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The Feeling that Something Big is Happenning

October 17, 2011 in Maya, Missions by Dave | Permalink

You’ll have to excuse me for my tardiness in getting this post up, I’m a bit breathless from all of the activity of the past week. In four jam-packed days, we visited two church plant locations, covered the Jesus Film church planting strategy, stepped through an 7-week discipleship course for new believers, and outfitted our Jesus Film Team with all of the tools that they need to put the plan in action. The seminar ended on Thursday. The Yucatecan pastors, and the representatives from Power to Change, Canada and Cruzadas Estudiantiles, Mexico, have all returned to their homes. The the event is over, but there is the feeling that a movement is just beginning.

As I had mentioned in this previous post, our goal is to plant churches among the Maya of the Yucatan. The seminar was a first step, but the vision needs to be defined. The dream needs to be made concrete. What has been studied on paper will need to be put into practice in the real world, and that is exactly what we plan to do.

On October 22nd, Kelly, the kids and I will travel, along with Abel Can our District Missions Director to Chemax, Yucatan, to commission the first Action Team who will be charged with planting a church in the comisaria of Cocoyol, where there is currently no evangelical presence. Our desire is to recognize the step of faith that these believers are taking as they are being sent out from among their own to make disciples.

Following the commission service, The Jesus Film Team, made up by Pedro Pablo Balam, and Angelino Ek, will organize the first projection, which will take place on Sunday, October 30th at that site. But more than simply showing a film, these gentlemen are committed to evangelism and follow-up in the area until 15 adults are registered to receive discipleship studies. The Action Team that the church has raised up will provide the support and oversight to solidify this new work in the weeks that follow.

But the founding of the new work in Cocoyol is not the end of the project; it is only the beginning. Eleven other pastors and congregations are waiting their turn to put the Jesus Film strategy into action in their area. The month of November has been designated to help those pastors form their Action Teams and receive the training that they need in order to replicate these church planting efforts throughout the Maya speaking regions of Yucatan and beyond.

Our District Superintendent, Tomás Vera, has stated his vision for the next two years: one hundred new churches planted and one hundred new ministers for the state of Yucatan. That kind of vision requires much more that the efforts of a chosen few. It’s a vision that requires a concerted effort on the part of pastors and congregations alike. There is the feeling that the Jesus Film Project might just be the right tool at the right time to fulfill that vision.

Tags: Church planting, Cruzadas Estudiantiles, Jesus Film Project, Maya, Power to Change

Church Planting Seminar a Week Away

October 3, 2011 in Maya, Ministry, Prayer by Dave | 1 comment

As I’ve mentioned in a prior post, to date, no coordinated effort has been made by the Assemblies of God of Yucatán to plant churches directed at reaching the Maya-speaking population of the Yucatan peninsula, but soon that’s all about to change.

Next Tuesday, October 11th, we kick off our church planting seminar in coordination with Cruzadas Estudiantiles of Mexico, Power to Change of Canada and the Assemblies of God District of Yucatán. We’ll be working together with 12 pastors and a team of two church planters to direct our efforts toward planting Maya-speaking works in the states of Yucatan and Quintana Roo. Our goal is that at the end of a year’s time, 12 new missions will be running, doing their part in God’s plan to redeem the Maya people.

We’re excited and confident that the road-tested program and the months of planning will pay off, but at the same we’re keenly aware of our need for God’s presence to guide and direct us. For that reason, we’re appealing to you. Please take a few moments and pray:

For the safe arrival of all of the participants before the seminar and safe travel throughout as we tour various church planting sites.
For the tangible presence of God and a keen awareness of His voice throughout our meetings.
For an openness among the pastors and church planters to new ideas and new ways of doing ministry.
For an honest evaluation of the program and a meaningful, culturally relevant application of its principle ideas.
For communication of the information being passed on, that clear understanding would lead to decisive action.

Thanks for your support, and be looking to hear from us next week during the event!

Tags: Church planting, Cruzadas Estudiantiles, Maya, Power to Change

Our Fall Newsletter is Available!

September 26, 2011 in Media by Dave | Permalink

Summertime means vacation right? Not if you’re part of what happens during the summers here in the Yucatan! Take a look at our online newsletter to see what went on! Click here or on the picture to see all that is going on!

Our online newsletter is viewable as a PDF document. If you do not have the Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed, you may download it here.

Tags: Evangelism, Instituto Biblico Bethel, Maya, Newsletter, Summertime

Road Trip!

September 13, 2011 in Maya, Ministry, Missions by Dave | 2 comments

View Trip through Yucatán in a larger map

I’m testimony to the fact that we live in the age of text messages and tweets. In fact, my last short term missions team was almost completely planned through Twitter, but, here in the Yucatan, there is still something special about that face to face meeting.

Yesterday was a case in point. Teaming up with Abel Can and Miriam Pech, our District Missions Director and Coordinator of Ministry to Ethnic Groups respectively, along with the support and training of Power to Change, we’re committed to planting churches among the Maya of the Yucatan. To make this vision a reality, we need the cooperation of several local pastors. These pastors are doing more than simply taking a course or receiving materials, they’re committing their congregations to the task of planting new, Maya speaking works, specifically 12 in the next year. This kind of request can’t be made via cell phone. It required a road trip.

As you can see from the map above, we started the trip at 7:30 AM in Merida. We made our way to 5 towns, speaking with pastors at each spot. Each meeting was face to face, explaining the plan and clarifying questions. The personal visit broke down barriers immediately. The time in each location enabled us form working relationships with each minister. Fifteen hours and 455 miles later, we were able to confirm the participation of seven additional pastors in this church planting movement.

But the time on the roads was much more than the task at hand. It was a chance to spend time with fellow laborers and hear their heart as well. At the pastor’s meeting in Tahdizbichen, I sat back and listened as Abel encouraged the pastors to expand their vision, to look beyond the four walls of the church and to seek to fulfill the Great Commission. The time spent on the roads was more than worth it to hear his message.

Sure, I’m still committed to tweeting with the best of them, but I’m also a firm believer that technology will never replace the value of the personal visit.

How about you? Do you agree, or do you think that technology will make personal meeting obsolete? Let’s hash out the pros and cons in the comments section.

Tags: face to face, Maya, Missions, team ministry

Back at It

August 25, 2011 in Language, Maya, Ministry, Missions, Progress by Dave | Permalink

At times, the plans that we make work out beautifully. On other occasions, things don’t come together in the way we expect. In the fall of 2008, I entered Itzamná, the Maya language school in the center of town, with the goal of getting a functional knowledge of the indigenous language still spoken by a large percentage of the inhabitants of the Yucatan. However, a household accident had one of the Godzwa parental team off of her feet for a few weeks that November, meaning carving out four hours from an already active schedule got increasingly more difficult. Needless to say, that attempt at learning Maya met with failure.

Still the resolve to try again stayed with me. The reasons for learning were solid; drawing near to the people and being able to share the good news of salvation with the Maya community in their own language are goals I consider necessary for long-term ministry success here on the peninsula. Also, returning to the Yucatan, we found that ministry opportunities, from small group sessions to church planting projects, for those who spoke Maya were abundant, so with a bit of chiding from Antonio Gamboa (above) I began my search again for a program to help me gain this essential tool.

This summer, I enrolled in a free class offered by a local university designed to give novices a chance to learn Maya, while giving professors a chance to polish their skills in the classroom. Last week I entered my first class. Each Friday, therefore, I’m being immersed for three hours in Yucatec Maya. From start to finish, we are being taught and asked to respond only in Maya. Needless to say it was a bit of a shock, but my hope is that, at the end of the 15 week course, I’ll be well on my way to realizing the goal that I set for myself in October of 2008: to learn the Maya language.

Tags: Dreams, Evangelism, Maya, Missions

A Team is About to be Formed!

August 8, 2011 in Language, Maya, Prayer by Dave | 2 comments

Although, according to the 2010 census, 47% of the population of the state Yucatan reports living in a Mayan household, to date, no coordinated effort has been made to plant churches specifically focused on reaching the Maya speaking population. Since the spring, we’ve been telling you about the efforts that we have made to see church planting among the Maya reach priority status here in the Yucatan. In the last few months, we’ve seen advancements and some setbacks, but now, we are able to share with you that we are on the verge of naming the team that will spearhead what we believe can become a church planting movement!

We are thankful for the efforts of our District Missions Director, Abel Can, who saw the need and saught to make this project a part of his ministry portfolio for the next two years. We’re also thankful for the collaboration of the District Coordinator of Ministry to Ethnic Groups, Miriam Pech, who has been leading the search in the recent months for qualified candidates. With the help of these individuals, two Maya speaking pastors have been found. Following training, these men will lead up a program of training and evangelization that will give local churches the tools and guidance that they need to mother indigenous works throught the state.

Nevertheless, while we’re thankful for the progress, we understand that this effort must be undertaken through continued prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For that reason, we are making this appeal. Would you pray:

That God would especially equip these candidates with the giftings required to undertake this work.
That pastors would catch the vision and provide opportunity to the team to work and plant Maya speaking congregations in their area.
That the Maya people that we seek to reach would respond to the presentation of the gospel in their own language.

Tags: Church planting, Maya, Mexican Census

In Search of Workers

April 12, 2011 in Maya, Ministry, Prayer, Progress by Dave | Permalink

Lately I’ve been traveling. I’ve been two hours to the east, and twice on 2+ hour trips to the south of Yucatán. My goal? It’s to find workers.

In the last print edition of our newsletter, I mentioned the organization, Power to Change, which is looking to bring the Jesus Film Project to the Yucatan. In this program, a team of two will visit churches to train action teams who will project the Jesus Film in the Maya language with the goal of planting a church within one month. The program is well defined and has produced some tremendous results all over the world, but the fact is that programs do not run themselves. They are only as good as the workers who take part in its execution.

For this reason, over the past two months, I’ve visited sectional meetings of pastors in order to promote the goal of partnering together to reach the Mayan culture. Through this promotion, I hope to find this team of two who can take the reins of this project and continue the work of evangelism among this marginalized people group. Not only will it require those who can speak the language, but it also calls for a special missionary vision to reach people throughout the state of Yucatan and beyond.

Would you pray with us? Pray that qualified, potential workers will respond. Pray as well that we will have God’s mind as our team selects those who will be trained to make up this Jesus Film Team.

Tags: Jesus Film Project, Maya, Power to Change

Premiere of the Jesus Film for Children in Maya

February 11, 2011 in Language, Maya, Ministry by Dave | 1 comment

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought that 7,000 words might be sufficient to describe what went on at the premiere of the Jesus Film for Children in Maya put on by the missions organization, Message for the Mayans. (Of course, I did take the liberty to add captions.)

Enjoy!

“I was invited to the premiere of the Jesus Film for Children in Maya put on by the organization that made the film, Message for the Mayans.”

From The Premiere of Jesus Film for Children in Maya. Posted by David Godzwa on 2/12/2011 (8 items)

: The film was set to take place in the park, but had to be moved inside because of the…

: Lots of smiles were evident during the event.

: Gamaliel Gonzalez, a pastor in Xcan and coordinator of evangelism for the Missions or…

: Many responded to the call to accept Jesus following the film.

: Randall Groves, the father of Eric Groves, the missionary hosting the event, traveled…

: Gamaliel, pictured here, leads evangelism teams each week with the goal of planting c…

: I traveled the 3.5 hours from Mérida with four Bible School students (from left to ri…

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher 2

Tags: Evangelism, Jesus Film for Children, Maya, Message for the Mayans, Xcan

We’re Headed Where?

January 4, 2011 in Maya, Ministry, Missions by Dave | 6 comments

We were together in the car, Kelly, the kids and I.Â We had been making our way,Â so we thought to the town of Tunkas, a small city of about three thousand, in order to deliver some documents to Pastor Eucepio Pech and to find out a bit more about the missions of which he is pastor.Â Although I had been there previously, this would have been the first time for Kelly and the kids to visit the town.Â We were headed there accompanied by Antonio Mendez,Â the District Missions Director, and the Regional Presbyter Manuel Diaz, that is until Manuel began to give me directions.

“Vamos a Pom (We’re going to Pom),” he said

“¿A donde? (To where?)”, was my reply.

It was at that time about 6:00 PM. Tunkas was about a 45 minute drive away. Getting there, having our meeting and a bite to eat would have gotten us home by 9:30 PM. Pom however, was a trip of about two hours one-way. I had the feeling that this was going to be a long night.

We made our way from Bokobá, the town where Manuel pastors, through Izamal and on to Holca where we picked up an eighth passenger, before stopping in Libre Union for some panuchos. While there, there was talk about the remaining distance to Pom.

One said, “Oh no. Pom is another 4 hours from here. The roads are terrible. We can get there, spend the night and make our way back in the morning.” I cringed. This trip was evolving from a short jaunt to a voyage of epic proportions. I was only a little relieved when the others reassured me that we’d not need to stay the night.

The road was indeed rough. I was about 12 miles on a narrow, paved road, and then it was another 10 miles on basically a dirt path. Up and down we went, over rocks and at times through the brush that spilled out onto the “road.” Finally, we arrived at the town.

Pom wasn’t much to look at. It was basically a small grouping of houses around a diminutive downtown consisting of some rooms that served as the city hall. There is no electricity in the town, so although it was only 9:30 PM when we arrived, it was pitch dark. Everyone had turned in for the night.

Manuel walked down the path to the pastor’s house to let him know that we had arrived. The pastor, Tomás Reyes, is a former student of mine. Always the quiet type, I wondered how he might fare in such a remote place.

Tomás arrived, flashlight in hand to meet us a few minutes later. With him were his mother and sister. Also joining him was the mayor of the town, himself a member of the church. As we walked to the hut that served as the church, we heard of the work that was going on.

We heard of the group 25 people that would gather each service to pray and sing. We heard of how that, although many couldn’t understand all of what Tomás was saying because of the language barrier, (Tomás doesn’t speak Maya.), they were drawn by his spirit and his willingness to be with them even in that remote place. We heard the joy of a mother enthralled to know that her son was making a difference in people’s lives.

We entered the church, we prayed, and we spoke words of encouragement to Tomás and those assembled. We wanted them to know that they were remembered, that they were appreciated, that they could count on us to help them as they labored in the hard places. In the light of our flashlights, we could see from their smiles that they had indeed received the message.

It was after 10, but, even though we had another 4 hour journey in front of us, there was a desire to linger a bit. We stepped out of the building and looked up into the night sky. In the moment, I was reminded that, although the stars were too numerous to count, God knew each one by name. In the same way, in this world with over 6 billion people, God had not forgotten these 20 families that lived an hour from the end of the road without electricity or even water in their homes. Even here, he had sent a witness, and even though we had thought we had been heading to a completely different place for a completely different purpose, we left with the feeling that we had been blessed to have witnessed this extension of his grace.

Tags: Bokoba, Holca, Izamal, Maya, Missions, Pom

Work Among the Maya

December 28, 2010 in Maya, Ministry by Dave | Permalink

During one of the sessions of our past ACLAME Summit there was a bit of discussion regarding our role as American Missionaries. The general concensus was that our role had moved from that of a pioneer to that of support of the national church, and looking at the growth of Christianity that has ocurred in southern hemisphere in the past years it is easy to arrive at that conclusion. Nevertheless, one statment, made by fellow missionary and Director of Intercultural Doctoral Studies, DeLonn Rance, stuck with me. When the group was asked whether they considered themselves pioneer or support missionaries, he stated, “Every missionary should be in some way a pioneer.”

At the same meeting, even as DeLonn’s words were fresh in my mind, God was opening up an opportunity to fulfill our roles as pioneers here in the Yucatán. Mike Hadinger, a missionary to Oaxaca, Mexico, spoke with me about the initiative that the Mexican Assemblies of God had been organizing over the past year. He told me of the several ethnic groups that had been targeted by the National Department of Missions and the need that they had of missionaries to partner with those who were being sent to reach these groups. As we met with Dave Greco, our Area Director, we began to see a vision materializing for pioneer ministry among the Maya people of the Yucatán, the largest ethnic group on the peninsula.

As the Yucatán becomes increasingly urban, many Maya are leaving their ancestral villages for the city in order to find work in the cities of Mérida or Cancún. Those that are left behind, either because of age or inability to speak Spanish, find themselves marginalized as resources, including spiritual ones, are distributed according to population. Those who feel a burden to reach these forgotten groups, some who live without even the basic necessities, find their remoteness and relative poverty a challenge especially in the current economic situation. Our desire as we begin this our second term is to facilitate indigenous ministry among these populations, focusing on church planting, discipleship, and social outreach.

Our first trip to one such population center took place on December 5th as District Missions Director Antonio Mendez, District Director of Missions to Ethnic Groups Carlos Baeza, and I joined with Regional Presbyter Manuel Diaz to visit Eucepio Pech, pastor of 4 missions in the Tunkas area. Eucepio drives a motorcycle from village to village over some difficult terrain to attend to each congregation, whose meeting places range from family homes to church buildings and seemingly everything in between.

On the day we met we visited the work in Tzalam where a pickup truck serves as the only public transportation. It traverses a rocky path twice a day to reach the inhabitants of the village. The mission meets at the home of Antonio Gamboa Gonzalez. There we spoke of the work while women spent the afternoon preparing handmade tortillas over a wood burning stove. It was easy to see during the course of the day that Pastor Eucepio had a mind to work, and we were excited to be able to help. Before we were through, we had prayed and committed to helping him realize the vision he believes God has given him for the region.

We realize, however, that this trip is just one of several that we’ll need to make to get a true picture of the need among the Maya. As we have continued to speak of our desire to reach out, we have heard more and more of areas of need. Fortunately, we’ve had help along the way. Cruz Velazquez, the National Director of Missions to Ethnic Groups, himself a pioneer among the Tarahumara Indians, in Chihuahua stands by to help us navigate the path to be trod, and relationships are developing that may even lead to a church planting network.

As we move forward in this pioneering effort, we ask for your prayers. Pray for wisdom and pray that our eyes might be open to the opportunities as they present themselves to us.

Tags: Ethnic groups, Maya, Pioneering, Tunkas

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