After moving to Chiapas during the adoption process of our daughter Cristi, Ana and I began discovering something that would deeply shape the future of our ministry.
The harvest was ripe.
For years, we had ministered in other parts of Mexico through evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. But shortly after arriving in Chiapas, we quickly realized that many people and communities were far more open to the Gospel.
People were spiritually hungry.
Many wanted biblical teaching, discipleship, and leadership training. Doors began opening to villages, pastors, indigenous communities, and new church plants.
It was during this season that a major ministry strategy became very clear to me:
Instead of spending most of our energy trying to convince resistant people, we needed to focus more intentionally on ripe harvest fields where people were ready to respond to the Gospel.
Jesus said:
“Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.” — John 4:35
Around this same time, Doug Gehman, director of Globe International, deeply influenced my thinking through his book Go to the Ripe Fields and through personal coaching and mentorship.
That principle became one of the foundational strategies of our ministry:
Go to the ripe harvest fields.
Rather than building ministry around one personality or one church, we began focusing on identifying spiritually receptive areas and immediately training, mobilizing, and sending local believers to reach their own communities.
Our vision became larger than simply planting one church at a time.
We began praying and working toward disciple multiplication and indigenous church planting movements that could spread from village to village, region to region, and eventually nation to nation.
Over time, this strategy expanded beyond Mexico and also began influencing our work in Asia and other unreached areas.
Today, one of our major ministry goals continues to be:
- Going to spiritually receptive harvest fields
- Training and equipping nationals and missionaries
- Mobilizing believers to make disciples
- Planting indigenous churches
- Strengthening local leaders
- Praying for church planting movements that multiply within 2–5 years
One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is this:
God’s mission moves fastest when ordinary believers are equipped and empowered to reach their own people.
That conviction continues shaping everything we do today through God on Mission and our ongoing ministry throughout Mexico and Asia.