SAMARITAN STRATEGY PROJECT IN LIMA, PERU
Establishing self-sustaining Samaritan Strategy teams in new areas
Elly Oliveira, Global Field Coordinator
The “Samaritan Strategy” (SamS) program helps churches demonstrate God’s intentions in every area of life. It uses step-by-step applications called “disciplines of love” and “seed projects” to disciple people in practical ways, following the biblical model of Jesus’ growth. A SamS project has four phases: (1) network, (2) training, (3) coaching, and (4) commissioning. In Lima, Peru, Pastor Atilio Quintanilla coordinated one of these projects. Atilio has extensive experience as seminary professor, holds a degree as Mechanical and Electrical Engineer, and uses his exceptional ability with numbers to track ministry activities. All of these combined with creativity, energy, and commitment to spread the teachings of biblical wholism resulted in a vibrant story about his SamS project in Lima. We invite you to read the story that follows and join us in praises to God for the advance of His Kingdom in Peru.
THANK YOU
We thank the Harvest team and the participants in the SamS project in Lima. Their vision, dedicated services, and mutual collaboration blessed many people. We thank the donors who so generously contributed to this project. Without their participation we would not be able to go that far. We praise the Lord for His provision, guidance, and protection, and pray that this experience may be multiplied for His glory.
ILLUSTRATION OF HARVEST’S MINISTRY FROM ONE OF OUR FIELDS – PERU
Atilio Quintanilla, Harvest Associate, [email protected]
NETWORK
Planning, promotion, and contacts (April 2017)
This SamS project was named “Diploma in Wholistic Ministry, a Training of Trainers Program”, and planned with 48 hours of academic classes and 60 hours of practice, giving pastors and leaders the tools, vision, and resources to equip and mobilize churches to obey the Great Commission in each generation. I wrote a teaching plan (which is available upon request), created a registration form, contacted the Bible Society in Peru for the venue, and the Radio del Pacifico, –a nationally well-known Christian radio–, to promote the event with announcements broadcasted in 28 seconds, 25 times, from April 12 to May 14. I was interviewed on the radio to explain the training, made many phone calls to pastors and leaders, and held a breakfast workshop at the church that I pastor in Lima, the Christian Church of Wholistic Discipleship. In that occasion, we prayed for the training and I shared a vision casting message about “God’s Glory”.
Inaugural Meeting (May 2017)
I continued to promote the event, inviting pastors and leaders by e-mail, interviewing those that were interested –some personally and others by telephone–, checking their theological education and qualifications to be trainers and coaches. Then, I had a meeting with thirty-two people, pastors and church leaders from twenty churches. We met at 9am, started the program with prayer, the participants introduced themselves, we went over the teaching plan, Pastor Pedro Torres shared his work with sixty Christian professionals doing social work, Dr. Edwin Quintanilla addressed the theme “How Christians Can Impact the Culture and the Nation”, and I shared about “Strategies to Disciple Nations” and “The Role of the Church in Society”. The participants were very interested and motivated to learn more about these topics. They were given a folder with outlines of the subjects discussed and a copy of the book “If Jesus were Mayor” in Spanish. The Director of the Bible Society, brother Eduardo Barba, was so interested that he felt that he should support this training and gave us a 23% discount for the rent of the auditorium.
TRAINING
Basic training (June-August 2017)
FIRST MODULE: We gathered thirty participants and discussed the lessons “The Discipline of Love” and “Seed Projects”. The participants commented about chapters 2, 9 and 10 of the book “If Jesus Were Mayor”, turned in a critical summary of its content, and reported applications of 51 disciplines of love done since our last meeting. The participants were much motivated, interested to share the teachings and to do seed projects. At break time, we offered them snacks and did physical exercises to relax and keep them alert. We opened a group on WhatsApp to keep everyone informed about the activities.
SECOND MODULE: There were twenty-eight participants, although some missed the class, they sent in their assignments and book reports. We discussed the lesson “Luke 2:52 and Development”, saw the Carapita video, finished the lesson “Seed Projects” and the students planned their seed projects. Then, we had a prayer time and shared testimonies of disciplines of love. The break time was used to build relationships and share experiences. The participants were very encouraged and interested not only to do personal exercises, but to share the lessons with their churches, multiplying the teachings (as part of this training, the students are required to teach the “Seed Project” lesson in their churches and do a project). This meeting was attended by two sisters who were visiting us, Edith and Etelvina Arenas, from Houston, where I taught some years ago. I had a half hour interview on Radio del Pacífico to talk about Harvest Foundation – its vision, strategies and the tools that we teach in the SamS training.
THIRD MODULE: On August 19, twenty-four participants discussed the lessons “The Irreducible Minimum” and “The Church as a Window” and turned in their assignments. I promoted the event every Saturday from 12 to 12:30pm at Radio del Pacífico.
In-depth training (September-November 2017)
FIRST MODULE: On September 16, we gathered a group of twenty-two participants. We began the event with songs of worship, and then study the lessons “The Church as a Window” and “The Wheel of Wisdom”, heard testimonies about disciplines of love and experiences of teaching Harvest lessons in the churches of the participants. Now the program at Radio del Pacífico is every Saturday from 12pm-1:00pm. Last Saturday I talked about the lessons “The Discipline of Love”, “How Our Work Is Important to God”, and “The Universal Priesthood of Believers”. In the future, we will share testimonies of discipline love, seed projects, and training experiences of the students during this program.
SECOND MODULE: On October 21, Fabiola Zegarra, our team member, led the class teaching the lessons “Luke 2:52” and “Kingdom Math”.
THIRD MODULE: On November 18, we had a 4-hour training with an attendance of twenty people. We reviewed the lessons “Kingdom Math”, “The Church as a Window”, “Seed Projects”, and “How to Implement the Wholistic Mission in the Local Church”. Prior to this session, I talked to each student by telephone, encouraging them to keep on the good work and to turn in their assignments. They were very motivated and encouraged to move forward, despite the time constraints that each one has. I spoke about “Wholistic Mission” and “Strategies for Discipling Nations on Radio del Pacífico and Radio LADP.
COACHING
In this phase, each module was done in four hours, starting with devotion and praise led by brother Miguel Caceres, then we heard testimonies of trainings in the participants’ churches, applications of seed projects, and the students turned in their assignments. I continued with the programs on Radio del Pacífico and Radio LADP.
Training of Trainers, TOT (December 2017)
On December 16, we had an attendance of twenty-three. The program included a review about mastering the teaching guide, principles of participatory learning, communication skills, workshop plan, seed projects, and the training of new coaches. Three new participants started at this point and will gradually catch up the previous lessons. The beautiful thing is that these teachings were taught in the local churches of the participants, creating greater interest and participation, a multiplying effect of the SamS training.
Mentorship (January-February 2018)
FIRST MODULE: On January 20, we had an attendance of twenty-four participants and talked about the evaluation method, reporting, and the lesson “How to Minister to People’s Heart”. A new participant started the training at this point. On January 6, I had the beautiful experience of accompanying Jessica Calderon, one of our students, to the graduation ceremony of her students. Using the SamS materials, she trained a group of twenty people at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church of Comas for four months. At the ceremony, the students gave their testimonies, the pastor prayed for them, and I shared about wholistic ministry, then they served a dinner for all participants.
SECOND MODULE: On February 17, we had eighteen participants and shared about using the Harvest teacher’s guide, examples of training techniques, and I presented the lesson “The Narrow View of the Gospel”.
MULTIPLICATION
Observation (March 2018)
On March 17, we had seventeen participants and shared the topics: “Seed Projects” and “The Worldview of the Kingdom of God”. The students were very motivated and interested to know more about discipleship, considering their worldview of origin, the worldview of the place where they are ministering, and especially the worldview of the Kingdom of God.
Commissioning (April 2018)
FIRST MODULE: On April 21, we had seventeen participants and shared the topics: “Advancing Towards a Vision” as a model lesson, reviewed the students’ papers, and talked about their graduation ceremony. We prayed thanking God for this training, and the way He guided the graduates to apply and teach these topics in their churches, planning to have a follow-up workshop to share how the Lord is using them. Then we asked them to invite other students for the next SamS project, they wrote down a list of thirty-two possible participants and committed themselves to motivate and invite them. We started the training with thirty-five participants, twelve graduated after completing all course requirements, three received a certificate of attendance, and the remaining students will complete the training in the next SamS project.
Statistics of the SamS project in Lima:
Total of 3,853 beneficiaries (participants in trainings, disciplines of love, and seed projects)
Disciplines of love
825 beneficiaries of disciplines of love (780 by the students, 45 by the disciples trained by the students). Disciplines of love done in the four areas of Luke 2:52, 82 (wisdom), 256 (physical), 190 (spiritual), and 288 (social)
Seed projects
1,149 beneficiaries of 19 seed projects done by 448 participants with in 22 churches
Below are the seed projects and between parenthesis are the numbers of participants/beneficiaries:
Payment of prolapse operation (30/1)
Payment of an eye surgery (25/1)
Payment of plane tickets for three Venezuelans to return to their country (25/3)
Medications for a poor family (10/5)
Payment of marriage expenses for couples that were living together (20/10)
Payment of burial expenses of a poor woman (20/4)
Food and medicines for a poor family (12/3)
Collection and donation of used clothing (15/100)
Evangelism, chocolate and Christmas gifts distributed in the Community Lumbreras as a gift from the community of San Juan de Lurigancho (27/39)
Teaching music with kena (traditional flute of the Andes) (3/20)
Support and evangelism of an ex-con (12/1)
Medicines and food for a shoemaker and his family (4/4)
Food baskets for 16 needy families (30/70)
Roof for the Sunday school classroom of a poor church (3/15)
Study techniques workshop for high school students (4/20)
Remodeling the house of a poor family (3/4)
Sports championship and evangelism for teenagers (4/21)
Nutrition and balanced feeding workshop (1/28)
Protection for students while entering and leaving their school in a dangerous neighborhood (200/800)
Training
749 participants in 60 training modules done by the students. Between parenthesis are numbers of modules/participants:
Church of Flowers – Ana Gálvez (10/18)
Company OAS – Víctor Ramos (3/130)
Alliance Christian Church of Comas- Jessica Calderón (8/20)
Church Mission Life – Miguel Cáceres (4/42)
Church House of Prayer – Angel Céli Farfán (2/18)
Church – Narda Arce (2/34)
Church – Britaldo Emerson Dávila (2/15)
Cantuta University – Felicio Brandan Morales (4/26)
4 Churches– Silvio Piñán (4/92)
2 Churches – Samuel Medina (2/36)
4 Churches – Doris Soto (5/68)
Seoane Institute – Dina Sierralta (2/68)
ACyM Comas and Lima Centro Churches – Jaime Valdivia (3/90)
Food For the Hungry ONG and 1 community church – Pablo Salinas (7/40)
2 Churches– Gustavo Valer Parodi (2/52)
130 attendees at the Fraternity of Pastors conference with Pastor Atilio Quintanilla
at least 1,000 people reached through 16 programs at Radio del Pacífico and Radio LADP
464 believers collaborated or supported this training in different ways
53 churches connected with this SamS project
On July 21, we had the closing session of the SamS training at the Bible Society, where a group of fifteen students graduated. It was a very significant celebration with the presence of Dr. Daniel Vega, President of the Fraternity of Pastors at the national level, and Dr. Edwin Quintanilla, Director of the Master program of the ESAN University. There were praises to God, words of gratitude, and three graduates shared their experiences, followed by words of encouragement and reflection from Dr. Edwin Quintanilla and Dr. Daniel Vega, and I shared a message of gratitude and commitment. After participating in this ceremony, Dr. Daniel Vega, was encouraged and he promised to promote this program in the Fraternity of Pastors.
In recognition for their hard work and as reminders of what they learned –becoming “Trainers of Trainers” in their churches, denominations and their areas of influence–, the students received a certificate (“Diploma”), a medal, and a pin. Dr. Daniel Vega prayed for them so that the Lord would guide, give them wisdom, and use them greatly. We finished with a photo session and a reception with very nice refreshments that everyone enjoyed. I thank God with all my heart for those who collaborated and prayed for this ministry. It allowed us to begin the process of moving pastors and leaders to train others, giving them the vision and the tools that will enable Christians to disciple our nation.