"As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him." - Psalm 18:30
2009 Annual Overview Report
A two-part video report is posted through Youtube until I can upload directly to this site. Cick a player arrow below. The transcript is below the videos.
View Part One here:
View Part Two here:
ANNUAL OVERVIEW for 2009 – Report from Roger Leonard
I left out one very important event, and that was our son Clay’s graduation from high school. We are very proud of him. He was number ten out of more than 500 in his class!
[Begin] First of all, I want to thank all of you who support us in Latin American Missions. I want to give you an overview of things that I did and some of the rest of us did with regard to my personal work in 2009.
I’m reminded of the apostle Paul’s report he gave at the end of his 1st missionary journey to the church at Antioch. Acts 14:26-27: “From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed.
Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.”
Paul came and reported on his mission work to the church at Antioch that had sent him out, and we want to take a few minutes today and report some things to you. So I hope you enjoy the report.
Nicaragua/Panama trip Jan 9-21
This report begins with a trip from Nicaragua to Panama in Jan. the 9th-21st. We’ve been working in Nicaragua since 1992. I made my 1st trip there in 1995 and we’re working with about 18 congregations and preachers there now. I had a meeting with these men while I was on the trip. We had a good meeting. And Bro. Mainor Perez has been my contact man. He moved to Costa Rica. Now Bro. William, or Guillermo Hernandez (right) is my contact man in Nicaragua. He doesn’t speak English, but we’re doing well in our communication and he’s doing a good job.
We left Managua on Jan 12 to head for the Costa Rica border to make it there by that evening, and we did by nightfall. We went ahead and crossed the border and spent two nights in Costa Rica. Halfway across we stayed in San Jose during the day and visited with Mainor’s family. Mainor stayed with me on the trip as we went across the mountains and until we got to the Panama border. So Mainor was with me two days of the trip, almost.
We reached the Panama border and Bro. Jose Rodriguez started travelling with me as we headed for Panama City. When we got to David, Panama we came upon a presidential rally---running for the new presidential office in the country there. It created quite a traffic jam, but it only slowed us down a little while. We were actually delivering this Toyota truck to take it to the Bible School of the Americas in Panama City. Several of the men from the school met us when we got to Panama City, and that was a welcoming sight. It’s a long drive from Managua to Panama City. There were long hours. It’s a hard trip. We almost got run off the mountain in Costa Rica, but we made it safely. It took 2 days and 507 miles.
Sunday morning, Feb. 14, we worshipped with the El Carmen church in downtown Panama City. Bro. Agenor Rudas, one of the teachers in the school, did the Bible class that morning. There was a good attendance and good class participation. This is a fairly young congregation. This couple, pictured here, had come to visit. They were from Columbia, so we made a contact with them. I was able to preach on Sunday morning and was happy to be able to do that.
Once I got the truck delivered to the Bible School of the Americas, we visited with students that week there in Panama City. I was able to talk with some of the Nicaraguans who will go back to their country at the end of the year.
There are four campuses to the Bible School of the Americas. While we were there in Feb. we had a video conference with the Columbia and the Peru campuses from Panama. One of the brothers from the San Blas campus and the men from the school there in Panama City connected with men in Columbia and Peru to discuss students, curriculum, and plans for the future. The video conference went very well and it is an excellent way to communicate and very inexpensive.
We also had our annual lectureships that very same week there in Panama City. Some of the men from the school and men from other places in Panama, and some of us from the states discussed different topics from the book of Romans. It was a great study and we all felt like it was very profitable for the week.
One of our family highlights this year was the marriage of our daughter, Amanda, to John Ware. John and Amanda met at Freed Hardeman and had been dating for several months. They got married here in Valdosta. Of course, all the family was able to be here. Alisa is pictured here. Her mom and dad had come from KY and her brother and their family. Also John’s family—his mom and dad, his grandparents, and his brother. It was a nice wedding. It was simple, but elegant enough. They had a very nice reception. Everything just went off very well. Of course, the most important thing to us, is that both John and Amanda are Christians. They are living in Henderson, TN now both attending Freed Hardeman finishing up their schooling.
CAMPAIGNS
Estelí, Nicaragua Evangelism/VBS June 11-19
Our first campaign was in the country of Nicaragua in Estelí. This congregation was started about 2 years ago. We had a vacation Bible school and we had teachers come and work from the Lakeside church in Jacksonville, FL. And we preached the gospel every night. We had children in the daytime for VBS and adults come at night to hear the Word of God preached. The local preacher did the preaching. I was able to preach one night, but I’d rather those guys preach and reach out to their own people. We also went from house to house during the week and did a lot of door-knocking and Bible studies. Some people were more receptive than others (dog barking video). We also studied with a man there on the street by the name of Teleforo. Teleforo didn’t read but he did listen to the gospel being preached, and he also sang for us. (video of singing). That was entertaining, but our primary purpose for being in Esteli was to preach the gospel. We went house to house and studied with a lot of people giving them the opportunity to hear and understand the will of God from His Word. During the campaign there were 5 people who were restored. They came forward at night and asked for prayers. And there also were several baptisms during the week. And Bro. Pablo Castellón is the preacher and he will be busy with these 5 restored souls and 10 who gave their lives to the Lord and were baptized into Christ for the remission of their sins.
Before I left the states to go to Nicaragua, I had been contacted by this doctor and gospel preacher, Hezor Suazo. He preaches just outside Managua in a small town there. We had a good visit and it was very interesting to learn of the work he’s doing. And he’s also self-supporting.
Our second campaign went to Panama. We went to the Bocas del Toro region of Panama. This was our annual YES II evangelism campaign that is sponsored by the Forrest Park church. We went to the village of Rio Oeste where one of the preachers we support is working and living. Rio Oeste is very rural and they still are very primitive in many ways. In the way they live—washing their clothes, the way they have their own gardens and grow a lot of their own living food as they raise animals. They live on the river, and even while we were there we got the opportunity to see this sloth as it climbed up a tree. But our primary reason there of course again, was to preach the gospel. This is the local church building, here in the center, (picture) that the congregation there has built from their own resources. And young people went out and worked daily preaching the gospel and sharing the Word of God with other young people. And we had young people’s teen classes every day. The youth minister from Forrest Park, Spen Broome, taught the boys. And my wife, Alisa, taught the girls. Then the last day that they had their sessions they were all together. We had gospel preaching every night. Different ones of us preached to share the message of Christ and to help the congregation there, not only to reach out, but we gave lessons that would help them to grow as they seek to be stronger in the community.
One day took us out to the village of Valle Risco which is very nearby to Rio Oeste. Bro. Rueben Gallegos is the preacher there. The community there is very opportunistic for him to reach out. This is their church building (picture). And several of us went over that day and went to different places and had several studies. We worked with one of the other preachers, Alisa and I did, from the area, Bro. Reynaldo Midi. And we went first of all to this sister’s house. Her name is Ava. I don’t know how old she was, but she had a grandson there that was not a Christian and we had a Bible study with him and were able to share the message of God with him so that he could understand God’s will better. There were several baptisms on the campaign. Bro. Gilberto Blandford is the gospel preacher in Rio Oeste and he will be doing a good job working with all these new converts. There were 12 restorations and 23 baptisms in that campaign.
When we went back to Panama City we visited with the Bible School of the Americas and also the children’s home. It was nice for me to be able to have my children, Clay and Ellie and Will and, of course, my wife, Alisa, to be along on a trip. We really were thankful for people helping us be able to do and serve the Lord together in this campaign.
In Aug. I was back in Panama to teach at the Bible School of the Americas actually, but that Sunday I went to the Margarita congregation which is on the other side of the country. I had never been there. They asked me to preach that morning and we also had one of the students from the school to do the class. Every member of the congregation asked for prayer. After the worship we started to go back and we went to a local food court at a mall. The mall was closed but the food court was open. And we had the opportunity to talk to some people there about the Lord. One of the guards who worked for the mall asked for some tracts after we had given some to one of the ladies at a little coffee shop there. Opportunities are still there for us to share the gospel in Panama.
My primary reason for being in Panama in August was to teach the books of I and II Samuel in extension courses for the Bible School of the Americas. All the students in the Panama campus attended. There were 22, which included wives of some of the students there who were going to be preachers. We covered all of I and II Samuel, took three tests, they did an outline of the books, and did sermon outlines. I felt like every student did very well even including memory work that they did. It was a very challenging week for me, but we did cover I and II Samuel in 4 ½ days.
Looking back earlier in the year there were some heavy rains that came into the Province of Bocas del Toro, Panama. There are several congregations of the Lord’s church there, and we raised money and sent it there. Brethren even from Panama City went up and helped and shared with staple foods and other things that the brethren needed there to help them.
The gospel of Christ still is the power of God to save the souls of men and women.
Other things we’ve done this year: I’ve been able to help with the local radio program and work some with the local jail ministry, and other things that I’ve done as a deacon with the Forrest Park church. We all fall short and can do more. But we thank you for all that you’ve done to help us in serving the Lord in Latin America in 2009.
Thanks so much to my wife Alisa for sitting through the video report and transcribing this for me!
Roger Leonard
Comments or Questions?