October 7, 2009 Dear Fishnetters, What a wonderful surprise - I thought we were going to minister to pastor's wives only from Argentina, but this conference involved pastor's wives and leaders from 10 nations - including: |
Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and United States. |  |
 | Wow! What a powerful time we had! The theme verses were taken from Isaiah 54:2&3 where we are challenged to enlarge the borders of our tent. The idea was, ladies - it's time to have a global vision! These accomplished leaders challenged themselves to reach out to the world with the Gospel - wonderful! They sang my songs with all their hearts - I'm gonna believe that You are up to something good and I have miracles in my hands - powerful! |
I met up with Liz Doyle after flying all night to Buenos Aires. Here she is pictured with our hostess Alva Contreras. Alva and her husband Serafin are the Foursquare Church overseers over South America. She has such a burden to reach out and encourage all the ladies of her region who are serving the Lord. Liz and I are thrilled that the Lord connected us with Alva to help her get her heart's desire. |  |
 | We stayed at the Nazarene Conference Center in the Buenos Aires area. Really, I must say that this was a beautiful and well run conference center. It was great to be on the other side of the hemisphere and suddenly be in spring with its fresh new leaves for a few days. However, brrrr, it was brisk! Sometimes I wish I could zap home for a few minutes and pack the clothes I should have taken. Smile. |
The ladies had come prepared to make a presentation about their country, including regional dances and costumes. It was exciting to feel the love each group has for it's own nation. |  |
 | They also share a deep burden for revival in all of South America. Here Alva is leading the conference of more than 100 leaders in fervent prayer over a map of the continent of South America. This was after a powerful sharing from one of the ladies from Brazil regarding a countrywide effort to inspire prayer for missions that they are launching. |
| At meals we took time to meet as many of the conferees personally as we could. Liz is praying here with Jane and Eva, both from Brazil. Jane is the one who is launching the prayer mobilization, and Eva runs a mission base in Paraguay. Eva has a tremendous burden to share the gospel with Muslim immigrants and was consulting with Liz regarding her vision. |  |
 | Liz and I were excited on this trip to team up with these leaders from the US Foursquare Church, Melinda Scott and Beth Hall. Melinda and her husband oversee the Northeast US Foursquare churches, and Beth and her husband head up Foursquare Missions. They were missionaries in Brazil, and Beth was our Portuguese interpreter at this lunch time prayer session. Praise the Lord! |
We were also very honored to spend time fellowshipping with these pioneers of the Foursquare Church of Argentina. Standing with Liz and me are Lolita and Eliana, and seated with Alva is Aurora. Pray for these ladies and for all the South American female leaders of the Lord's family! They are taking up the challenge to rebuild after some tough battles, but not just look inward - rather, they are developing a global outreach vision - AMEN! |  |
Now for some other exciting Fishnetter news! Tonya Reed is going to Turkey on October 19 through 30! She will be working with Middle Eastern women from a refugee camp. Pray for the conference as Tonya will be very busy speaking on forgiveness, abuse, depression, rejection and fear. I know that she will also be doing a lot of personal counseling - so pray for strength for Tonya and her interpreter as they pour the love of Jesus into these ladies. After the conference Tonya will speak at a Bible College on Christian Counseling skills. There will be both men and women students. She will also minister in a church on Wednesday evening. Please pray for Tonya and all the leaders of this conference. Will you also send a gift to help with expenses? We should raise around $2300 - including 700 for Tonya's flight, 1,000 toward the rental of the conference facility, and 600 for gifts that Tonya is bringing. Her suitcases will be jammed with school supplies, cross necklaces, dental health supplies, hygiene packs, vitiamins, t shirts, and Honeytree CDs (with "Call of the Harvest" and "Man in White" in Farsi.) Thank God for His great adventures! |