TLT program for the 2 1/2 years. We are able to handle two groups a year (class of 2016 and class of 2017 this year)...will lead us to about $12,000 a year that shifts into TLT.
Dream with me. What would it look like if $12,000 came in each year for Pastor Training. Do you know someone or some group that has that passion? Do you know someone who knows someone? I also go with the idea of this: What is the worst they could say...no? I don't know if I do not ask.
I ask not personally, as it is true that my family will be leaving PBM's staff the first of July. Yet, I have seen and felt and experienced first hand this ministry to and with the pastors. It IS bringing people (MANY people) to a life in Christ. You want to change Guatemala for the Gospel? Get behind this.....what is stirring in your heart? Prayer changes everyone....always, first and foremost, the one on their knees first.
Dios te bendiga y hasta pronto y con mucho amor!
Justin
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