We began in Santiago, Chile, then drove to Mendoza, Argentina, and ended our adventure in Buenos Aires, Argentina, encouraging and celebrating the leaders while being blessed by their testimonies of God’s calling, goodness, and love. We worshiped together, prayed together, experienced the inspired preaching of God’s Word together, and through their generous hospitality, we often ate together! As much as you hope to bless others on a trip like this, the reality is that you can only give so much you get. While the Global South has shown how willing they are to learn from us, the truth is that they may be the ones who hold the keys to us being a revived church in North America once again. Throughout this journey, we have been surrounded by spiritual hunger, inspiring faith, and intentional leader multiplication. Let me share some stories with you.
On our first night in Santiago, Chile, we went to the Church of the Ministry Expansion, where Pastor Jorge Sanderson introduced us to many pastors and leaders, followed by a worship service with his church family. At the end of Eddy’s sermon, our team members were invited to come forward and pray for people and anoint them with oil. The first person I prayed for was an 84-year-old pastor who had been faithfully preaching the gospel his entire life. The second person I prayed for was a 97-year-old pastor. The first two people up front represented 181 years of life experience, and they were still hungry for God’s goodness and blessing! This was our experience throughout the trip: from pastors and church leaders to new converts, each one had a spiritual hunger and a desire to receive from the Lord through prayer. During three times our team has prayed for people, I have personally had the joy of anointing over 140 people with oil. The people in South America are spiritually hungry! We desperately need to revive that hunger in North America. A spiritually hungry church will quickly become a revived church.
