Faith That Builds | February 2022 Update

Greetings in the Precious Name of Jesus!

The lead trip for the Ministry Center in El Salvador was beyond our hopes. It was extremely beneficial to meet face-to-face with the Board of Ministerio Cuervo (Raven Ministries El Salvador) to expound on the Vision of Faith for the Ministry Center more fully; watching God continue to transfer the vision to these faithful men. One Board Member said “it (the Ministry Center) will be a testimony and example for Pastors in El Salvador”. Another shared, “All of us have known faith, but this is going to bring us to a new place of trusting God.”

Lead Pastor Group in Santa Ana

We also held four different meetings to cast the vision with Pastors who lead and/or are influential with groups of Pastors (Link to Message Summary). A total of 23 Lead Pastors attended, representing an untold number of Pastors and Churches. At the end of each meeting, comments made, and questions asked revealed how our Faithful Father has already planted the seed for this Vision in hearts. Some asked, “how can we join?” One Pastor, representing a large denomination, indicated he will share this vision with the different boards on which he serves. Another said, “I’m privileged to be part of this.” Other questions raised were along the lines of: “where will it be? Do you need a house or is just land ok? Do you have a website about this ministry and project? All indicating reception of the idea. After one meeting, a Board member said “I saw the grace of God this morning in the meeting with the Pastors. This is the first time I’ve met most of them (the Pastors). Pastors are usually guarded. They were very open and receptive and even asked how they could be involved. This doesn’t happen.” This is miracle number 1 on our journey!

While in El Salvador, we were introduced to the director of a ministry for Retired Pastors and toured the facility. It’s located in the western side of the Country and houses Retired Pastors who need medical assistance. And on Sunday, Ron preached in two Churches on the eastern side of the country, exhorting them to allow God to expand their vision of Him. “No matter how big God is to you, in reality….He’s bigger. (His thoughts are not our thoughts, and our ways are not His ways – Isaiah 55:8-9). That God lets us call Him Father. Before you were conceived, he knew you, when you were in your mother’s womb, He formed your life. He called you for a purpose – to represent Him to a dying world.”

The pastor of the second Church where Ron preached has been asking us to visit them for several years. When we arrived, he and his wife ushered us in to his office. Seven years ago, he suffered a heart attack and during the aftermath blood pooled in his eyes and left him blind. He has to be led around by others and uses a cane, but he hasn’t lost his zeal, charisma or humor. We met him and his wife back in 2004 when we were honored to take 20 Pastor Couples from the Assembly of God Josue churches away for a day of rest. With great enthusiasm, he declared “I’ve been waiting 15 years to give you a Word from God.” He then shared multiple interrelated stories that all began in 2004. We cannot adequately convey the miraculous glory of God and how He responds to faith as eloquently as expressed by Pastor Francisco. But the short version is as follows:

In 2004 Pastor Francisco invited Ron to preach to his congregation. The community is very poor and so are the vast majority of members. They had no church building so they met in one of the rooms of a very large Catholic Church. Pastor Francisco had been given land and believed God wanted him to build a church on it. He took us to see the land. It was on the side of a mountain…no flat area anywhere! He asked us to pray and ask God to touch people’s hearts in the United States to provide the money needed. Ron prayed that God would provide the building. Sometime later, Ron felt impressed to return and tell Pastor Francisco that the God of the United States is not bigger than the God of El Salvador and that God would provide the money through El Salvador. Pastor Francisco shared that this Word from God left him very frustrated. What he heard Ron say was that the money would be provided from his Church. He and his wife thought about each member and mentally checked off one at a time…no it couldn’t be any of them. Still irritated, on one of his trips to the US he asked congregations in the various churches where he preached to support this vision. Not one penny was given. Now he was really infuriated and discouraged. He kept going to the property and praying. Pouring out his frustration with God. God gave him very specific detail about the building; where it would be positioned, where the offices would be, what the baptistry would look like, etc. He wrote it all down. He kept praying and pouring out his heart to God. One day a man from the “Mother Church” in San Salvador (so technically part of his church) came into town and said the Lord sent me here to build a church do you know where? Pastor Francisco excitedly took him to see the property. The man said, I’ll build the building, but you first have to level the land. I can’t put a building on the side of a mountain. Pastor Francisco was beside himself with joy and enthusiastically shared with his leaders that God provided the building. All they needed to do was prepare the land. He and a few of his leaders took shovels to the property and set out to “flatten the land.” They went several times, praising and praying that God would bless their labor. After several weeks, a man who occasionally came into town to see a friend who attended their Church came to Pastor Francisco looking for his friend. After Pastor Francisco explained that the friend wasn’t in town, they continued talking and he ended up sharing that God told him to build a Church along with all that had happened on the journey so far ending with the fact that God provided a man to build it as soon as they could level the land. This man, by his own admission, didn’t believe in God but after hearing Pastor Francisco’s experience said, “I believe God told you to build this Church.” The man asked to see the property. When he saw it, he said where have you been digging? After hours of hard labor, they hadn’t even made a noticeable dent! The man left and returned the next day with earth moving equipment. He “happened” to own an excavation company. Long story short, he cut out the side of the mountain, moving the dirt and rock, then compacting it to create a sufficiently large, levelled area with a 27-foot-high retaining wall.

God’s story through the building of this Church facility, doesn’t stop here. Pastor Francisco contacted the Church member from San Salvador and true to his word, he brought in a construction team to build the Church. He told Pastor Francisco, I will construct the building, but I cannot put the doors and windows in or build the offices, kitchen or baptistry. Pastor Francisco thanked him and called the people in his Church up to the property to pray over the building and seek God’s provision to complete everything that was in the drawings God had given him. Several members came up and laid hands on the building and prayed. The next day the man from San Salvador came with tears in his eyes and said, “God told me that I was supposed to build the entire building, so I am here to finish it.” His construction crew finished every detail of the Sanctuary, offices, baptistry and kitchen, including painting inside and out as well as installing windows and doors. Praise God for doing beyond ALL Pastor Francisco could ask or imagine! Our Father is Faithful, All Sufficient and oh so Good!!

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After he finished sharing this story, Pastor Francisco said you have a very good vision. I’ve been waiting for 15 years to give you a Word the Lord gave me for you. “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen they cords, and strengthen thy stakes.” Isaiah 54:2. The Lord is saying to dream big! Don’t limit Him. Stretch out the cords….dream big! Pray and pour out your dreams to the Lord. He will fill them!