As Verbo Ministries in Ecuador passes its twenty-fifth anniversary our churches are experiencing accelerating church growth and ministry expansion in the middle of a nation-wide awakening to the Gospel. There are more than 2,000 believers in the Verbo Quito South congregation alone, and it’s only one of four in the capital city.

Troubles Challenge Team

It wasn’t always that way. After Tom and Guisela Becotte and their Guatemalan team members planted the first church in Quito it was such tough going that at one point they considered giving up and going on to some other country. When I visited in March, 1984, Guatemalan missionary pastor Julio Dominguez died literally in front of me from a heart attack at the age of thirty. This was a heavy blow to the team.

A short time later the other Verbo leaders in Guatemala asked Mary and me to pray about helping the Becottes. I heard a clear “Yes!” from God. In May, 1985, we moved to this Andean country with our four children to help strengthen the mission. I had been working strongly in Guatemala with concepts of signs and wonders power evangelism, healing prayer, and pastoral counseling, which brought in a special element of the supernatural.

Supernatural  Happenings Begin

God caused the small congregation of around 65 to grow quickly. It more than doubled the first year. We had special meetings every Sunday afternoon to train people in how to pray for the sick in a hands-on way. Even new Christians were learning to move in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and pray for the sick with success.
Backtracking a bit, Ecuador wasn’t a new experience for me. As a 16-year-old exchange student be-fore I became a Christian, I lived with a Quito family. That visit planted a love in me for Latin Americans that later motivated me to go to Guatemala as one of the missionary founders of Verbo Ministries.

Continuing the story, a few months after our arrival two groups of spiritually hungry Christians from Pasaje, an agricultural town on the southern coast, came seeking the baptism in the Holy Spirit. God fed their hunger with signs and healings.

Missionaries Go to Pasaje

Shortly afterwards they asked us to send them a pastor. Guatemalan team member Henry Gomez and his Ecuadorian wife, Mary Sol, moved to Pasaje to strengthen the growing congregation, and thus our second church in the country was born.

In Quito the congregation grew rapidly under the influence of healings, the operation of spiritual gifts and a general excitement about God’s power among us. We trained local leaders to pastor a spreading network of home groups.  Because  of  Verbo’s  commitment to education we started a school at our new central Quito meeting site in an area called  Mañosca. Over 500 children from elementary through high school now receive classes there.

More Is Better for the People

Quito is a large city in a long narrow valley. Traveling from one end to another, especially at rush hour, is an exercise in patience. We realized that while megachurches had become stylish in many areas, that our members would benefit more by strategically placed churches in different sectors of the city. The home groups in the northern part of the city formed a new congregation under the tutelage of Carlos and Alma Pineda, Guatemalan members of the original team.

Later we added a congregation in south Quito that now has 2,500 attendees. Verbo North and  Mañosca have memberships of 1,500 members each. There are also two additional congregations in Greater Quito.

The ministry continued to expand in the rest of the country. A group from Riobamba joined us and has now grown to four congregations.

Churches Multiply Everywhere

Missionaries John Guido and Bob Capaldi brought their small congregation in Cuenca into relationship with us. That church has grown to about 1,500 members with two daughter congregations. They also formed a medical foundation with a small hospital that serves as headquarters for medical specialists who serve the poor in out-lying areas.

Verbo Cuenca’s FM radio station is one of the most listened-to stations in the region. The combination of music and daily practical Christian talk shows has generated a broad interest that has helped bring many to Jesus. Both Cuenca and Riobamba also have schools.

Quechua Speakers Join Verbo

There are now over twenty-five congregations spread around the country. There are two growing congregations in Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador. There is a dynamic church in Lago Agrio, which is located in the Amazon basin on the eastern side of the Andes. There are six congregations of Quechua-speaking Native Americans in the foothills of Chimborazo, the tallest volcano in Ecuador at over 21,000 feet.

There is a expanding congregation in Ambato between Quito and Riobamba, another in Loja in the southern banana growing area, three on the Pacific coast in El Oro province as well as in Manta, which is north of Guayaquil. We also have small groups that have started in a number of other cities such as Ibarra, Naranjal and Latacunga that our main leaders visit on a weekly basis.

Locals Serve Church

Ecuadorians pastor almost all these churches. Most of our North American and Guatemalan missionaries have spread out from the original works to equip ever more saints for the work of the ministry as competent national pastors have taken over their original roles. One family is serving in Verbo Madrid, Spain, and another in Florida.  Our vision has always been to train men and women for the ministry so that we can continuously manifest the Kingdom of God in new areas. It is amazing how things can grow and expand: 25 years and over one congregation for each year! God is good!

{mosimage}“Lord, I will do anything for you but pastor a church,” is what I said to the Lord when he called me to missions while I was studying dentistry at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. I never felt that the pastorate was a part of my call to serve the needy in a foreign land even though I considered being a pastor a high calling. I didn’t think I had the gifts required to be an effective pastor. On the other hand I could easily see myself as an evangelist and a dentist serving the poor.

God’s Way Is Best
    The Lord and I had an informal agreement—so I thought—that he could send me to Africa or anywhere else in the world but that being a church minister wouldn’t be a part of it.  
    I’ve learned since then that whenever you tell the Lord that you don’t want to do something you will usually end up having to do that very thing.  And that is exactly what my experience has been on the mission field.
    As I look back over more than 30 years of service in Guatemala, I can see how the Lord has prepared my wife, Sandy, and I for the pastoral ministry we now have with the Verbo Villa Lobos church on the southern outskirts of Guatemala City. I am the presiding elder and Sandy is in charge of praise and worship and women’s ministries.  

{mosimage}Our ministry in Verbo Nicaragua has just taken a tremendous step forward—one that seemed very remote during the radical ups and downs of the Sandinista government in the 1980’s. At that time the nation was still recovering from the Christmas, 1972, earthquake that had devastated the capital city, plus the social and economic fallout from the 25-years-long Somoza-Sandinista war.
Nation Faces Upheavals
    In the middle of all that came the path of destruction left by Hurricane Joan in 1988, then Hurricane Mitch, the government’s battles with the U.S.-sponsored Contra revolutionaries and national economic collapse.
    All these destabilizing factors influenced the Christian statement Verbo was lifting up: We fostered a church expression that took into account the greatest needs of the people at that time: the founding of Christian schools and orphanages, disaster and relief operations, medical and agricultural projects and establishing churches in strategic locations to further this vision.
    All these activities left our home church in Managua in rental facilities for 25 years.  Time, money and opportunity never seemed to coincide for a move to a more spacious location for a congregation that at the end of 2008 was nearing 1,500 people.
    But the first week of June we made the move to our new home, a very nicely converted warehouse (with a huge amount of remodeling and building still to be done) in a key location in Managua. Verbo Center includes two warehouses and outbuildings slowly being reworked to accommodate not only the congregation but to serve as headquarters for our varied social services, outreaches, and growing family of churches.

There’s Room to Grow in New Location
    The months of working to prepare the new facility has meant a nicer and larger locale.  We have more than an acre and a half of land. Compared to our old, rented church building the new structure has more,  larger, and handicap-friendly bathrooms, a moms’ area for toddlers and infants and a spacious multiuse Sunday school classroom area.
Plans Call for Youth Center and  Bible School
    The second warehouse will house the women’s vocational training and  micro financing center, a lovely weekday pre-school for over 60 2- to 4-year-olds (this was an important ministry in our old building), and a home for the Verbo Bible Institute. Other construction plans include a neighborhood youth center. Finally we have a roomy thatch-covered restaurant with umbrellas and tables for outdoor fellowship and events.  
    Our offices fit comfortably into an existing house on the premises. This new complex is in a central urban location that will facilitate a more visible statement of God’s love and the meaningful nature of Christian responsibility to a larger part of Managua’s population.
    Please, join with us in our thankfulness for the Lord’s provision, timing and planning. Our gratitude centers on our desire to be useful in the implementation of his values and that all his enemies might be brought under his feet. Thank you for your many years of faithful concern and participation with Verbo Ministries of Nicaragua. We are all simply members of One Body, His Bride.

Economic turndowns have a way of throwing monkey wrenches into missionary works but Verbo continues to increase its outreaches to students, the needy and the spiritually hungry in these trying times.

As the year ends we praise God for his extraordinary provision that has enabled us to build new educational and ministry centers and start churches in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Brazil.

Economic turndowns have a way of throwing monkey wrenches into missionary works but Verbo continues to increase its outreaches to students, the needy and the spiritually hungry in these trying times.

As the year ends we praise God for his extraordinary provision that has enabled us to build new educational and ministry centers and start churches in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Brazil.

University Expands Services

      In Quetzaltenango, a city in the mountainous western Guatemalan highlands, our Panamerican University is about to open new facilities that will provide opportunities to literally thousands of students who have few other choices to study in faculties of Economic Sciences, Education, Communications and Law.

Education, of course, has been a strategic imperative for us since God first showed us to start a school in Guatemala City in the late 1970’s. We seriously took to heart the Lord’s words through the Prophet Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

Schools Open Doors of Change

We determined that our Verbo churches would be known as centers for equipping God’s people—adults and children—to serve their communities by applying God’s wisdom to every sphere of human endeavor.

The Message Bible puts it this way in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."

Medical Program Opens Soon

That mandate has grown to include grade and high schools in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Ecuador, plus the government-accredited Panamerican University that is continually expanding into new areas of community service—for example a basic medical program that will start in January, 2010. The faculties include Business Administration, Communication Sciences, Law, Education and Theology.

We’re also preparing youth through the Destiny  Internship that began in Guatemala City this year. Young people who want to be disciples and develop basic leadership and spiritual  skills from Bible interpretation to community service can join the one- or two-year residence program. Our emphasis is youthful leaders, not youth leaders.

Poor Children Find Help

For those children who are unable to attend our schools in several communities where we have churches but no educational facilities we have either started tutoring and lunch programs or entered into working agreements.       

with Compassion International and other organizations that provide assistance for poor children’s health and education in the Third World.

Also, because Christians need to reenter the political  and economic spheres in a Biblical way, Verbo established in Guatemala City our first “Business Leadership School.” Strategic Christian Services of Santa Rosa, California, designed the course and prepared the first director and teachers.

The school teaches businessmen, professionals and university students how to apply the realities of the Kingdom of God to their areas of activity, and thus become positive agents of change for good in the society.

One result of these multi-leveled investments in education  is that  after  30 years of applying  Bible principles in our educational systems we are seeing our graduates in the professional and governmental areas applying a godly understanding to the marketplace and politics. Because of the pervasive corruption, criminal impunity and exploitive economic systems in many countries where we serve, the inroads have not been great, but the thousand-mile journey begins with one step!

GOLDEN RULE DAYS—Students at the Verbo Monterrey, Mexico, school  receive a high quality education reinforced with Christian principles.

A CHANCE TO LEARN—Poor children receive excellent tutorial help through a teaching program at the Quito, Ecuador, Verbo Norte church.

ADULT EDUCATION—An annual teaching conference at Verbo Coban, Guatemala, equips the saints for their work of service to God and man.

SUNDAY LEARNING—In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as in the rest of the Verbo Church world, the kids learn practical Bible principles, not just Bible stories.

Orphanage Celebrates 25th Anniversary

The Casa Bernabé Orphanage outside of Guatemala City celebrated its 25th anniversary in late November with a gala event that included skits, ballet, music by the children, and the recognition of those who have served the outreach in one way or another.

      Since its inception the orphange has helped hundreds of children find Christian adoptive parents. Many other youngsters, either unadoptable or mandated to the home by the juvenile court system because of abusive home siutations, abandonment, or worse, have found a home where they are tenderly cared for.

Over 1,400 babies and juveniles have benefitted from the facilities. Now almost 170 are in residence. The home provides spiritual and academic education though its on-site Verbo church and grade and high schools.

Local law requires that the children leave at age 18, but thanks to donors and scholarships some who want to pursue advanced studies can make arrangements to continue at the orphanage as part-time workers while attending classes.

The Guatemalan government has cited Casa Bernabé as one of the best-run children’s homes in the nation and a model facility for at-risk youngsters.

In the future the orphanage plans expansion to other communities. For more information contact its website at: http://www.foce.org/

REALLY SAVE THE CHILDREN!—Pedro and Donnie Hernandez (right) have guided Casa Bernabé since the mid-90’s when they took a floundering institution and turned it into a model of godly care for orphans and at-risk children. The children live in family units with house parents overseeing their wellbeing instead of in an impersonal dormitory system as in most orphanages. A Christian school is on the grounds.

      New homes for active growing congregations—that’s the good  news for three of the Verbo churches in Brazil. In the last few weeks Verbo Jacarepagua in Rio de Janeiro and Verbo Alfaville in São Paulo inaugurated new installations to accommodate numerical growth and to better serve the needs of members and visitors with amenities like ample and safe parking (always a plus in Brazil), expanded Sunday school and kitchen facilities, and even a swimming pool.

New homes for active growing congregations—that’s the good  news for three of the Verbo churches in Brazil. In the last few weeks Verbo Jacarepagua in Rio de Janeiro and Verbo Alfaville in São Paulo inaugurated new installations to accommodate numerical growth and to better serve the needs of members and visitors with amenities like ample and safe parking (always a plus in Brazil), expanded Sunday school and kitchen facilities, and even a swimming pool.

Building Project Will Start Soon{mosimage}

Meanwhile, after years of negotiating with the city government over permits, the main Rio de Janeiro church now has the go-ahead to build a church and school complex within walking distance of an Atlantic Ocean beach on the city’s growing south side.

Sergio Coutinho, presiding elder of the Verbo Ilha de Guaratiba (a congregation on the outskirts of Rio) and coordinator for the Rio congregations said growth has accelerated since the ministry began emphasizing prayer, especially for healing and the miraculous. “We are showing our people how to pray effectively for people’s needs and for the sick no matter where they find them: On the street, in stores, in church, on the beach. They are learning to express God’s love and power at all times and in all circumstances,” he said.  

Prayer Is Priority{mosimage}

Their commitment to a culture of prayer and the manifestation of spiritual gifts in all the members is so great that all the ordained Verbo pastoral staff traveled to Ecuador recently for a week-long seminar and practice time on the prophetic and healing ministries sponsored by Verbo in Quito. Others traveled to Guatemala last year for a similar conference.

“All this has to do with our main theme, which is to show the world that the Kingdom of God is here now, and that Christians can and must make a difference in every area of  human activity. We’re committed to prayer, but we’re also committed to other outreaches,” Sergio added.

{mosimage}Book Teaches Business Principles

“We just sent the Portuguese version of Doing Business God’s Way, by Dennis Peacocke of Strategic Christian Services, to the publisher and are preparing his course on business and finances to train businessmen and professionals about how to apply Biblical economic principles in their businesses and in the public arena.”

A third major area is education. Brazil, once heavily influenced by Catholic and Afro-Brazilian spiritist cultures, is becoming increasingly secular and humanist. Moral and ethical values have become highly relative. Drug use and sexual promiscuity are commonplace. Verbo is investing as much as possible in Sunday School facilities, materials and teacher training in order to provide badly-needed Christian instruction to as many children as possible.

Sunday Schools Get a Boost{mosimage}

      “Developing good Sunday schools is the first step,” Sergio says. “We hope that the programs in our various churches will then be springboards for preschools and finally a grade and high school system like our churches in Central America have. The building we’re about to construct in Rio de Janeiro is actually a school building with an auditorium that will serve as the church meeting hall.”

In Sergio’s church the concept of education took a different twist when one of the ministers, Bruno Barros opened a Christian kung fu academy. Bruno  earned black belt instructor’s status in China, turned the ancient kung fu philosophical base into a set of practical biblical principles that he teaches his classes  as an evangelism tool and as a way to train young people in godly disciplines and values. The church has grown as the students’ parents have joined the congregation after seeing their offspring's’ positive changes.

{mosimage} {mosimage}

Your Involvement Is

Eternally Important!

     We in Verbo Ministries represent a family of churches that believes in worldwide evangelism, the spiritual and functional unity of the Body of Christ, and the personal holiness of its members.We have established churches in 13 nations and are dedicated to preaching the Gospel and training men and women in Christian discipleship.We take to heart the statement in the Epistle of James 2:17, “Faith that doesn’t lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead!” For this reason we have established schools, health clinics, and food distribution, vocational training, and other programs for the poor. We undertake emergency relief work whenever possible. We welcome partnerships with thosewho want to promote the Kingdom of God in all its aspects. We respond to all inquiries at our website, www.verbo.org

 Tax deductible receipts are  issued for all contributions.

Editor’s note: Jim and Mary DeGolyer are part of Verbo’s founding team. After serving in Guatemala for almost eight years, they went to Quito, Ecuador in 1984, where they were instrumental in bringing revival, healings and growth into the ministry. They now live in Guayquil, but travel extensively in Ecuador and internationally, equipping the saints particularly in the area of intimacy with God and the exercise of spiritual gifts related to prophecy and healing.

 by Jim DeGolyer

        Times of spiritual growth and revival are sweeping through the Verbo churches in Ecuador!

In just the capital city of Quito there are now five congregations. Verbo Kennedy (named for its neighborhood )  just started a third Sunday meeting to accommodate the influx of new Christians.

Verbo Norte holds four meetings every Sunday to accommodate the 1,500 attendees, with 10 to 20 coming into a relationship with Jesus every week. This congregation sponsors the Moses Project—a tutoring program for school children from distressed and impoverished situations.

Verbo’s Largest Church Is in Quito

The largest of the Quito fellowships—and the largest of the Verbo churches anywhere in the world—with over 2,500 members is Verbo Sur, which is now considering the establishment of a new congregation to serve the burgeoning populations in the city’s far southern suburbs.

        Churches are also springing up in the countryside. In the petroleum boom town of Lago Agrio in the Amazon jungle—noted for its violence and ongoing pollution from the foreign and domestic oil producers—the Verbo congregation is around 250 people.

Mission Reaches Indians

        There is a new outreach in Santo Domingo de los Colorados, a large town in the foothills of the Andes Mountains and  the home of the Tsáchila Indians, a tribe whose men shave the sides of their heads and shape the remaining hair into cap-like form with a grease mixture dyed bright red.

The churches in El Oro Province, in Machala, Pasaje and El Guavo work well together. They have begun an outreach in Santa Rosa, a town on the way to the Peruvian border. This is a main banana producing area.

Guayaquil Is Home to Two Verbo Churches

The congregation in Loja, a mountain town on the road to the Peruvian border, also is growing quickly and has three meetings on Sundays and running out of space. They will soon have to build a meeting hall.

In the largest city in the country, the steamy Pacific coast port of Guayaquil, the Verbo Norte congregation has grown so much that it started a second Sunday meeting and ordained three new elders (pastors).

        Verbo Sur, the original and largest of the ministry’s churches in the area, just ordained four new elders to help care for its 900-and-growing members. They just moved into facilities that are being remodeled as part of a larger ministry complex.

FM Station Proves Popular

        But the most active of all the Verbo Ecuadorian churches in terms of outreach is the main congregation in Cuenca, a major market town and cultural center nestled in a 9,000-feet-high valley in the southern mountains. The mother church of about 1,500 people planted one congregation on the opposite side of the city (now with 150 members) and a satellite congregation in a neighboring town.

Their FM radio station broadcasts music and Christian programs to the area. One of the most-listened-to programs on any radio station in the area is “What the Bible Says.” Various ministers and Christian leaders speak on biblical applications to contemporary practical themes such as child rearing, marriage, drug abuse, character improvement, civic responsibility, etc.

        The ministry’s medical foundation, Fundación Hogar (the Home Foundation), continues to grow, providing low cost care and surgeries for those in need. The latest outreach is a home for at-risk children whom the local authorities remove from their parents for reasons of mistreatment, abandonment, or dangerous living conditions.        

Finally, in Cuenca (as in much of Ecuador) a revival is going on. On a recent Sunday morning 30 people accepted Christ. Healings happen regularly. A lady who was very sick with anemia because of kidney problems was completely healed. Her doctor certified the healing but he had no explanation of how her medical tests changed so positively so fast.

These are just a few examples of what God is doing day after day, all over Ecuador, in the Verbo churches. I give Him all the praise for His grace and love!

Editor’s note: Verbo Spain began in 2002 when ordained evangelist Edgar Monterroso and his family moved to Madrid with the double purpose of working with the Guatemalan diplomatic mission and establishing the first Verbo congregation in Europe. The idea was to form a beachhead in Spain, which is a crossroads for both Europeans and North Africans, as well as a continuing socio-political force in Latin America.

Today the congregation is a blend of people of different ages and nationalities, especially immigrants from South America and a solid number of recently converted Spaniards. In a nation in which less than a half of one percent of the population is a born again Christian, Verbo’s growth to 80 personas in a short time is extremely encouraging, reflecting Edgar’s and his wife, Rosita’s, evangelistic anointing and bilingual and multicultural abilities.

By Edgar Monterroso

One Saturday earlier this year a middle-aged man—whiskey glass in hand--walked into the Madrid, Spain, Verbo church curious to know what was going on. A couple from our youth group kindly explained who we were and that we were having a youth meeting and offered to pray for him.

A few of the other young people thought it would be better, given the man’s tipsy condition, to share the Gospel with him later on when he wasn’t drinking. But for God, anytime is the right time. The man was so touched by the prayer and attention that he invited the young people to his apartment to continue praying.

      That’s how taxi driver Manuel Martinez started his walk with Jesus. The next morning he attended our Sunday worship meeting. We learned that he was profoundly wounded by the blows the world given him as a consequence of his sinful ways. Manuel found hope and love that morning and has become one of our most faithful members. {mosimage}

He’s on the Team Now

He’s an enthusiastic collaborator with a great desire to learn, who recently told the congregation, “You all knew me as the neighbor on the third floor, but from now on I want all you to know me as your brother in the faith.”

Today Manuel is strongly and positively impacting those who knew him before because of his new godly lifestyle. They see the strong contrast between his new  lifestyle and his old reputation as his family’s black sheep.

We thank God for the extraordinary work he is doing in Manuel’s  and many other Spaniards’ hearts as they draw into a personal knowledge of, and relationship with, a living and present Jesus.

{mosimage}Since its inception in 1980 Verbo Nicaragua has been the ministry’s showcase for effective outreach to the poor and needy.  Under the direction of national director Bob and Myra Trolese the original church in the capital city of Managua has grown to a family of 15 churches in the principle geographic sectors of the nation.

Orphanages Serve 150  Kids

These churches are now organizing their own social works and  outreaches to the surrounding communities.

Orphanages now care for children in two locations—85 of them in Puerto Cabezas on the Caribbean coast and 65 in Vera Cruz near the capital. In Vera Cruz there are separate homes for teenage girls, boys, and younger children.

In Puerto Cabezas, Earl Bowie, the director of Verbo’s work on the north Caribbean coast and along the Honduran border, just opened a “transition house” for teenaged boys from the orphanage or from very poor circumstances in the countryside who have graduated from high school and who are ready for college or the work world.

Halfway House Opens Soon

A similar house is about to start inside the church complex in Managua. Bob Trolese noted that young men leaving the orphanage without the benefit of family support had a very difficult time adapting to the work-a-day world. The “transition houses” will help them get established in a safe, supportive environment. Similar projects eventually will take care of young women’s needs.

  Indians Get Spiritual Care

{mosimage}Earl—fluent in Miskito, Spanish and English—also oversees four Miskito Indian congregations and a school on the remote Coco River, plus his home church and a couple of other congregations, two more schools, a restaurant and various social outreaches. 

On the south Caribbean coast Ed and Ligia Jaentschke provide spiritual covering for their home church in Bluefield's, several more congregations, some several hours away and only reachable by boat, and a school of almost 500 students.

Churches Are Far-flung

{mosimage}Other Verbo congregations are scattered from the far north to the far south of this largest country in Central America. Bob says, “Because of the distance and geographical diversity among our churches it’s very difficult to bring all of our leaders together enough to share from both our victories and failures and to learn from one another.

“However, we make the effort to be together because fellowship leads to friendship, the building block for the Kingdom.”

One of the major factors that has helped spiritually equip the growing corps of ministers is the Verbo Bible Institute, which operates out of the main church in Managua. Dr. Artie Hall, a theologian with ample seminary and university teaching experience, heads the institute.

“Hunger to delve deeper into the Lord’s heart is—almost supernaturally—seeding into the Verbo churches. The Bible Institute plays a role in this. The ancient Hebrew combination of faith and works, is our hope, that all might see and hear the Gospel.

Agricultural Projects Help the Country’s Youth

{mosimage}The “works” part of this equation includes agricultural enterprises. Nicaragua is a fertile land and once—before revolutions and wars—was known as the bread basket of Central America.

“We’re working on agricultural projects, both as a discipleship tool and as a response to economic downturns,” Bob explained. “Training young people to grow profitable 'nitch' exportable crops seems to be an answer to that unemployed aimless state that opens up so many youths to sinful conduct that ruins their future.”

Finally, within a few months Bob and other established church leaders  will ordain a new group of elders and fivefold ministers, a certain sign that Verbo Nicaragua will continue to grow strongly.

After 12 years as Verbo’s international director, James Jankowiak resigned the post at the end of 2010. He continues his functions as a member of the International and Central American councils and as coordinator for the churches in Brazil and Spain from his home in Guatemala City. He was not replaced, but rather the nine-member International Council will work on a consensus basis with a rotating coordinator.

      James explained, “I feel that God is guiding us into new, more dynamic and relational leadership based more on apostolic and other fivefold gifts rather than on national hierarchies. God's boundaries and spheres of responsibility are different from national frontiers.”

In January, the international ministry recognized Ecuadorian Diego Espinoza as a fivefold prophet. Diego oversees the churches in Quito. John Guido, founder of Verbo Cuenca, Ecuador, was recognized as an apostle. Bob Capaldi, Verbo’s South America director, also was recognized as an apostle. In the coming months other fivefold ministers will receive official recognition in Central and North America.

After 12 years as Verbo’s international director, James Jankowiak resigned the post at the end of 2010. He continues his functions as a member of the International and Central American councils and as coordinator for the churches in Brazil and Spain from his home in Guatemala City. He was not replaced, but rather the nine-member International Council will work on a consensus basis with a rotating coordinator.

      James explained, “I feel that God is guiding us into new, more dynamic and relational leadership based more on apostolic and other fivefold gifts rather than on national hierarchies. God's boundaries and spheres of responsibility are different from national frontiers.”

In January, the international ministry recognized Ecuadorian Diego Espinoza as a fivefold prophet. Diego oversees the churches in Quito. John Guido, founder of Verbo Cuenca, Ecuador, was recognized as an apostle. Bob Capaldi, Verbo’s South America director, also was recognized as an apostle. In the coming months other fivefold ministers will receive official recognition in Central and North America.

{mosimage} 

Verbo Nicaragua took a giant step forward in its work of preparing true Christian disciples for their work of service to the world and the Church when ministry leaders from around Central America convened to name almost 70 new church workers, including apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers at a gala massive national event in Managua recently.

Bob Trolese, who with his wife, Myra, and a team of young Guatemalans founded the Nicaragua mission in 1980, hosted the event at which he was named an apostle according to Verbo’s understanding of Ephesians 4:8-16. Under Bob’s care, the original church has blossomed into 16 congregations throughout the country, plus schools, orphanages, agricultural outreaches and social services.

{mosimage} After many years of not recognizing elders, deacons or five-fold ministers among our churches, there was a palpable excitement among the two thousand faithful who came from all over the nation to celebrate the fact that God was raising up a new generation of spiritual servants among us.

We experienced a tremendously recognizable blessing that seemed to profoundly touch everyone.  We had a beautifully broad representation from all the Nicaraguan Verbo churches, even including the naming of an elder from our largest of five churches on the Rio Coco, bordering Honduras. It took the people from this Miskito Indian church almost two days to travel by boat and bus to the capital city of Managua.   We spent months in preparation, not only at the site of the celebration, but in the countless hours we spent considering the men and women to be ordained as elders, deacons, and five-fold ministers.  Then, with broader counsel from among Verbo leaders outside the nation, we reevaluated the candidates to arrive at the final list. Perhaps one of the highlights is that there are many other men and women who, though they weren’t recognized at this point, are still growing in godliness and service and many of them will eventually be publically recognized.

{mosimage} Five of our presiding elders, Jose Tellez of Posoltega (11 years as the principal elder); Sergio Torrez of Rio Blanco (5 years); Hayler Rodriguez of Managua Verbo Sur (13 years); Berman Vallerio of Managua Nueva Vida (10 years); and Marlon Cabrera of Verbo Central Managua (5 years as youth leader) were recognized as pastors. Marlon was already an elder in charge of our Managua youth groups before his recognition as a pastor.  At 31 year old, he is our youngest fivefold pastor.  Both his acceptance by the membership and his undeniably crucial assistance to Ricardo Hernandez, who oversees the main Managua church, are evidence that our churches have a lovely and very formal tie with our vision for the importance we feel towards promoting the nation’s youth.

Two other presiding elders, Oscar Aguilar of Somoto (4 years) and Ed Jaentschke of Bluefields (22 years, and previously recognized as a pastor) were recognized as evangelists. Dr. Arturo Hall, director of our Bible Institute (4 years) was recognized as a five-fold teacher. Ricardo Hernandez, who  leads the 1,300-member Managua Verbo Central congregation received our blessing as a prophet. Presiding elder Earl Bowie of Puerto Cabezas (19 years) and I were named apostles. Under Earl’s care, the original church on the Atlantic Coast has expanded to included two schools, an orphanage, a restaurant, a home for young adults who are studying or working in the area, and a growing family of churches, social outreaches and schools in nearby rural areas and along the Coco River—sure signs of his apostolic anointing.

{mosimage}Releasing two men into the role as recognized evangelists is part of our commitment to more widely awaken this Biblical mandate in all of our churches. The age range here is most intriguing. Ed Jaentschke. is 51. Oscar Aguilar is 26.  Dr. Hall is widely recognized in the wider Body of Christ for his scholarly achievements and the desire of his heart to prepare men and women for ministry. The most thought-provoking ordination was that of Ricardo Hernandez as a prophet.  All the presiding elders, after much prayer and consideration, affirmed him in this very serious role in the Body of Christ. He is only the second prophet recognized in Verbo’s 35-year history in Latin America.

Our common understanding, with the additional 50 men and women now ordained as elders, deacons and deaconesses, is the absolutely necessary heart of service that must underlay all of our activities.  We also confirmed our traditional position that all churches must be actually governed by a council (board) of elders. In our particular case all the men ordained to five-fold responsibilities in our churches also serve as presiding elders, except for Dr. Hall who oversees the Bible Institute and me (my functions include general oversight of the Nicaragua churches and work on the Verbo regional and international councils). However, we are both honored to sit on the elder’s council of the central church in Managua.

{mosimage} The fact that we now have an active representation of all five of the Ephesians Chapter 4 gifts in our churches is a blessing for our body life in Nicaragua and, we trust, in the entire body of Verbo Christian Ministries. Just as the members of the Body of Christ are called to relate interdependently, these five gifts are meant to compliment one another. This is different from the current rather erroneous conclusion that there is some sort of positional ranking of authority with apostles at the top of the pyramid--rather than a simple recognition of diverse functions. The elders are meant to govern the local church. Fivefold gifts may or may not be included in such governing, depending on circumstances, the primary one being their actual opportunity to work significantly among local church members.

In the Epistle of Ephesians we find in verse 11 that, “He Himself [Jesus] gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ…” The word, “equipping,” in this case actually has a closer relationship to the original Greek of  “repairing,” rather than “prepare,” “equip,” or “train.” The original Greek idea was taken from the concept of mending fishing nets.  Since the perfect Church doesn’t actually exist at this moment, the fivefold gifts might be better understood as simply a means of equipping or ‘repairing’ people in very specific areas where they have needs, so that that might work more effectively in their gifts and callings. This is in contrast to trying to fit the fivefold ministers into the broader nature of actual church government when they might not be necessarily gifted in that type of leadership.

 {mosimage} We trust that with the recognition of pastors, we will balance Verbo’s normally strong emphasis on teaching. The pastors will encourage all of us to pay attention to the integrated healing of the emotional and psychological wounds that can so easily and hamper the lives and labors of our people.  The combination of powerful pastoral sensitivity and personal discernment and insightfulness into people’s problems will help our people to much more fully discover their unique callings and areas of service within the church itself and into the surrounding community, and enable them to express those giftings in a free way.

 {mosimage}In relation to the prophetic: A distinctive prophetic call birthed Verbo 35 years ago. I believe it is now coming strongly back into our ministry.  In the past—perhaps for lack or understanding of feelings of mistrust—Verbo limited the prophetic mantle almost to the point of removing its actual foundational call within our ministry. Our timidity in the prophetic area and distasteful experiences within some previous fivefold recognitions have curtailed the enormous effect it is meant to release among us.

The Church was meant by God to be a prophetic movement with a relevant message to the nations.  Prophets reveal God’s will in heaven for his Kingdom on earth. Unfortunately Christians have reduced this role to preaching within the comfort and protection with in the four walls of their buildings.  Another part of the prophet’s job is to identify and announce the direction and walk the Lord is delineating for individual churches.  We feel that Ricardo Hernandez will be of much more use to the Body in this function. We also feel he has the ability to greatly assist in the identification and raising up of others with similar callings.

Finally, our recognition celebration seemed to grow far beyond our broadest, and deepest, expectations.  It felt as if a genuinely Divine approval was being stamped on us.  I felt the experience was remarkably similar to our very immature feelings of guidance and assurance as the original Verbo team journeyed to Guatemala in 1976 as a divine response to the needs of a nation destroyed by a massive earthquake. Perhaps now--because of our endurance through many radical ups and downs over these last years--the God of heaven and earth is entrusting us with a much deeper understanding of His love and mode of adornment  of The Bride of His Son.

 {mosimage}

Back in 1979 the leaders of the original Verbo Church in Guatemala City voiced their concern about the fact that while we believed and taught the absolute necessity of following God’s plan for our lives as disciples, we were sending our children to secular schools where many of the moral, ethical and even scientific values being taught were contrary to our understanding of God’s Word.

{mosimage}

The Team Takes Action
We had had this discussion many times before but this time we decided to do something: Within a few months we started a school with about 70 grade school students and a former  Undersecretary of the Guatemala Department of Education as principal.  

We eventually settled on a curriculum based on the seven major Bible principles  of sowing and reaping, form and power, Christian character,  stewardship, unity and union, individuality, self-government. The response from parents from various churches was so strong that within three years the Verbo School was serving children from kindergarten through high school. Each year the congregation, parents of students, and donors committed to Christian education raised the money to pay the very high initial costs of starting such a broad outreach.

{mosimage}

Educational System Grows
That first school was the foundation for what is now an educational system that reaches thousands of students from pre-kinder through high school vocational training, plus a university with over 13 thousand students in over 70 facilities—and that’s just in Guatemala. There are Verbo schools in Mexico, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and soon in Brazil.  

In November, high school science students from one of the Guatemalan Verbo schools achieved a fourth place victory in an international robotics competition in Orlando, Florida, that included student teams from  First World countries like Germany, Japan and the United States.  Verbo’s commitment is to prepare children to bring the Kingdom of God to every human discipline,—and to do it well.

{mosimage}The Reformers Knew It
Over time we realized (as did the Protestant Reformers long before us) that education is really power in the corridors of government, in the business world and among the professions so we worked for several years to finally launch a accredited university whose required core curriculum includes those seven major principles and also a set of Bible-based lifestyle values. Our goal is to transform individuals who will then transform nations.

I’d like to think that these core values teachings are what has drawn so many students to the Universidad Panamericana (Panamerican University) but the fact is that the genius of its rapid and solid growth is based on a vision to make a university education accessible to the rural and small town dwellers in developing countries where generally less than two or three percent of the population has a college degree.

Indians Need Access
Most universities in Latin America are situated in the largest cities and are the domain of the affluent minority. The rural poor—and especially the Indian majorities in nations like Guatemala, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru—are economically excluded.  Verbo’s Panamerican University doesn’t require students to come to a big campus in a major town. Instead the college goes to small towns anywhere there were sufficient students to start classes in a specific discipline. The school might offer only one major in a small town, with some classes taught in person by instructors and other classes taught over the internet on a personal basis.

{mosimage}Some Classes Are Virtual
For example, a professor in the capital who can’t visit a particular small town where there are students, sets up a virtual class. The pupils—with their coordinator—go to class as usual. They see and hear the  professor on the screen. The professor sees and hears them and they are able to interact. This plan allows the Panamericana to provide high quality professors and education in areas where otherwise it would economically impossible to sustain faculty members.

Classes Foster Changes
Because of this and other innovations many Indian groups and campesinos now have direct access to a university education with tuition fees within their means. Over time, as these people prosper and enter the civic arena, they will change the entire structure of the country, starting with bringing prosperity to the rural areas instead of only concentrating wealth and opportunity in the urban centers.

{mosimage}Our hope is that they do so with Jesus in their hearts, and if not that, with solid Judeo-Christian moral and ethical values as a compass for guiding their decisions.

Our biggest need at the moment is not for land or buildings. The Lord has blessed richly us in that sense. What Verbo schools and the university need are people willing to be scholarship donors for promising children from rural and urban families who—without help—may not make it beyond third or fourth grade, which is unfortunately the norm for the disadvantaged.
Please help us help them as you help make real the words of Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.” 

Jim (James Avery) DeGolyer, one of the founders of Verbo Ministries, died in the early morning of July 6 at his family’s farm in Castile, New York, USA.  His wife, Mary, one of his brothers and an uncle were with him when he peacefully entered the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jim was well known as an outstanding leader for his ability to teach and model both an intimate relationship with God and the operation of spiritual gifts. He was particularly adept at helping young Christians learn the basics of godly living and spiritual expression.

He died a day after arriving at the farm where he had spent his childhood. His plan was to spend a vacation time with his relatives before returning to his responsibilities with the Verbo churches in Cuenca, Ecuador.

Jim was born in Castile, New York in 1943 and spent his youth on his parents’ dairy farm.  When he was 16 he went to Quito, Ecuador, as an exchange student.  This experience awakened him to a love for the culture and people of Latin America.

After graduating from Cornell University in New York State with a degree in Agricultural Economics and Latin American Studies, he worked as a secondary school teacher until moving to California, where in 1972 had a personal encounter with Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

He subsequently joined a Christian movement called Gospel Outreach. At the group’s training center he met his wife, Mary Hanson, who was member of the same church.  They married in January, 1973. They are the parents of four children and grandparents of six grandchildren. In January, 1975, Jim was recognized as an Elder in the Eureka, California, Gospel Outreach Church.

When an extremely destructive earthquake shook Guatemala in February, 1976, the DeGolyers joined a missionary group of 13 adults and six children that moved to that Central American nation with a dual mission:  Help rebuild homes and infrastructure and establish a church.  The DeGolyers were part of the leadership team that established the first Verbo Church in Guatemala City and helped preside over its expansion into an international ministry of churches, schools and social works projects.  For a time Jim served as the church’s presiding elder. For many years he was also a member of the Verbo International Ministries governing council.  he DeGolyers and their four children moved to Quito, Ecuador in 1985 to help establish the foundations of the first Verbo Church of South America. At the time of their arrival the congregation had only 65 members.  With Jim´s pastoral and teaching gifts as well as his ability of moving in the supernatural atmosphere, the church began to grow quickly. Today there are several churches with over 1,000 members among the nearly 30 in the nation. During the 19 years they served in Quito, the DeGolyers personally participated in establishing several of outreaches.  In addition, Jim served as National Director of Verbo Ministries in Ecuador for a time.

After their service to the Verbo Quito churches, Jim and Mary spent six years ministering with the ministry’s Guayaquil churches before moving to Cuenca less than two years ago to work with the Verbo Ministerial Institute and to pursue their national and international spiritual responsibilities.

In May, Jim was honored at a public ceremony in Cuenca, Ecuador, with the academic degree of Doctor in Education (honoris causa) by the Universidad Panamericana of Guatemala his contribution to education based on Judeo-Christian principles and values in Central America and other Hispanic regions. 

Memorial services were held in his honor both in at his family’s farm in Castile, New York, and at the main Verbo church in Cuenca, Ecuador.

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake that rocked southwestern Guatemala in November left almost 50 people dead and ruined 9,000 dwellings, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless or living in precarious conditions. Aftershocksnearly 200 of them now—continue. International and national agencies quickly provided emergency food, clothes, bedding and medical aid, but the ongoing rebuilding will take months—if not years—now that these first response groups are gone.

The Verbo congregation in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, is celebrating its 20th anniversary year with a renewed commitment to evangelism and social service, presiding elder José Muñoz reported during the festivities.

“We are certain that God has guided us into using some distinct means to reach these aims: A very strong emphasis on marriage and family relations, social work, and our ministry equipping school for training believers for the work of ministry,” he added.

“I’m particularly pleased with the work our congregation is doing with persons in needy situations because young people are spearheading this work.

“We’re ministering to children and adolescents in high risk social situations and also to the elderly who live in old people’s homes, often with little more than basic care. The leader of the work among the children is Nicole Bravo, a young woman who grew up in the congregation and who took on the challenge to glorify God by ministering to people’s basic need for physical care and for times of joy and hope in their lives.

”Nicole, who is fluent in Spanish and English, and who has ministered to youth as far away as Germany, orients her life to glorifying God by helping the people his Son Jesus died to save. She says,

“What is social concern to the people in this world is--in my heart--a call to serve. When I see the plight of orphans, the poor, the alienated rich, the a- bused teenagers, the uncared-for elderly, I feel a responsibility to share Christ’s love with them. Sometimes we’re able to feed and clothe them, but sometimes what they need is a smile, a hug, a prayer or just the assurance that somebody remembers and cares for them.”

Along these latter lines Verbo San Pedro Sula has taken up the challenge to live out Jesus’ command to heal the sick and broken-hearted. Various members have attended conferences on operating in the spiritual gifts and praying for the sick.

They, in turn, are teaching the other members of the church to reach out with faith and courage to those outside the church, following the Lord’s example of Acts 10:38, “…He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

God has good news for you and me!  He wants us to experience complete prosperity in our lives: to enjoy good health, emotional well-being, peace of mind, and a level of financial success that gives us freedom from the fears of old age and death. Read on...

Fortaleza, in the state of Ceará, Brazil, is the home of Verbo’s newest mission. After a year of preparation Yure and Karyne Sabino from São Paulo’s Morumbí congregation inaugurated the new work with a concert, a seminar, and a Christian businessmen’s training course during the first week of August. The new congregation is Verbo’s sixth in Brazil and will serve as an evangelistic base for establishing outreaches throughout the nation’s Northeast.

Concerning the founding of the new congregation, Yure relates, “Three years ago my wife and I moved to São Paulo from our hometown of Fortaleza to open up new sales territory in the south and southeast of Brazil for the software company in which I am now a junior partner. Some friends told us about Verbo so we made a visit. We identified immediately with the clear and simple way that the leaders expressed the Gospel, the lifestyle of the members and the practical demonstration of God’s power.

“We soon joined in the ministry’s work, opening a church in the home in our house and eventually taking on the task of helping the leaders in their discipleship work.

“Then, about a year ago, my mother-in-law had a prophetic vision that Karyne and I would return to Fortaleza, which is three hours by jet plane from São Paulo, to start a new Verbo church. At first we didn’t take the vision seriously. We had no intentions of returning to the Northeast.  Later our presiding elder, José Carlos Sampaio, received a vision similar to my mother-in-law’s. We concluded that God was leading us to return and began preparing to assume the responsibilities of starting a mission. We arrived in Fortaleza at the beginning of June and initiated meetings in an auditorium.”

The official inauguration started on the first Friday night of August when the São Paulo Verbo worship band presented its latest praise album in a concert at a local university to a crowd of mostly young people. The festivities continued on Saturday with the opening of the Strategic Christian Services School of Business, making Brazil the third country in the Verbo family (after Guatemala and Mexico) to offer advanced Christian business management training to professionals and business owners. Sergio Coutinho, who coordinates the three churches of Verbo Rio de Janeiro and the Business School was on hand to give the first lesson along with Verbo Brazil national director Norberto Maresca of São Paulo and International Council member James Jankowiak of Guatemala City.

The visiting ministers concluded the official opening of the new work on Sunday with a day-long seminar focused on training new members to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially healing and prophecy. Almost 90 people attended the seminar, marking a strong beginning for this new congregation.

 “People began joining us as soon as we arrived in town. We have a nucleus of believers who are excited and ready to cooperate with God’s plans for Fortaleza,” Yure says. “Our goal is to edify lives through pastoring and discipleship and to make new leaders (following the words of José Carlos, ‘to make war horses out of sheep’).”

“We realize that to accomplish this objective we will need to help each new member learn to live and breathe the life of Jesus so that they will be testimonies to others, which, of course, is a very impactful type of evangelism,” Yure observes. 

By Bob Trolese

This past weekend we had our third Nueva Mujer women’s retreat.  Nueva Mujer, our women’s ministry organizes a retreat every two years.  Every time it seems to be getting better and better.  Myra and the other coordinators of the women’s ministry have been working very tirelessly this past year getting everything ready and you could tell by the quality of the conference.  The past few months there have been fund raisers, food sales and other events to raise money to send as many ladies to the conference.  The avocado tree in our yard has even helped out.  The avocado tree produces more than we can eat.  We donated buckets full of avocados to a lady in the church who was able to sell them and helped three women go the conference.

The conference itself flowed smoothly without any glitches.   What a BLESSING!  One of the most exciting parts of the conference was seeing the young ladies really get involved and excited about the conference.  This year we had the most young women attend the conference and they added something extra something to make it a memorable conference.  There were also women who came from our Verbo churches around the country.  Our church in Puerto Cabezas sent over 50 ladies.  It was a great opportunity for ladies in different churches to get to know each other.

The speakers were absolutely awesome.  They came prepared with word that spoke into the lives of the women at the conference.  All the women left the conference very challenged.  We had our daughter Aimee as one of the speakers but also this year she came down with Idalid, her sister in-law from Mexico.  The each spoke spoke three times over the course of the weekend and you could tell they had done a lot of preparations for their messages.  Sunday afternoon was the final send off for the ladies.  Flowers were given to many of the key leaders and all the women received a special gift bag including a brand new Bible.

Now we’re looking forward to the following conference in 2015.