Go, and Make Disciples.
This is the vision and central focus of Iglesia Nueva Vida, our ministry host for this month. It’s been a blessing to see how they make Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19 a reality.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
–Matthew 28:19
This church isn’t interested in counting converts, but is diligent about making disciples who make disciples. Each Sunday the Pastor challenges the church with Bible verses about what it means to be a disciple, and encourages them to seek out people whom God is calling them to disciple. On Saturdays, some of the church members travel a few hours by bus to neighboring slums in order to follow up with the people who are participating in their discipleship program in those areas. Each Monday night, they have their discipleship meetings here in Los Guido, where they split up according to age, and work through their discipleship books. These books entail memorizing dozens of Bible verses and answering questions that require real-life application of those verses. The older kids and teens disciple the younger ones. It was precious watching 4-year-olds reciting Bible verses, and 12-year-olds being the ones leading them. Mark told me that they have 7-year-olds who are discipling younger kids. As soon as they finish a level in their discipleship program, they are expected to start leading other people through the level that they just finished. The expectation is that everyone disciples others, because disciples make disciples.
I want to share a beautiful example of the discipleship cycle. There’s a boy who is very active in the church here, so he’s here almost every day. Our whole squad has become pretty attached to this kid. His name is Joseph and he’s 12 years old. Joseph is in the 6th level of the discipleship program, which I hear means he has about 90 Bible verses memorized, and he is on the church leadership team. Joseph is an amazing man of God already. I found out a few days ago that Joseph is here at the church because one of the girls (Naydelin) had invited him and began the discipleship process with him. So cool.
But the story doesn’t end there. Last week, Joseph shared his testimony with our squad and he told us about how his dream is to be a missionary, and that he wants to go on the church mission trip to Nicaragua in December, but he can’t because his family doesn’t have money to buy him a passport. But he was content “going” on the trip by being on the prayer team and praying for the people who are physically going on the trip. After Joseph left that night, our squad talked and decided to pull together money for Joseph’s passport. With the equivalent of about two dollars from each of us, we had all the money for Joseph’s passport. When we presented Joseph with a picture of a passport and told him we had given Mark the money for his passport, he cried and thanked us for helping him to go and make disciples of all nations.
How cool is it that a 12 year old boy’s dream is to “Go, and make disciples of all nations?” How cool is it that all Christians, regardless of age, are held to the expectation to make disciples, and given the position to do that?
I’m so grateful for this opportunity to see how a ministry so focused on discipleship functions and to be able to see some of the beautiful fruit that comes from it. I am encouraged by the place our church is in, pressing into the discipleship process. I have been praying for our church back at home, and learning all I can while I’m here.
We’re heading to Nicaragua on Thursday morning. We’ll be traveling Thursday and Friday, and arrive to our ministry location on Friday night. I’ll update again as soon as I can!
God bless you all! 🙂 Love and miss you!
