Baptists Committed to World Evangelism

One of the most well-known products of Spanish culture is bullfighting, and we are often asked about it. There’s something built into men that makes us crave the adrenaline rush of cheating death: whether it’s a roller-coaster at a theme park, jumping off a cliff with a rope tied to our ankles, or facing off against a 1200 pound bull. Also there’s my personal favorite: telling your pregnant wife that she needs to lay off the Oreos! For the record, she doesn’t need to, it’s just fun to look death in the eye and laugh… and then cry like a little girl when she brings the pain. Don’t judge me, she has the strength of a regular woman AND a baby! Much of the allure of bullfighting is the silly idea that man can “conquer” nature: it’s the same thing that makes us climb Everest and the like. Yeah… you are sitting on top of the mountain that is totally unchanged while you lost 9 digits to frostbite, but somehow YOU won?

God has called us to reach beyond the boarders of the USA with the gospel.  So many Christians have never left their comforts to travel abroad and serve on the mission field.  Now is your chance! Throughout 2012 we will be hosting college interns in Santiago, Chile.  This experience will give you hands-on training in church planting, language learning, and culture adaptation

Read this article Becoming a Man of the World: How to Learn Another Language for some good insight on how to learn a language. All missionaries are going to have to learn how to live cross culturally. Many will have to learn another language. Excuses abound. You can learn another language! Here are some quotes from the article for you to consider: Men are excellent language learners, and there are ways we can use our manly differences to our advantage

Some years ago an African-American pastor’s wife from Atlanta visited us in Chile.  Her husband pastored a church just miles from my old elementary school.  During the 90s, my family and most of our friends left the area opting for a less “urban” environment in the suburbs. As we discussed my own history in the south-Atlanta area, the pastor’s wife laughed and said, “We call that white-flight!”  Puzzled at the new term, I asked her to explain.  She said all blacks know that whites start getting nervous when blacks began to move into a neighborhood, and eventually the whites move… all of them move. I, on the other hand, have been on the other side of those conversations and heard the anxious remarks about the increasing minority population.  I knew what she was saying was right. I’m not going to get into the whole socioeconomic discussion, but I do want to talk about racism! Here are some random thoughts about God, the Bible, and racism: All men and women are created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27).  How can we belittle an image bearer of God?  The fact that they are bearing His image means they have infinite worth.

We are partnering together with church planting missionaries throughout Latin America to bring you church planting resources to bridge the gap into Latin America . The region includes a diversity of cultures, languages, and challenges.  We hope to provide pioneer senders and church planting teams with resources to highlight the opportunities and expedite the church planting process throughout the region. If you are interested in missions in Latin America or you know someone considering missions there you really need to check out  The Latin Bridge . Check out more church planting resources at bcwe.org

Another major problem that missionaries have is trying to take the United States to the foreign country. It causes them to have severe issues on the foreign field. The national gets very tired of being compared to “back home”. His country doesn’t measure up.

As PIONEER SENDERS we need to constantly looking for new resources to help channel motivational information about missions to those we influence. If you are interested in missions in Latin America or you know someone considering missions there you really need to check out The Latin Bridge . What is The Latin Bridge? Bridges have a singular purpose.  Sure they can be beautiful, a sign of strength and power, and even a platform for base jumping, but in every instance they are ultimately a connector.  The Latin Bridge is seeking to start a renewed movement of church planting in the Latin American world

Below is a lesson in culture that we would do well to heed. Go to the source and read the entire article. Good stuff. Source For Americans, personal space is no joking matter.

The pictures illustrate the importance of team work in a big project. There are places you will go and heights you can reach that you could never go to or reach alone. Pray about joining the team going and sending to northern India.

I was waiting in line at the bank today, and a song came over the PA that made me groan. It was a particularly annoying country song that I was WAY more familiar with than I wanted to be. Before going to Portugal for Bible College, we spent a year in NC, and I worked a job where I spent hour after hour in a pickup truck with a guy who loved country music, and my pleas for silence, for conversation, for Swiss yodeling music, ANYTHING other than hours of country music, fell on deaf ears. This particular song set forth the “meaning of life” according to the singer’s perspective, and it is a pretty good reflection of the southern (and probably most of America) mindset. Basically, it boils down to: 1