On Sunday a film crew from Gray Media Productions will arrive here in Quito to begin shooting a documentary with us. The crew will follow our team as we do a variety of ministry with the main goal of documenting the Dream Campaign. The concept of the film is to capture how regardless of culture or economic class you still find people who dream. This film is not necessarily a “Christian Film”, but rather a story told from a Christian perspective. We pray that doors of distribution will open not only in Christian circles but also in secular avenues where we can share a message of hope with a broad audience. I’ll keep you posted on how the shoot goes and any development that occur in the coming months!
The past few weeks have been busy as we have been training our newest Submerge team and sending them out for their first outreaches. In just a few short weeks they’ve ministered in prisons, after school programs, parks, and plazas. In addition they have held a Dream Campaign, a Vision Challenge, and created a brand new outreach we will be doing tonight called the Believe Campaign. It is great building relationships with a new group of people and helping them get to know this incredible country.
In the last edition of this newsletter, I shared how a local magazine has decided to feature Go International in each edition that they publish. Since that time I spoke to the publisher and pitched a new idea. I asked if he would be willing to dedicate some space in his magazine to the boys in the juvenile prison that we minister in each week; he said yes. The goal is to give these boys, whom society has pushed to the side, a voice in their city. We want to tell their stories to the city and let them share how their lives have been changing. We spoke to the directors of the prison about the concept, they were excited and thought it would be a great encouragement for these young men to see their words published.
We have now been ministering twice a week in the prison for about four months. We have grown close to these young men and have spent much time talking about choices, identity, redemption, and God’s plan for their lives. They are truly starting to “get it”. The directors of the prison tell us often what a difference it is making in the boys lives, and they continue to give us favor. I’m a firm believer that while God has good plans for us, we must develop ourselves to receive all that He has. For this reason I feel that it is important to build upon what we’ve been sharing with these young men and begin to give them practical tools that will help them succeed when they get out of prison. Beginning next week we will be adding two classes to our curriculum; English and Introductory Business. We gave the boys the choice of which class they could sign up for, and they were excited about having the opportunity to learn one of these topics.
Thank you for your continued prayers as we continue to plow ground here and seek to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth!
Journeying Together,
The Bacas