Refocusing Our Serving Core

UPDATE on “il rifugio”

Please pray for il rifugio to continue mature in “delighting itself in the Lord.”

As for current ministry at il rifugio, this past week eleven of the key ministry leaders at il rifugio, myself and three other missionaries met to prepare for this new year of ministry.  This was a chance to restate our mission and clearly lay out the vision for the upcoming season.  God's vision for our community this season is to be "an active body where everyone is necessary" (see Romans 12.4-6 & Col 1.18).  We are trying to involve everyone in what God is doing in, through and to “il rifugio”.  Therefore we re-amped our community groups (there are now four at il rifugio) and personally invited each person to be a part of the eight to ten ministries that comprise “il rifugio”. 

After the summer fade, it was obvious that we needed to regroup.  We spent time focusing on Matthew 22:37-40 and 28:19-20.  We talked about the need to reach up to God (loving God), reach in to the family of God (loving others) and reach out to the world (making disciples), and how this must permeate each ministry at il rifugio.  We talked about how practical this is and how we can accomplish this through the next 4 months of activities.

We adopted a threefold strategy of how to reach out that Doug Cecil suggests in 7 Prinicples of Evangelistic Lifestyle.  We will spend about a five weeks in the following areas: cultivating relationships, seeding hearts with Word and harvesting by inviting people to trust Jesus.  Some of the students got it. Our leaders excitedly shared their ideas about how we could reach out practically.  One Chinese believer was very excited with renewed focus and some practical steps to accomplish God's vision during this season of ministry.  Another believer, who drove two hours after work just to be with us, was encouraged and wants to implement this in the community group he oversees.  Would you please pray for each of these key leaders: Andrea, Angelo, Tony, Dadie, Leo, Checco, Ben, Amelia, Erin, Kristen and Carmen.  Pray that God would inspire them to accomplish His vision and they would be faithful and passionate in responding to His lead.