Mexico Leadership Conference, Day 1

Howdy folks!

Our first day in Mexico arrived after a good night's sleep, although we didn't get to bed until after 1:00AM. Having traveled all day yesterday, we were whooped! So it was great to get to sleep in til after 8:00AM. We had a leisurely breakfast at a nearby restaurant and came back to the hotel to finish getting ready for today's sessions.

We were told there were over 400 pastors and leaders signed up for the conference, but that many would not arrive until the Saturday sessions. So when we started our first sessions there were only 200-300, but by the end of the day over 400 were in attendance. I'm not sure how many churches are represented - I'm hoping to find out tomorrow. Many of the local churches have sent several of their leaders, which is good. What's really neat is to see the churches in Coatza cooperating together.

When Joel and I came to Coatza in 1988 there were only a handful of evangelical churches, perhaps a few dozen. Now there are over 300 evangelical churches spread all over this city of half a million and there are good relationships between many of them. What a testimony for the body of Christ! And how wonderful to see so many gathered in Agua Viva for leadership training and development.

The conference started out with some awesome praise and worship and then Joel taught the first lesson on "The Leadership Test" which dealt with different kinds of tests that leaders face and how God uses them to form character in our lives. I then taught on the subject of "Security or Sabotage" which dealt with the issue of insecurity in the life of a leader. I really enjoyed studying for this session and picked up a few tidbits for my own life.

Joel had been scheduled to preach at one of the local churches so he had to slip out while I was still teaching the second session and I joined him later. He was well into his message and the folks were really touched by it. There was a wonderful time of surrender at the end of the message as most of the church came forward for a time of reflection and recommittal. What was amazing to me about this was this was the first time either of us has ever been invited to preach in any other church in Coatza besides Agua Viva. How wonderful the Lord is to allow us to see fruit of our labors and extend our ministry reach. All the glory to Him!!!

Tomorrow we have four more sessions starting around 9:30. Here are the sessions:

• Delegating Tasks and Developing People - Moving from Addition to Multiplication (Nathan)
• Teamwork Makes the Dream Work - The Characteristics of a Great Team (Joel)
• The Wisest Investment You'll Ever Make -Mentoring Future Leaders (Nathan)
• Measuring Your Leadership Growth - An Evaluation for Growing Leaders (Joel)

These lessons are from book 2 of a 6-book series on leadership developed by John Maxwell and being taught to millions of Christian leaders around the world. Pray for us as we attempt to empower these leaders to reach even more souls with the Gospel and equip their churches to grow in Christ.

That's it for now. I'll update more tomorrow. Until then,

Blessings!
Nathan