Praise Report from the Nicaragua Disciple-making Conference!

Thank you for praying for the week of training at the RHEMA Institute that Brother Ron Herrod sponsors in various parts of the world. This one, held in Jinotepe, Nicaragua, was one of the most rewarding, refreshing, and encouraging, and I believe potentially fruitful, weeks of training that I have ever done.

What made the difference? One, your prayers; two the Holy Spirit’s anointing; three, the fact that Brother Herb Hodges had taught this same group of students back in May of this year. Because of his foundational teachings, I was able to dove-tail with these basic truths and give further instructions of the method of Jesus’ Standard and Strategy for building disciples for Total World Impact.

During his week there, Brother Herb plowed the hard soil and sowed the good seed of the basic truths of Jesus’ standard and strategy for fulfilling the Great Commission. The interpreter, Bro. Maynor Curtis had told the students that I was a 28 year disciple of Bro. Herbs’, thus I had immediate respect. Then Herb had taught, confronted and corrected these men and women to be a more disciplined, attentive and faithful student of God’s Word, so they sat under the Word being taught and not over it in judgment. As a result these pastors and key lay leaders were the most attentive, spiritually hungry, extensive note-taking group that I have ever taught.

Another vital factor was the leadership and interpreting work done by the Nicaraguan, Brother Maynor Curtis. Although Bro. Maynor is not a pastor, he is a hot-hearted lover of the Lord, and has a gifted mind, a teachable spirit, and demonstrated great communication skills in his interrupting of my Southern accented English.

The teaching began at 8:30 am and continued to 4:00 pm Monday through Friday with over 200 persons in attendance daily. The people traveled a long distance daily by public transportation to get to the meeting house. The auditorium was very hot and humid and the chairs uncomfortable, but all I saw for almost seven hours each day was the tops of the people’s heads as they took page after page of notes, and asked very intelligent, pertinent questions during Q&A times. One pastor came to me at the end of the fourth day and hugged me and said in his broken English, “Your teaching on disciple-making has saved my life!”

Thank all of you for praying and giving to make this trip possible and productive. Thank you, Brother Ron Herrod, for inviting me to go. Thank you Brother Herb Hodges for discipling me with a view to total world impact. My translator said as the week drew to an end that on at least a half dozen different occasions, as he was translating my teaching, he forgot and thought that he had Bro Heb Hodges standing beside him.

A special thanks goes to my wife for her continual prayers and encouragement for this phase of our ministry. Never once in over 30 years of ministry has she ever done anything but help, encourage and support me, whole heartedly!

Most of all, thanks be unto our merciful Lord and Savior who has counted me faithful, putting me into the gospel ministry! What a Savior! What a gospel! What an assignment! Praise the Lord!