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Affirming Evangelism at the Heart of Mission

Julie Chamberlain spends her days directing a language school for missionaries and an academy where missionary children study. In the evening and on weekends she spends time in jail.

Not that Julie is a criminal serving a sentence. Far from it! Julie’s time at a women’s prison in San José, Costa Rica is a very practical way in which she can tell others about Christ’s love for them and bring them into a saving knowledge of Jesus.

 Her duties as the director of the Spanish Language Institute, where many missionaries who need to learn Spanish study, primarily involve working with those who are already Christian. The daily struggle to raise funds, oversee teachers and counsel with students leaves her little time to reach out to others who do not know Christ.

 So, each Wednesday evening she joins members of her local congregation to sponsor recreational activities and offer Christian messages at a local women’s prison.

 “We present the Gospel and invite inmates to respond almost every time we enter,” Julie explains. “Many raise their hands and come forward.”

 Julie says that she is convinced the prisoners are genuine in their commitment to Christ when they confess, though they want to be free from the prison, they are content to stay as long as necessary so that the Lord will change them and prepare them for life on the outside.

 For Jennifer Hess, an LAM missionary serving at Manantial de Vida camp near San Pedro Sula, Honduras, evangelistic outreach is more directly part of her daily work.

 In the outdoor education lessons and the ropes course activities there are opportunities to share the Gospel of Christ and His desire for a personal relationship, according to Jennifer. “Other evangelistic efforts have included having a school come to camp for the day to participate in physical education activities followed by lunch and sharing the gospel message.”

 “As we make applications from the lessons and activities to our daily life and spiritual walk, we are able to share the gospel and have students evaluate their hearts,” Jennifer explains.

 “Leaders trained to do good camp programs result in campers evangelized,” says Bob Sabean, a LAM missionary who has spent his career training camp leaders throughout Latin America. As an example, Bob points to a workshop that he and LAM missionary Robert Bruneau led in Paraguay earlier this year. A pastor reported to Bob that as a result of the workshop, eighteen leaders expressed a desire to give their hearts and lives to Christ, beginning a great journey with God.

 Translating for evangelism

In Colombia, LAM missionary Bob Van Zyl is busy at work helping to translate the Bible into both indigenous languages of the area as well as sign language for the deaf.

“Over the past two to three years I have been working with the translation team to translate 24 chronological Bible stories,” Bob reports. “The story set is designed for members of the deaf community who are not Christians to understand God’s plan of salvation. It will soon be used in a few of the churches that have ministries with the deaf and later those Christians participating in these Bible studies will be able to have small groups of friends and family in their homes as an evangelistic outreach to the deaf in their community.”

Some LAM missionaries work directly with evangelical outreach, while for others evangelism is a part of but not the main focus of their ministry. For example, Paul Luciani in Monterrey, Mexico works with local Christians, motivating and mobilizing them for ministry around the world, training the Mexicans to do evangelism themselves.

“There are students in different parts of the world--Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist--that are reaching out so that Matt. 24:14 (And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.) can be a reality,” Paul explains. “Indirectly LAM missionaries are evangelizing many people around the world”

 Church planting

In another part of Mexico, Spearhead alumnus Jonathan Mikes is very involved in reaching people for Christ while planting a church in an upscale neighborhood of Mexico City.

“The core passion of our ministry is evangelism!” Jonathan exclaims. “We are working in the university area and in many ways the intellectual heart of Mexico City. The area is often quite hostile to organized religion. The work has been difficult but God is gradually opening hearts; we now have a group of roughly twenty people who meet every Sunday.”

Explaining the difficulty of reaching an urban population in one of the world’s largest cities,” Jonathan says. “Combined regular church attendance in Mexico City (Catholic and Protestant) is around seven percent. That means 93 percent of the population is unconnected to any church community.”

There is great frustration because of historic corruption and abuse in the Roman Catholic Church while Protestants are often seen as abrasively anti-Catholic, legalistic or interested only in money. This makes evangelism a challenge.

“Approaching people with the gospel in traditional ways is difficult,” he adds. “Instead, we seek to serve the community and build relationships. We gain a degree of trust and credibility first and then we are able to preach the gospel.”

In another part of Mexico City, LAM missionary Laura Vivanco and her husband Manuel are working with a church that they helped plant in a low-income neighborhood. They coach church members to reach out to non-believers in the community. “Our style is to work alongside the local church in any way possible to build up the church as opposed to working on our own to gain converts.”

Whether in traditional ways or through unique ministries, LAM missionaries continue to exhibit a passion for spreading the Gospel and finding effective ways to accomplish the task.

“Our lives and actions have to speak of Christ before our words can be heard,” says Jennifer Hess. “I have to show that I care about the physical and emotional needs of those around me before I really have the right or the place to speak to their lives. Evangelism seems to me to be about building relationships so that we can walk with people as they come to Christ.”