THE RIPPLE EFFECT: THE MAJOR CONSEQUENCES OF MINOR ACTIONS
It was October 2024 and I was preparing for our upcoming E4 mission trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, needing one other pastor to go with me. I called an old friend to see if he was available to go (which he wasn't) but he recommended I call another friend, Pastor Mike Gowans, from Phoenix, Arizona, who he said was doing great work in Central America. Who knew that just one call and conversation would have such a ripple effect across Costa Rica, resulting in nearly 4,000 people deciding to follow Jesus last week. The ripple effect is defined as a situation where one event produces a spreading, pervasive, and usually unintentional influence that results in exponential growth. The truth is the Bible is full of stories of men and women whose seemingly small decisions had a ripple effect on those around them and changed history.
The ripple effect in Costa Rica started when Pastor Mike Gowans followed up on a conversation with Dr. Ronald Vargas, the President of the Evangelical Alliance. Dr. Vargas shared the Alliance's desire to achieve four goals: unify the churches, develop healthy pastors and leaders, reignite evangelism in the country (especially among the youth), and grow a discipleship vision. He asked Mike to partner with him on strategic outreach across all seven provinces of the nation. On this trip to the Canas region of Costa Rica we saw incredible fruit resulting from this conversation. Here is the ripple effect that occurred when the body of Christ and 18 churches beautifully partnered together:
Our team hosted gospel-centered assembly programs at 17 different schools resulting in over 5,000 young people hearing the Good News.
Five sports clinics (three basketball and 2 soccer) were held, impacting 275 young people.
A Night of Hope was held with over 3,000 people in attendance.
A women's conference was held for 250 women in the region.
A leadership gathering and equipping event was held with the city's civic leaders and mayor.
The national news station came to cover one of our school assemblies and ran an 8 minute piece on our outreach.
And most importantly, nearly 4,000 people responded to the salvation call to receive Jesus as Lord and begin a relationship with Him.
Thank you for your prayers and support, which allow us to partner in these Kingdom efforts. We can't wait to see the ripple effects God will cause throughout this year in San Jose, Costa Rica; Leon, Nicaragua; Nikoya, Costa Rica; Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Vlore, Albania; and Amadora, Portugal as we serve in these regions.
