El Salvador Final Update

As we closed out the weekend, there was a feeling of excitement and a feeling of “we have a lot of work to do”. I thank God for those who sacrificed their time talents and treasure in the planting of the second church in San Salvador. In just 18 months, we have established a church and our vision for San Salvador is growing. This weekend marked our official “Grand Opening” and the best is yet to come.

On Saturday, we rented out the Gimnasio Nacional for our concert and outreach. We were very privileged to partner with a number of ministries that featured the musical talent of El Salvador including, Marrielle Arrue, a gifted singer who performed at the Nicky Cruz event 5 years earlier. We also featured our very own Victory Outreach Drama, Street Dreams (Suenos Callajeros).

With 2000 people in attendance, we witnessed a powerful move of God’s spirit. There were many smiles as people danced and celebrated to the sounds of the concert. When the drama began, People were mesmerized by what they were seeing. This was the very first time any drama of this kind had presented in San Salvador and the people seemed captivated by what they saw. The sound and lighting were of top notch quality and the students of the UTC Mexico did a wonderful job.

UTC students in "Suenos Callajeros"

As the drama came to a conclusion, many people gave their lives to Jesus. There was a mixture of young people, families and gang members at the altar. Many people were broken in the presence of God. Lives were transformed. What a feeling to see so many experience Christ in a personal way.

Lives being changes.

As the event continued into Sunday Morning, the atmosphere in the church was set. Worship was powerfully led by “Paz y Luz”, new members of VO San Salvador. And were happy to partner once again with our musical guest from the concert. As service continued, families started to come in for the first time. We sat and watch as families of 5 and 4 began to come into the service for the first time. We had 50 first time guests in the church all from the surrounding area. We marked that as a great success, many of the people made the altar call as I spoke to them about the Vision of Victory Outreach and why God has sent us to the city.

Keep San Salvador in prayer. We have a lot of work to do. We want to raise a church that will impact El Salvador for the glory of God. It will not be easy but little is much in the masters hand. Thank God for VOSD who is responsible for this wonderful weekend. Your labor is not in vain.

Pastor Al

El Salvador Update 2

Well, the moments are drawing near to our event here in El Salvador. There is a nervous but excited feeling as we prepare to go to the event. Earlier this morning we were there for sound checks and run through. The stage and lighting are beautiful, Coca-Cola has set up their displays and sales tents along with Burger King and the car show have arrived and is all set up.

There is a definite busyness in the city. Our hotel hosted a graduation and a wedding this morning and it was pretty hectic. The streets are packed with people. We can only pray that we have done all the footwork needed for this event. The phone continue to ring with people asking for information.

Well, I have to go downstairs to meet the van to go to the arena. Keep us all in prayer, we want to see a move of God tonight.

Nervous but ready.

Pastor Al

Operation El Salvador Update

The people of VOSD have given themselves to prayer, they have given sacrificially, they have stepped out in faith and the day is drawing near. Tomorrow we will be holding our live action drama entitled, “Suenos Callajeros”, at the Gimnasio Nacional in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Stage & Lighting for "Suenos Callajeros".

 

From the moment I stepped off the plane in El Salvador, I could feel the potential in this city. People are so open for change and they are very warm and welcoming to Americans. The church that we started almost 2 years ago has their own building and has over 100 members. This weekend will be pivotal because we are believing for hundreds of people to give their lives to Jesus and to get involved in the church.We want to make a powerful impact for Christ and we believe that now is the time for El Salvador. The city is so strategic because of the open movement between El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica. We believe that we can make a difference in all of Central America.

The teams have been working hard all month. This crusade has been the work of young people from all over Latin America and the UTC. Our crusade director Luis Veliz has spoken highly of the teams and was impressed by their hard work and diligence. However, nerves are running very high as we approach the weekend. One great thing is that we have received from 50-100 calls a day from people interested in the event and we have received a booming response from all of the television and radio appearances the teams have made these past 2 weeks. One day 4 teams were on 4 different radio stations at the same time and dominated the San Salvador Radio waves for 10 minutes. Even as we have driven around the city we have heard the radio promotion playing on the radio.

Al & Raul @ ground zero.

 

At 4pm tomorrow afternoon we will open the doors for this powerful event that we believe will impact San Salvador with the love of Jesus. Keep us in prayer as we partner with churches, musical groups and Marinelle Arrue. We are believing God for a great harvest. God is in control.

Pastor Al

5 Star Church (part 2)

Recently I posted an article entitled the 5 star church. My idea came from the book, “5 Star Church” by Stan Toler. I believe that VOSD is called to be a top church in San Diego with a very unique vision to reach the world for Christ. How can all of this become possible? We are completely committed to building our leaders and church members in their ability to lead and influence people to reach their full-potential in Christ. However, this takes a committed effort to develop. Some may call this missional, I call it intentional. What are the benefits of building and training leaders in a 5 Star church? The following is taken from “5 Star Church” coupled with some of my own application.

1. Trained leaders are more effective. I believe that in our church context, people are definitely hungry for development. We recognize that in order to keep the harvest, we must become more effective. In the long run, people gravitate to effective churches where they feel that they are receiving “the goods”. Leaders skills must grow.

2. Trained leaders are more fulfilled. There is nothing better than to see a leader who is fulfilled in what God has called them to do. There is nothing more sad than to see a leader who is unfulfilled and not growing. Ineffectiveness eats away at confidence and satisfaction. People who lead want to feel like they know what they are doing.

3. Trained leaders are less transient. Leaders have choices. Leaders make choices. If someone feels like they are not growing or they are not being given the skills or opportunity to lead effectively, they will make a choice to find a place where they can be given an opportunity to grow and lead. 

4. Trained leaders attract quality associates and members. The great part of training leaders is that as they improve in quality and they develop better skills they begin to attract more skilled and effective members who will assist in building the House of God. Remember, “Like produce like.”

5. Trained leaders raise the quality quotient. In our church context, our leaders expect more from us now. Not only are they growing, but they are doing 2 other things: They have raised they quality of the church and they expect more from their leaders. Our staff must continue to grow if we expect to be effective with the leaders who God is raising up in our church. It really is a beautiful thing.

Here at VOSD, we are taking off the limits. It all begins with us. We will produce what we are. We can only expect what we inspect, and we want to reach our full potential in Christ. If you want to be a part of a 5 Star church in the making, join us this week and be a part of what God is doing in our midst.

Have a great week.

Pastor Al

Prayer Night 4 (Photo Update)

Last night we completed our 4th evening of corporate prayer for 2009. Our theme has been, “Positioning Ourselves Through Prayer”. It has been a wonderful encouragement to see how many people are just hungry for God. I have purposely been coming in a little after the prayer service has begun, just to get a glimpse of how people are coming in and what the atmosphere has been like and I have been so touched to see that people are coming to take care of business in the “spirit realm”. The atmosphere is one of prayer and not really an atmosphere of fellowship, which is amazing for our church because we love to fellowship. People have bee really pressing in for God to move this year.

I think the highlight of the evening was when we anointed every person in that place with oil. It took us an hour but it was powerful. People were excited and touched by the power of God. You could really feel that God is taking us to new dimensions. Tonight, we bring our week of prayer to a completion but the spirit of prayer will continue to grow in our cell groups and services. We are hungry for God and we are hungry for His presence. We are in position.

Prayer Night 2

All, I can say is wow. I am really beside myself when I think of how powerful this week has started out to be. My only reference is when we used to gather together at 6 am @ the Mother Church for prayer and intercession. We were praying for revival! Those were days when we were so hungry for a move of God that a small prayer meeting of a few youth leaders turned into about 200 people praying every morning.

Today, I am witnessing something on a “whole ‘nutha level” as Ed Young says. Last night we had about 350 people gather together for prayer, tonight we had over 450 people gathering! There was hardly any space to pray. We actually grew in number. The altars were packed and the seats were packed. We felt the genuine movement of the Holy Spirit!

Our target tonight was for our church and our local leadership. We have a deep desire to go to another level. We want to be a force in our city. We want to see the lost saved. We want to see a powerful breakthrough in our finances. We want revival!

There were more than 3 people who came up to me and said, “Pastor my unsaved son or daughter is outside. They came to see what was happening. They feel that God is dealing with them. They want to get saved tonight.” I mean, when it really boils down to it, isn’t that why we pray? Isn’t it for the lost loved one’s who we know should be on the inside of the revival and not on the outside? Many people gave their lives to God tonight.

I want to personally invite you to this weeks prayer meeting. You can come from Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Imperial Valley, North County or just fly in on Southwest. You will not regret it! Tomorrow we will be praying for the entire ministry of VO and we will be hearing from Pastor James Brady, pastor of VO Capetown. Lord send revival to VO.

We pray from 7pm to 9pm nightly.

I’m in position.

Pastor Al