Here it is November 2009! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. What a great year for missions at Hebron. God has blessed us with the best seat in the house to see Him do what only He can do, give abundant life. I am going to try to give you a kind of year in review even though we still have two months to go and many opportunities left this year to grow God's kingdom . I will also try and give you a little preview of what God has in store for us in 2010. God has empowered Hebron to go and has revealed to us where to go to share the greatest Truth known to us all, Jesus saves!
Hebron is an Acts 1:8 church. Jesus shares in that passage with his disciples two major keys to do His work. First off He is going to give His disciples the power it needs to do ministry. It is the same power at His disposal that He will give to His believers to witness. Then secondly where they are to use the power to expand the kingdom. He says in Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the "ends of the earth." Think about this for a moment. The disciple's home at that time was Jerusalem. It is were they lived, worked and played. Jesus also said for them to expand into the province of Judea to build the kingdom. Thirdly, he said for them to go to a place not many Jews would go, a culturally diverse place called Samaria. This was a place considered on the "other side of the tracks" to the Jews. Then in the same sentenced He told them to go to the "ends of the earth" and spread the gospel. Now these men didn't have a commercial jet plane to take them around the world. They didn't have a cruise ship to take them around to exotic places. But they did have the power that moves mountains!
We are commissioned to do the same work as the disciples were called to do. For we are disciples of Jesus Christ ourselves. Hebron is a New Testament church called to reproduce ourselves not just in our community but also to the "ends of the earth." We are called to witness in our community, state, North America, and to the "ends of the earth." Christ is giving the people of Hebron the same power He had to move mountains and the same power the disciples had to grow His Kingdom. Hebron, we have the power to go! And go we did in 2009! Lets take a look at where we've been and where we are going in the future.
Report for Ends of the Earth 2009 (for security, names and places may be abbreviated)
East Asia 
This area of the world is a strategic partnership with Hebron and the IMB. We have been working with D for about three years. You can believe that when an East Asian gives their life to Christ they are not playing around. This is a closed area to the gospel so a life in Christ is not appreciated at all by the Communist government and persecution could and does happen on a normal basis when the government seems fit to flex its muscles. In the three years we have worked with D we have been able to plant several churches and have lead dozens to the Lord.
This past spring we back to the main city on H Island and worked with D. We worked with a string of churches we helped start in the past. As with a lot of churches they were having growing pains and really needed our help. We were able to help strengthen these churches and start a new house church. Twenty five people asked Jesus to be their Lord! What a rush! It was a very special mission trip because my wife was able to go on this journey with me and see the work going on that I am always talking about.
This summer Rando Acres led a team to the H Island again to do work in the universities and go in to new areas on the island that are yet unreached. Some of the team stayed and worked in the main city with the universities while Otis and Sandra Jones went with D and some local Christians south to the new areas. Rando's team had great success and were able to lead several to the Lord at the schools and introduced the new converts to the house churches to be followed up on. The new area that Otis and Sandra worked was hard soil and met up against some persecution. They had to leave town in the middle of the night so they would not get local Christians in trouble with the law. They spent the rest of the time looking for people of peace and prayer walking new areas. D is from a farming family so he knows what to do to prepare hard soil for a later harvest. He needs labours from Hebron to stand beside him and work the fields of H Island. Pray for D and his family that 2010 will be a great year of harvest and new fields (villages) open up their hearts to the Lord.
Central America and Caribbean Basin
Panama 
I met Moses Vega back in the late '90's when I took a group of college/career age students on a mission trip. This mission changed the direction of my ministry life as well as others on this journey. I never met a man so passionate about reaching the nations. Moses along with his wife and children are a church planting family. I remember a conversation I had with him in 1998 at a debriefing at night on the beach in San Felix. We were sitting by a fire and with the flames of the fire glowing in his face, with tears in his eyes he looked at me and shared how he wanted to reach Panama for Christ. Moses shared about remote villages all over Panama that were still unreached. He told me about the burden he had for the Guaymi, Kuna, Terbi tribes that still needed to hear about Jesus. The Holy Spirit used Moses Vega to challenge me to open my heart and ministry up to these people of Panama. Hebron over the last several years has helped Moses with his dream to reach the remote areas and also the big city Panama, Panama City.
This past July Hebron teamed up with Moses Vega and E3 Partners to plant six Baptist churches in the Panama City area. Two of the churches were Kuna tribes outside of Panama City up in the mountains. All in all 867 people gave their lives to Christ! That's right, 867 new souls were born again. Thirteen Hebron people will never be the same again. We bonded and worked so well together with the Panamanian Christians. New friendships have started that will last for eternity. We will be back to help the Vega family again in July 2010.
Dominican RepublicA new partnership was born in 2009 out of a vision trip Pastor Kevin and Pastor Dustin went on from a contact one of our missionaries has, Jeff Seigal of Global Baseball, with Score International in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In late July Dustin led 49 students and leaders to Santo Domingo. They did sports evangelism, children's ministry, door to door, and began the start of a church planting movement. Out of this trip 80 people were saved and many Christians encouraged. One of our young adult leaders, Ronnie Melin, has committed to stay one year to kick off church planting. Already six churches have been born from this effort.
South America
Brazil 
Another partnership was born in 2009 in the country of Brazil. The Pantanal is the largest swamp in the world and encompasses a large part of the real estate on the west side of Brazil. In the middle of the swamp the Paragauy River snakes its way through jungles, mountains, and flat lands. This is the land that Carl King, former IMB missionary, has been ministering in for years. If you ever read John Grisham's book The Testament you would get a realistic feel of what life is like in the Pantanal. Carl took John Grisham there twice on mission trips and it so moved John that he penned The Testament. Its about a lawyer"s adventure looking for a missionary who was left with a large inheritance from one of his clients who passed away. We were actually ministering off the boat that John wrote about in the book.
Our Adventure started off loading the 70ft river boat, the Pantavida in the city of Corumba. It would be a 360 mile round trip mission journey on the River doing medical,dental,water purification , and church strengthening. We stopped several times along the river visiting indigenous tribes in Brazil and Bolivia. Every patient seen was witnessed to about Jesus. Every one of them was sick with worms from drinking the river water so all was given worm pills. Many of them learned to brush their teeth for the first time. Over 300 people were seen and ministered to one way or another. Fifty eight people gave their life to Christ. Awesome!!! We are looking to plant some village churches and do some training for leaders while continuing to put water systems in very village on the river. The cost is between $75 $110 for every filter. This past trip we put in ten filters. Thank you Hebron!
Next week we will continue with part 2 Of Coming and Going.
There is an area and a people who have really struggled lately trying to figure out what they have to be thankful. Hebron's ladies were there to help them fix their eyes upon Jesus so they too could give thanks. The people of Appalachia was our ministry target last month and is today's partnership spotlight. Our ladies packed food and clothes and headed for the hills of Kentucky to the towns of Corbin and Williamsburg. While there they ministered to other ladies going through very hard times. The ladies also visited a homeless shelter and nursing home. Under the direction of Tammy Lawell, Hebron Women's ministry handed out everything they brought and also worked at a nursing home, school, and a ministry site that has some great potential for future work in Williamsburg. This site is under the direction of a great couple who are from the area and know the hard times the city is going through. The ministry is housed in an old RC Cola plant that needs some tender loving care and that's exactly what our ladies gave them. The ladies of Hebron have challenged the Hebron men to partner with them to take on this ministry project and help restore this old Cola plant to a well oiled ministry machine. When finished this plant will be able to house and feed 78 people. It will have a clothing ministry, food pantry, youth hall, multiple stall his/her bathhouse and ministry office. Guys lets step up to the challenge!
