Fellowship Memphis

Steve Winstead is pictured (far left) serving with DownLine in El Salvador.

In March of 2007 I was a part of a short-term mission trip to Santa Anna, El Salvador. The trip was a partnership between Global Health Outreach and DownLine Ministries. The team consisted of 50 medical and dental folks and 7 DownLine folks. Fellowship member JB Selecman connected DownLine with GHO to do discipleship training. So while part of the team spent the week doing medical and dental work, the portion of the team I was on spent the week teaching and training the leadership of Oasis Church. Little did I know that this would be the first of many trips to El Salvador.

When the team arrived there was a church wide welcoming party! We were greeted us in a manner typically reserved for dignitaries. It was late Saturday afternoon and several hundred people had shown up to greet us. Oasis is a large church that has produced numerous church plants. The pastor, Brother Mauricio Barrientos, is one of the most loving men I have ever encountered.

The most amazing moment on the trip occurred when Brother Mauricio stood before his congregation and confessed through tears that he had not been leading the church according to Jesus’ strategy. This was an amazing experience to watch a much beloved pastor humbly confessing a need to change directions. Over the course of the week Brother Mauricio had gained a clear understanding of Jesus strategy of making disciples. I thank God for the opportunity to experience this!

Since that first trip several teams have returned to continue to train the church leaders that are a part of the Oasis Church plant network. Recently Brother Mauricio has arranged conferences for over 120 pastors in the Santa Anna area. It is a true blessing to get to be a part of sharing God’s strategy for making disciples in El Salvador. It is exciting for Fellowship to get to participate in what God is doing in El Salvador.

February 6, 13, and 27, Fellowship Global will offer required training at 9am at Colonial for anyone interested in joining a team in 2011.