The Latin Bridge

Here’s a sampling of Christmas traditions in a few Latin American countries.  In order to effectively reach a country for Christ, we must understand their culture.  We should all be students of culture! Religious themes predominate in Christmas celebrations in South America. The secular customs and gift-giving in these countries are an admixture of traditions [...]

The following comes from one of my favorite resources. Click here to see what Dr Culbert has to say. He does a great job teaching and communicating about missions! Ahead of time Pray with your interpreter beforehand. Prayer has a way of bonding our spirits. Give your translator time to think about expressing what you’re going to [...]

The following ideas are taken from this blog here! You will find much more information there and you should click on the link and go there. Learning the language is your most important tool for the work that God has for you when you arrive on the mission field. You must have the mindset that you are [...]

It’s the first Friday of the month and almost everywhere you go the air is filled with the sweet smell of the K’oa pronounced Kohwah. This is a tradition that has its roots in the ancient rituals of the Quechua and Aymara Indians and is something that is commonly seen throughout the region of the [...]

Adoniram Judson sweated out Burma’s heat for 18 years without a furlough, six years without a convert. Enduring torture and imprisonment, he admitted that he never saw a ship sail without wanting to jump on board and go home. When his wife’s health broke and he put her on a homebound vessel in the knowledge [...]

Here is a quick excerpt about Hudson Taylor from a book. I don’t endorse everything he did, but this short introduction to his ministry is interesting and encouraging! Pray for more laborers that truly want the Christian faith taken to the interior of China. Radical missionary Taylor was born to James and Amelia Taylor, a [...]

For Americans, personal space is no joking matter. Raised on strict instructions to keep our hands to ourselves and slogans like “no means no,” the 1.5 foot perimeter surrounding each person’s body is nothing short of sacred. Obviously there are exceptions: border patrol is usually waived during the pinch of rush hour traffic, the shoulder-rubbing [...]

Some years ago an African-American pastor’s wife from Atlanta visited us in Chile.  Her husband pastored a church just miles from my old elementary school.  During the 90s, my family and most of our friends left the area opting for a less “urban” environment in the suburbs. As we discussed my own history in the [...]

Here’s another factor in the strategic failure of the murdered missionaries: 2. They cut themselves off from those who could be of help Jim Elliot’s team in Ecuador was afraid of attracting too much attention to their efforts in the jungle, because they thought that too many outsiders would serve to further alienate the Aucas. [...]

One of our heroes in Latin American missions is Jim Elliot.  He and four others were killed in 1956, just a short time after my father was born.  So, by the time of my childhood, their fame had grown to epic levels among the missionary stories we heard in children’s church.  Here’s another look into [...]