Jessen’s in Peru FAQ

Hello friends,
I am embarrassed to admit it but I’ve been caught talking to myself a few times, so if you would do me a favor and have this conversation with me I won’t feel so bad. Here we go. You ask the questions and I’ll answer.

I’ve heard something about you and your family going to South America this summer. What’s up with that?

That is correct. I am so excited to be leaving May 22 to fly to Ecuador where I’ll meet up a short-term team to lead them in sports ministry and church planting. I’ll then travel via bus to connect with a couple other e3 guys, and we’ll travel to various parts of Peru teaching at Leadership Development Conferences (LDC’s). On June 3rd, Jenni, Scarlet and Maverek will meet me in Lima, Peru. In the following 2 ½ months we’ll be working in various parts of Peru teaching and helping to start new churches. We’ll be returning to the USA on August 19th.

Is this some kind of vacation or something? What will you actually be do­ing?

I’m glad you asked because this is a very important question. We will be doing two types of ministry while we are there. In order to equip our national brothers and sisters to be able to reach their country for Christ, we’ll be teaching in what we call Leadership Development Conferences (LDC’s). LDC’s are conferences that pastors and other lay church leaders are invited to attend. During the conference we teach on the vision of church multiplication, evangelism, prayer, training leaders and mak­ing disciples. Equipped with this training and other tools, national leaders can then begin to train others on how to lay the foundation for a church planting movement. This foundation allows God to rapidly expand His church in their area, after all, it is He alone who builds His church.

Our second form of ministry will be leading short-term mission trips. As teams come down from the USA we’ll lead them in sports ministry clinics that will lead to the start of new churches. By God’s grace and with His strength, we hope to be able to help plant 20 churches over the course of the summer.

Will you guys be doing anything else?

When we are not involved in LDC’s or leading trips, we’ll be visiting and encouraging our many Peruvian friends. We will also be surveying other areas for future work. We will invest time in studying a people group in the north known as the Lam­bayeque. The Lambayeque has approximately 28,000 people with only four evangeli­cal churches. We will begin planning an extreme adventure trip next spring to help the Lambayeque begin making disciples and planting churches within their own peo­ple group. We also hope to investigate unchurched coastal areas where surfing may be used to break down barriers, build relationships and make disciples.

Well, that all sounds great. How can we be involved?

John Piper has been quoted as saying, “Lord, let me make a difference for you that is utterly disproportionate to who I am.” It is our prayer that the Lord will do mighty things in and through our family while we are there so that His fame may spread. Prayer is the key to any success we could possibly have during our time there. Please pray for unity, peace, protection, strength, humility and health.

That is awesome, I’ll definitely be praying for you but is there any other ways I can be involved?

Actually, there is still time to join us! Our trip August 7-15th could still use you! It’s not too late to sign up. Call or email us if God is nudging you to join us on the field.

Also, God’s provision through our financial support team is what makes all this pos­sible. If you’d like to join our support team, tax-deductable gifts can be sent to: e3 Partners Ministry, 600 Development Dr, Suite 120, Plano, TX 75074. By including a note that says the gift is for Kelly & Jenni Jessen the funds will be routed to our min­istry account.

Boy, 3 months is a long time. How can we follow what you guys will be do­ing?

Electronic communication has allowed us to provide much faster news from the mission field. We will be communicating with our friends and family through email and our website. If you are not currently receiving emails from us you can send a blank email to oin-jessen-ministry-partners@lyris.e3partners.org and you’ll auto­matically be signed up on our email list. We will also be providing updates at www.jessenfamilyministry.blogspot.com.

Now that was a great and informative conversation! Thank you for your interest in our ministry and we look forward to sharing with you in person all the amazing things we saw God do in Ecuador and Peru when we return.

Until all the nets are full,
The Jessens

Jessens Plan Trip to Galapagos Islands

Here’s the latest new from Kelly and Jenni Jessen, our partners with e3/SportReach:

Heading to the Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands is an island chain that gave birth to Darwin’s theory of evolution. There are 14 islands, 4 of which are inhabited with 40,000 people. From February 24th to March 9, Kelly will be working on the islands to plant churches. One of the main goals of this trip is to work with a mother church from Santa Cruz to start a new church on a small island that currently does not have a church. We will be doing door-to-door evangelism as means of sharing the gospel with the adults as well as he’ll be leading sporting events to help reach out to the children. We’d appreciate your prayers during this time.

What does e3 stand for anyway?

e3 is a simple way to sum up our mission. At e3/Sportreach we strive to equip God’s people to evangelize his world and establish his church. Equip, Evangel­ize, Establish: e3. On our trips, we equip nationals in prayer, evangelism, disci­pleship, and starting new churches. We then assist and model evangelism through using the Evangecubes and eBalls. Finally we model the disciplining of new believers which leads to new home churches. It seems so small just adding e3 on the front of SportReach, but it will have huge kingdom impact.

So what is a church planting movement?

A church planting movement is a rapid multiplication of indigenous churches. This happens when the mother church plants new churches in such a way as to cause a wildfire of church planting that sweeps through a peo­ple group or population segment. e3 partners with ex­isting national churches that have a heart for starting other churches with this goal in mind. We are training leaders within mother churches that are then able to lead the home churches started when our short-term mission teams come to work in their area. These new churches are Bible study worship groups, striving to be obedient to God’s Word, with unpaid church leaders, clustered in small cell groups, meeting in homes. As their church in a home setting grows to capacity, lead­ers are being developed to be able to go out and start new home churches without the help from an American team. This is the foundation for a church planting movement that God can use to spread his grace rapidly through an area.

Join Us on a Trip
We’re taking these trips in the coming months. Consider joining us!

• 4/11-4/19: Costa Rica
• 6/19-6/27: Ecuador
• 7/10-7/18: Peru
• 8/7-8/16: Peru