What Exactly Do You Do?

Most missionaries are asked that question often, but our favorite answer is a more ambiguous one. And, we like it that way. We show the love of God in a practical way to the people of this world. To some missionaries, a specific or “exactly” statement may mean they dig wells for villages without water. For others, it may mean they start or maintain an orphanage or food center. For many short-term mission projects, it usually entails some sort of construction project for a church, home, or school.

For April and me, it has meant one or all of the above at various seasons. However, to give a specific/exact answer: “We are teachers! We make disciples who can make other disciples.” Our goal is to always teach ourselves out of a job. Isn’t that the way Jesus did it? He trained disciples then left them to do their work. Even more specifically, I left Lee University as a professor of World Missions to help train mission students in the Latin world. The vision and call that God gave me years ago concerned the missionaries He was raising out of Latin America and other places that were former mission fields, but are now becoming the mission FORCE!

Now, I teach world mission seminars and intensive courses in our seminaries and schools scattered across South & Central America. My hope is that those students will join the missions program in Ecuador, or be a part of the newly created Latin Missionaries Sending Agency. The bigger picture is that each year we reproduce greater numbers of ourselves with disciples who can make other disciples. This exponentially changes the world faster than one gringo dropped off in the middle of the jungle. We can save 10 to 20 years of language training and cultural acceptance by sending Latin Americans to the remaining strongholds in South and Central America instead of an English speaking gringo. We are also finding that the acceptance for Latin Americans in Asian and Middle Eastern cultures may significantly speed our evangelistic efforts there. Even now, we have former students scattered across the globe sowing seeds in new fields -- multiplying our harvest!

Yes, from time to time God opens other doors, and I love going through them. Our favorite “extra” events came last summer with nearly 80 screaming Campus Choir members from Lee University, with New Hope’s youth group, and with the Bruce family, who gave puppet and children ministry seminars. (You can read about those events in some of our previous postings.) Typically, anything that can help promote Jesus is welcomed. However, we concentrate mainly on events that can help train and equip our mission and pastoral students for their fields and callings.

We are so thankful for the opportunity we have. We love each and every school and are always amazed at what they are able to do with so little. Part of the reason they are able to continue is through supported missionary teachers like April and me. We are NOT salaried, and receive NO reimbursement from the schools in which we teach. 100% of our funding comes from supporters like you who read our articles and posts. If you want to learn more about how to help sponsor our ministry and reach more than just one field with every seed you sow, please click here or you can call or e-mail us.

We are very thankful to play the role that God has chosen for us. We LOVE what we do. Thank you all for being a part of it.

--Matthew Jett

Tour of the Semisud Campus: just for FUN

I thought I'd give you a brief view of the Seminary in Ecuador. If this goes well, I'll post some photos of the other schools as well.

Left: One of my mission classes is taking a 5 minute break. aka: "I'm trying to regroup my Spanish thoughts!"

Right: Although we do have projectors and computers, sometimes a teacher just likes a good ol' white board & markers!



"Doot, Doot, Doot, looking out my back door!" This is the view from most of the class rooms in the new World Missions Building. If it wasn't too cold or too hot, I liked to teach with that huge window wide open! Oh wait, this was Ecuador where it is 70 degrees every single day of the year. So, I liked to teach with that thing open! You'll have to look at some other post about the country. One area where South and Central America does not lack is beautiful landscapes.



We also work with the local churches by offering training seminars, preaching, service projects, etc...





The following are some fun videos that will help give you an idea of what I think is one of the most beautiful campuses in the world. You may remember the WYEA and other projects that many of us supported to help construct some of the buildings you'll see. When I was first there 12 years ago, there were only 2 small shacks on campus. See how it's changed.


Kitchen, Dining Hall, & Dormitories

Administration Building

Library & Auditorium

Chapel

Student's Question

Garden steps from Dorms: the Dining Hall is on the left & Administration is on the right.
There are park benches, gardens, waterfalls, a sand-pit-volleyball court, and a soccer field scattered across the campus.

Another Ah Ha!

Have you ever had one of those…“This is what I’m meant to do with my life!” moments? For me, most of those moments come from the times I am either: singing praise, preaching, praying, or witnessing in some way. Several months ago, I wrote a blog about one of those moments. It concerned new converts, led by their pastor and former student from our seminary. I had the privilege of interpreting the recent training sessions for them, where my friend from the states taught them how to use puppets to preach the message of Jesus. I watched a few days later as years of my life paid off while they presented Jesus in a remote area to a people who had never heard the gospel. You can read about that by clicking here.

The most recent moment occurred recently during a 2-week intensive course that I was teaching in Spanish at one of our Seminaries in South America. The class was called “Contemporary Missiology,” and was attended by almost a dozen Master’s level South American graduates headed to the mission field. The moment was not a singular moment realized after the event had passed. Rather, it was a lingering joyful fulfillment that occurred every day during the course of that 2 week event and left me with a clear reflection to remember always.

With every day that I walked to the World Missions Complex from my room in the school’s dormitory, every time I stood up to teach, every answer uttered from my imperfect lips to every question falling on my fallible ears, God seemed to whisper the words spoken to Esther so long ago, “You were born for a time such as this!” Every experience/adventure, every move from yet another home, every foreign piece of food, every long and tiring journey through the night, every friend and family member left, every book read, every long and boring lecture I had endured through college then seminary, as well as the enjoyable ones…all of the task, troubles, trials, triumphs, and trophies were piled upon those moments for the following realization: This is That! That calling, that vision, that hope, that drawing and yearning that has been in my heart for so long. It IS being fulfilled right now…in THIS moment! I did NOT feel like I was in the wrong place. I was there because I belonged. I belonged not because of who I was, but because the GREAT I AM had been working for years to bring me to who I am now.

Every time I looked into the faces of those students about to sacrifice the rest of their lives for the same drawing and calling that I too have felt, it deepened my sense of belonging. The best thing was, I actually had answers for their questions. I actually had insights to their dilemmas, compassion for their sufferings, and hope for their concerns. It was flowing out of me with the same anointing God had poured during those moments of singing, preaching, witnessing, counseling, etc… I loved it! No, this was not even close to my first time to teach. Then why was it so special?

The vision that we have held in our hearts included one of those infamous “one day” statements. It was the reason we had made so many of those moves, spent so much time in preparation, given up so many “other” opportunities, and made so many sacrifices. The “one day” was to be a time when there was a dedicated Spanish missionary training facility, a dedicated Latin Missionary sending agency, and the need to teach intensive training sessions in all of the “networked” schools scattered across South and Central America. I hoped I would see that sooner than expected, but never dreamt it would be during the first decade of this millennium. This session was the first of what I always thought would be step Y or Z in the equation. Now, I have had to redefine step Y from the old track to step A in the new track. In many ways I feel like the training (though never over) has finally led us to the real or BIG race/course. The two facts put together is what overwhelms me. One, that it is already happening, and two, that I’m actually ready/equipped for it. He really has called us for a time such as NOW!

Yes, there is still a lot of work left for Him to complete, but don’t miss what I am saying. This was my pay-off moment. That moment that finally arrives when you open your eyes and look around and say, “It’s really finally happening.” Like a bride and groom trying to look around at the surreal scene before them in order not to let one of the greatest defining moments of their lives pass them by. This is what I have spent all of the time, money, emotions, relationships, and hope on for the past decade!

It may not mean as much to everyone else, but for me, it was a long time coming. The word that God had spoken to me when I felt compelled to leave my favorite University in the mountains of Tennessee to eventually call South America home, was finally and clearly being fulfilled. I left Lee because God had told me if I wanted to keep teaching the mission courses I was teaching, I’d better learn to do it in Spanish. He told me that He was making the former mission field into the Mission Force for this century!

I am so thankful to the godly men and women who share in this task. Part of the reason I have been overwhelmed in the past was that the task was so big. I have recently realized that when God is speaking to you, He most likely has been speaking to others. Yes, there is much work to be done, but God and godly men and women are working on that. I love watching His beautiful orchestration come together, and love serving whatever role I can. So many people have worked hard to get these programs and institutions rolling, and I am thankful to merely be a part of it!

Campus Choir With Us In Ecuador

I find it difficult to fully comprehend and to somehow map out on paper all that happened during Campus Choir’s tour with us in Ecuador. If I could remember all of the opened doors, the God-sent moments of ministry, and the opportunities to be the hand of God extended to a thirsty soul with a glass of water, I would still undoubtedly miss the many unseen miracles, untold testimonies, and supernatural provision that He placed in our way. However, this is my short attempt to give a glimpse of one of the most incredible ministry events that I have ever been a part of.

For some of you who don’t know, Lee University’s Campus Choir is now under the direction of Pastor Jimmy Phillips. I had the opportunity to get to be with the current choir and their new director briefly a year ago during C.C.’s Homecoming event at Lee. However, this tour was a great time for me to really get to know him and the new members of the choir. They are a great group of annointed young men and women with a terrific leader. Right before the tour, I shared with Pastor Jimmy some of the conversations Dr. David Horton (Doc) and I had prior to his untimely death in the Bahamas. Many of the choir members on this Ecuadorian tour were in the Bahamas for a tour that had much preparation, but not a single note sung. One of the girls spoke over the group about how this new tour was the fulfillment of all the preparation made for the Bahamas with Dr. Horton. I shared with Pastor Jimmy that Doc had told me of his great desire to move the choir into open doors beyond the church. He had been speaking for a while about re-digging the old wells (older church movements and organizations), and now he wanted to start singing in more secular universities and campuses, and bring the same anointed worship into places that were not “accustomed” to such. When I was first approached with the idea of a Campus Choir trip, I felt like God immediately gave me an itinerary…but I needed some favor! God gave me that favor, and Campus Choir had the privilege of singing in the Catholic Basilica, at the University of Quito (the largest University in Ecuador), over Latin America’s largest Christian radio station, the Semisud Seminary, and several Churches.

Let’s face it, there’s not a lot of love between the Catholic Church and the many Protestant Churches in South America. So, the fact that a Columbian priest of the highest ranked Catholic Church in Ecuador and in much of Latin America (The Basilica), gave us permission to give a concert in such a beautiful cathedral…still blows me away. I knew immediately that God was giving us tremendous favor. As breathtaking as the sounds of an 80 member Campus Choir souring through the 100 feet cathedral ceilings were, it was even more amazing when a 50 year old nun told me that “denomination did not matter!” What mattered was that “your kids obviously love our Lord and savior and we are so thankful to get to praise Him with you!” I guess when one of the girls took off dancing to the side in a place that perhaps doesn’t see a lot of that, they must not have minded it so much. It was obvious to all of us who stood in that placed warmed by the very presence of God’s Holy Spirit that light from God’s Son was shinning through those high and brilliantly colored stained glass windows…

The secular campus of Ecuador’s largest University was met with the same favor at first, but took a little turn toward spiritual warfare as the event drew near. We were not allowed to enter the facilities at first, but found favor at a different gate with a different guard. Then our instruments and sound equipment van was not allowed entrance. Then we were told we could not do it at all. It was about this time we began to pray. Eventually the write men showed up, God gave us favor, and we ended up having the event in the middle of the campus, open air style, with all of our instruments and equipment. I’m sure you could hear us for miles. It was right in the middle of the day with thousands of students coming and going. Several stopped to listen, join in, cry, and pray with us. We really do not know what God may have done that day!

Unfortunately, one exciting door was closed to us. I was upset at first, but later God did what only He can do. Another door opened for us to sing on Latin America’s largest radio broadcast. Located in Ecuador due to the Andes Mt. range, HCJB is played around the world in syndicate and live in almost every South American country. I even got do due a free 15 minute interview/ radio plug for our seminary and mission training. It was awesome! They may still be playing our tunes, have you been listening for it?

Time doesn’t really permit me to tell about the multiple clinics we ran every morning and the lives that were touched there, or about singing at the seminary, churches, downtown parks, etc… We really may not know the fullness of what transpired that week until we ask Jesus face to face.

I just want to thank Jimmy & Johnna Phillips, Jonathan Kerley and the other Doctors, nurses, assistants, choir members, leaders, and musicians who poured out of their hearts the love of God upon the people of Ecuador.

Thank you God for an Awesome time!

New Hope’s Youth Group in Ecuador

We had a great time hosting New Hope Church’s youth group from Texas. They showed the love of God to the people of Ecuador through different forms of service projects. They blessed some feeding centers, orphanages, churches, and got to see some different faces of Ecuador. To read more or watch their video, visit their website at: newhopeforever.com. I really look forward to seeing how many missionaries that trip produced!