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Chapter 5
THE GIFT OF ADMINISTRATION AND FACILITATION
“Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.” (Gen 41:33)
Joseph was a marvelous administrator over many people.
The geographic extension of the gospel requires much facilitation. The administrator must evaluate correctly the needs as well as the people with spiritual gifts who can meet those needs. In the perfect economy of God, these things are necessary to fulfill the will of God.
Pastor Waldo has the marvelous gift of administration.
“Next year we will have more work, and we will need the Lord to raise up more people to serve Him in every aspect. Waldo.” (December 26, 2005)
“Before ending the year of 2005, María and I visualized everything that He expects of us this year of 2006. Service to God will be multiplied this year, and also there will be new souls to reach. I feel in my spirit that we have to focus ourselves more in preparing more people for the ministry. I am praying to the Lord so that this desire will be awakened in all the congregation. I will take even more strongly the teaching that Jethro gave to Moses (Gen 18:13-27) and the apostles in Acts 6. The gospel advances more when all, in some way or another, collaborate according to the gifts that the Lord has put in each person. I don’t want to saturate myself with commitments, so I am going to ask the Lord that I teach and train them rapidly, so they themselves share the Word in every village. Waldo.” (January 9, 2006)
“The good thing is that the missions on the coast already don’t require so much time for they walk alone with their respective pastors. Only I will program a monthly meeting with those in charge to pastor them. They already have their own missions and are extending themselves to other towns. We have taught them that, as we prepared them, in this way, they teach others also. Waldo.” (January 13, 2006)
“Each time that a person finishes a book of the Bible, he is ready to teach this same book to another. We are doing it this way, and the Word of God is extending itself with the Indians over all the mountains. In Christ, Waldo.” (October 6, 2005)
“It appears that there is a group of 42 more people ready to be baptized, and we are expecting to go. I am going to ordain Tony, so that he himself baptizes them. I have told them that in situations like this, they should do it, but almost always they wait for don Lupe or me to do this. Waldo.” (January 17, 2006)
“We are going to a village that is a little beyond Ixtlán del Rio, called San Clemente, and another town called El Terrero. I have never gone there. Three of us are going including María, for the majority of those expecting us are women. They have been speaking to me by telephone for three weeks asking us, please, to go, for they want to receive the Lord. Some of them already came to the church in Tepic. I don’t know what I am going to do, for every time there are more villages that want the gospel, and I don’t want to saturate myself with work. I will see how to organize ourselves, for we cannot deny the Word. The Lord will free us to do this. Once they accept the Lord very well, I am going to give them your lessons so that they grow rapidly. I am going to ask the Lord to show us who among them has ministry ability, so that they themselves continue with the Work. We will be able to visit them every month to give them encouragement. Waldo.” (January 28, 2006)
“Anselmo and Angelina also are going to advance in your studies, for they are preparing for the ministry, even though they already serve the Lord. Many more people also are doing it, and some pastors of other churches also are receiving your teachings. I myself, before giving the study to the people, I first read it, and they have edified me very much also. All agree that these studies have brought us to have more hunger for the Lord and to have a more intimate relationship with Him. We are very grateful to you for the time that you dedicate in ministering to us through the written Word. This past Wednesday I was chatting with a group of Indian brothers. Don Lupe feels in his heart that soon he will go to the mountains to serve full time. The people are excited for this. When don Lupe is living in the mountains, all your studies will be used for all the Indians in all the missions. In this way a great army of people will be raised up to serve God. Waldo.” (February 1, 2006)
“We already have permission to construct the church among them. Now in the first meeting that we have with them, we will see in which place to construct it. To me, I like two places because, in this way, all the villages that we have would be covered, apart from being able to advance to more places. I would like to construct one in La Ciénega. In that village there is a government school where daily the Indians come to the classes from various little villages. The other place that I like is El Majahual, because it will cover another section of villages that cannot be reached from La Ciénega. El Majahual is small, but it is the center of various little villages. There the problem is that the distance from El Majahual to La Ciénega is one day walking on foot. We will see how we will be able to attend to two places. Apart from the church, I want to make one more room to serve as a help to the community to do medical brigades or a dispensary for those that don’t have anything to eat. Just today they gave us the news of approval for the church. We are all very happy for this, for Tony tells me that there is much need in many towns for the presence of God. The week before last was the change of governors among this area of the Huichols. Tony was re-elected for two more years. It is the first time in all history that there is a re-election. I told him that this is the plan of God, for he was one of the first converted to Christianity through the testimony of his father (Anselmo). He is the man that the Lord is going to use to open doors for us in all the little villages with the gospel. He being the traditional governor, they respect him much, and they do what he says. The governor that they always elect is very old, and Tony is barely 28 years old. He is very young, but these are the times of God to take the gospel to all those places, for this is the first time that the Word of God arrives among them. Waldo.” (February 2, 2006)
“…at nine at night some new people from the church spoke to me that their daughter is possessed by an evil spirit, for she is very rebellious with them and listens to a lot of music with subliminal messages. That was sufficient for this evil spirit to enter. We went to their house. We had about two hours with her for this evil sprit was somewhat strong, but in the name of Jesus we could cast it out. We spoke to them while liberating the girl teaching them step by step how this is done, so that the next time, they can do it. This is the labor of us as pastors, to teach and to edify the saints for the work of the ministry. Waldo.” (February 6, 2006)
“This morning very early, while I worked…an idea immediately came to my mind: to have seminaries of Biblical training for one whole week every four months that would train the Indians and then send them to the field; also to appoint pastors that already are serving in the ministry. I am going to continue meditating on this idea, asking for direction from the Lord in everything, in order to count on His support. In His time we will do this, and also, that the Indian churches spread from there to still other places, as the Lord goes directing us. If you help us, I will give pastors offerings according to the provision from the Lord, to sustain their families, while they together with their families dedicate themselves to open works and pastor them. When the Lord will do something going forward, He first advises me, and I feel that this is something that is going to grow. That has been our vision, but today I see its fulfillment more near. Waldo.” (March 10, 2006)
“We already have the land to construct the church in the mountains. One person is going to lend us a burro to carry material up the mountains, and José and Tony another burro. In the appropriate time and in the provision of God, we will do it. I told you about the training seminar. We will do it soon, although I don’t have the dates. I thought about this, because in the past week we met some Huichols and shared the gospel with them. One of them had already heard about us. He was the Huichol governor of that community. He told me that if we would please go to his villages, for they need this very much. He will commit himself to joining us with all the people. To arrive at that village, we have to cross the edge of a dam and pass by it in a boat. To the edge of the dam is two and a half hours in a pickup truck leaving from Tepic, and from there a half hour in the boat. Don Lupe, other persons, and I are going to go on Wednesday of next week. When the governor of the Huichol Indians is converted in that place, I am going to train him rapidly so that he himself will be in charge of the work there. It is not very far from Tepic, so that they can easily come. As we cannot do all the work, it is Biblical that we do it this way, by that of a training seminar. Waldo.” (March 12, 2006)
“I want to make a medical brigade in a short time. When I go to the United States, I am going to look for toothbrushes and toothpaste wholesale because the Indians do not clean themselves very much. When they are here in my house with us, María teaches them and gives them a toothbrush and toothpaste. Yes, they are very obedient. I want to bring this back and teach them the importance of personal hygiene. Waldo.” (March 18, 2006)
“The work in the ministry continues to increase. The people that help me in the different works are equally with much work. We hope in the Lord that He gives us wisdom to delegate and also to make more people available to carry the load of the gospel, to be able to advance more. Waldo.” (March 22, 2006)
“Sandra wants to go to La Ciénega this summer. She does not know that village. I saw that this is something big. María and I are going to accompany her and possibly other people also. It is that, among the Indians, women are not valued. The gospel has changed this concept among those that have received Christ, and we have taught them to treat them well. However, still there lacks much to do. I want to take advantage of the stay of Sandra there in that place to restore the self-esteem of women, and to teach them the value that they are in God. I will try to return with a group of men to teach them also about this, and how we have to commit ourselves to the new life that the Lord gives us. Waldo.” (July 1, 2006)
“A little while ago I wrote a brother in Mexico City (Luis and Elena Cruz) where he tells me that with your lessons he is training other pastors. This blessed me much. Also in your next visit we are going to ordain him and his wife and his group that he has prepared in the ministry. The purpose of this ordination, apart from making a transference of anointing, is to fulfill one of the requirements that exists with the Federal Government. They passed a new law to bring better order and to avoid problems with religious groups. The new law says that all pastors must have covered a minimum of theological studies and have been ordained in the ministry together by someone that is found registered properly before the federal government. We are registered by the Office of the Secretary of the Government. We are using your studies to train pastors for the ministry. On this same day, the day of ordination, we will give Diplomas to those that have finished your studies. This is the motive of the ordination that I told you about. Waldo.” (July 4, 2006)
“Now with the departure of don Lupe to the mountains, (full time) we will have a little more work. The work that he did, we will delegate to other people, but other work María and I will have to do. Don Lupe attended to the Indian mission at Jala. María and I will be attending to it, but with the view of leaving it to Anselmo and Angelina to pastor there. They opened that work, and don Lupe has done much to train them, so it is time for them to serve the Lord more. Don Lupe has delegated responsibility to them, and all has been going very well. Already they speak good Spanish. He has directed the praise and worship, and he preaches two times a month. Therefore, soon they will be able to pastor in that region. We will ordain them when you come to Nayarit. Waldo.” (August 7, 2006)0
“Yesterday don Lupe left for Jala. Already he is in El Majahual. He takes a large part of your studies to share them more directly with all the people. We hope that from there will come the next pastors and evangelists that carry forward the ministry among their own people. All the counsel that you gave me from the books that you have read about Indian ministry, I will carry out to the finish according to the direction of God. Your counsel is very practical, and it has proven that is has given results. Waldo.” (August 11, 2006)
“It appears that we are going to need other people to live among them, because it is much work for one alone. The distances are very great from one village to another. For example, on Sundays in the morning, (don Lupe) has a meeting in El Mirador where 3 more villages join together. There he finishes at 12 noon and has to walk very quickly to go to La Ciénega to another meeting. He walks almost 6 hours to arrive there. In La Ciénega, other villages join together. The rest of the villages he attends to during the week. He comes to El Majahual on Mondays in the morning and walks 7 hours. That day is his day of rest, and on Tuesdays he continues with his missionary activities visiting new villages and consolidating those that he already has reached. The missionary (the mule) has helped him a lot, but still, even he is left very tired every third day, because he is somewhat old. Don Lupe has seen that the mule is also tired. Waldo.” (September 15, 2006)
“Here, thanks to God, we are very well with much work as always, but I try to seek a way to delegate in the church conforming to gifts and talents, and clearly also according to the availability of the people. We see in the book of Acts how the apostles were clear on this, for they said that it was not correct that they attend the tables, because their work was prayer and preaching the Word of God. When the work increases we try always to seek who is the person that can do this task. Waldo.” (September 25, 2006)
“The pastors that we are meeting with (in the city of Tepic) have named me the pastor of all of them. I spoke to them about you both, of the blessing that you have been to my life. All of them send you greetings. Automatically you pass to be also pastors of them and on ministering to me, you also minister to them. I always have had a burden for pastors and always had the intention of helping them in all that we can. Some times I have been to their congregations to minister, and always I try to lift them up. Of those that we are meeting with, one of them came to know the Lord with us ten years ago, and the rest have had friendship with us for many years. Some of them have called on us to help them in their formation, and to others we add to their ministry. Little by little more pastors are being added to this group. We desire a revival in our city and this will be the principal emphasis. Waldo.” (September 27, 2006)
“We are very happy because this past Saturday, for the first time in the history of Nayarit, we had a meeting of churches and all joined together to worship God. We joined 6 different congregations together in one very powerful meeting. The Lord blessed us a lot. The people were very happy. There was a very precious praise that ministered so we could tangibly feel the presence of God. The Lord touched me to minister in that area. People that could not walk, walked, and other types of physical and spiritual problems were healed. All the pastors had some participation and the people of the 7 churches were serving in the different departments. The unity was felt, and we spent a glorious moment that lasted about 6 hours. The pastors were very blessed and excited for all that we could feel and see in the people. On the following day, Sunday, all the youth and adolescents were appointed to go to eat together and to pass through the city. Even though the rain caught them and all got wet, they were very happy young people. They enjoyed it a lot. Already various churches have spoken to us that they want to participate and join with us. This is very good. En this meeting we were around 400 people. We calculate that in the next meeting, we will have more than 500 that will meet with us. We are meeting with only one purpose, to win our city and our state of Nayarit for Jesus Christ. It is the first time that an event like this was done. Waldo.” (October 2, 2006)
“I opened a Leadership School. I have 27 students in preparation. This school will be for 4 months and then I will open a School of Ministry where we design it primarily around your lessons, homiletics, hermeneutics, and Biblical doctrine among other materials. For this class, we have 34 people signed up, and more that are going to be added with time. Waldo.” (February 15, 2007)
“I am very happy because also the group of people that are in the Leadership School, in the majority, have begun to serve in the church. Even though every week there is more work, now it is lighter for me, because the responsibility is on those that we are placing. Waldo.” (February 19, 2007)
