Newsletter: 2002

Posted: May 05, 2017

Author: Greig Detering | Created: December 01, 2002 at 10:00 PM

Winter 2002

Christian radio station La Roca (The Rock) 95.5 FM is now the most powerful radio station in Sarmiento, Chubut, Argentina thanks to your prayers and financial support. We purchased the new 80-foot radio tower on 9/11, 2002. The tower was operational by the end of October with new dipole antennas and a 250-watt amplifier. Combined, this gives us effective output power of more than 1000 watts, which reaches a 50-mile radius or 10,000 square miles. This is a huge improvement from having to tweak my antenna to get the signal in my house at the other end of town. Many volunteer laborers have been transforming this garage studio into a professional broadcast station. We also added a new mixing board capable of broadcasting call-in programs, CD deck, sound room and microphones.

Prophetically gifted Pastor Cabezas, who is often featured on Christian and secular television in Argentina and Chile and is president of the fellowship of pastors in Sarmiento, tearfully admitted that after 7 years of ministry in that town, he and his family had their bags packed to leave. He felt that the Lord must want him in another place since their ministry needs and prayers were no longer being met. This would have been a great loss to the Kingdom of God here. Their economic situation was so bad during this time of crisis that they did not know how they would pay the $30 monthly electric bill to keep the present station operating. Then the Lord sent me to his church to help fulfill His plan for this faithful group of believers.

In November, Merrilee Edwards, a key supporter of this ministry, spent a couple of weeks helping and visiting with our brothers and sisters in Patagonia. I practiced my interpretation skills as she spoke to the local congregation and to the Sarmiento Valley population during two live radio interviews.

Also, thanks to your contributions, the Movimiento Cristiano y Misionero church is now feeding, every Saturday, about one hundred hungry children from local barrios – with food and the Word of God. Seventy-five percent of these children do not live with their parents.

A core of pastors in Sarmiento has been meeting to strategize a unified effort to show the love of God to the local community. Pastor Cabezas went to a meeting near Buenos Aires with fellow Argentine pastors and gave his testimony of how God answered their prayers through Amor Ministries International. In response to his testimony, pastors have started setting up a unified chain of radio stations throughout Argentina. We just received hours of programming to use without charge from another denomination. It is great watching the seed that our ministry has helped to plant grow. Revival is coming to Patagonia!

The day before I left to return to the United States, the mayor of Sarmiento stopped by for a radio interview with Pastor Cabezas. While there, he offered to put his recommendation on an application to the Argentina Communications Commission for an official broadcasting license. This recommendation is key to governmental approval. City Hall tells us that La Roca is now the most listened to station in this city of 12,000 where radio is the dominant form of media. Christian TV, except via satellite, is non-existent here. A large percentage of people do not even have televisions. Your brothers and sisters in Sarmiento send their blessings to all in the US who helped participate in bringing God’s miracle in the form of a radio station.

I am in the US for the month of December and then headed back to Argentina. We are still in need of funds for additional items to finish this project of broadcasting the gospel to thousands of isolated people in Patagonia. Some of the items still needed include: computer, software, sound equipment, telephones, Christian Voice radio satellite receiver, building supplies and a $2,000 broadcast license.

Thank you so much everyone. I will keep you informed of how God is using me and those who work with me, by the power of His Spirit, in the name of The Lord Jesus Christ. Have a blessed New Year!

– Greig

Fall 2002

I am back from Argentina with a greater level of faith in our Lord than when I left. In my last letter I told you that the Lord had ended my mission in El Salvador for now and that almost a year ago He revealed to me that I would be going to Argentina. I kept seeing a place that looked a lot like Oregon. I bought a map of Argentina and was drawn to a place about 100 miles west of the coast in an area known as Patagonia. Thankfully, the Lord gave me confirmations through words from others that this is where He is sending me. I left for Argentina on June 1, 2002 with the support of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ here in the US.

I had some amazing encounters with people that helped me as I went by train and bus from Buenos Aires in the north to near the southern end of Argentina 1200 miles away. From Comodoro Rivadavia, I had clear direction from the Lord to go to Sarmiento, Chubut, a town between two huge lakes, which is on the same latitude in the south as Portland, Oregon is on in the north. It is winter in the southern hemisphere right now and they were getting record low temperatures accompanied with snow.

As opposed to El Salvador, where I felt like I was to make contact with several churches, in Argentina I felt I was to avoid any church contact until I had clear direction from the Spirit of God. While getting to know the town and some nice people, I scouted out the various church buildings but missed the one church that the Lord gave me direction to go to about 10 days after I arrived. That church was the Movimiento Cristiano y Misionero (Christian and Missionary Movement) fellowship. They are loosely attached to a family of very rapidly growing churches started by an evangelist from the US in about 1950 in a town south of Buenos Aires. The pastor at the church in Sarmiento is the son of a pastor who started this fellowship 37 years ago as the first evangelical church in Sarmiento.

I knew nothing about this fellowship when I walked in the door and told pastor Patricio Cabezas that God had sent me to work with him. He said that normally they only work full time with people sent by others in their organization but said the Lord was telling him to work with me. He was worried about how he would pay me until I told him that I was being supported by a group of American Christians who have sent me out under the direction of the Holy Spirit to help and bless them without charge. The more we talked, the more it became obvious why God had led me there. One of his primary goals is to unify the body of Christ and he is also president of the fellowship of pastors. He is a very gifted communicator who specializes in training other 5 fold ministers. There are 18 other churches in this town of 12,000. This fellowship seems to be the model of the kind of church the Lord is trying to build.

The Movimiento Misionero y Cristiano operates one of the three radio stations in town out of the church. The pastor has sacrificed much of his own family’s comfort to keep their station on the air. Its transmission goes a little beyond the city limits which means it reaches about 15,000 people. Many of those people do not have telephones and depend on that FM radio station to deliver news and community information. Most of the air time is taken up by Christian music, from folkloric to rock, along with programs each day spreading the message of Jesus Christ. They have a list of ten rules to make sure that they only preach the gospel, avoiding references to their own church and divisive denominational issues. There is no such thing as Christian television in Patagonia so all Christian broadcast media is through radio stations like theirs. They have been asking the Lord to provide what they needed in the way of expertise and equipment. The pastor says God sent me as an answer to their prayers. Argentina is in the middle of a severe economic crisis. What was affordable a year ago is out of reach for most of the Argentine population. However, right now prices are rock bottom for people with dollars. They knew it was going to take a miracle to keep their station on the air. This ministry is part of that miracle.

I took note of their equipment over the following days and gave them some format change suggestions that seem to work in the US. They have a very gifted volunteer staff but are very much in need of equipment to bring them up to the level of a professional radio station. They need a computer, sound mixer board with telephone feed and some good microphones. This all comes to about $8000. Because of the devaluation of their peso and their high unemployment, that $8000 looks like $80,000 to them. I feel strongly that part of my mission is to help them with these needed upgrades. They also would like to get a feed from a high quality Spanish Christian broadcast out of Miami, Florida which can be costly.

The day before I left Sarmiento to return to the US, I thought I had everything figured out that the Lord wanted me to work on. However, in my hotel room I received a vivid vision. I saw a large radio tower with lights on it on their church property. I ran back to the church and told the pastor about my vision and that I believed the Lord wanted us to build a tower. They only have an antenna on the roof of the church building now. He told me that they had been praying for a tower that would allow them to reach a much wider area and serve an additional 20,000 people. Most of those people have no telephone access or access to other radio stations. He told me that they had all the plans drawn up but did not think it would be a reality for at least 5 years. I told him I was sure that the tower was God’s number one priority and began gathering data from him on what it would take. Bottom line, a 150 foot lighted tower with the additional amplifier and cable runs about $5000 installed. That same installation in the US right now would run about $20000. I told him I did not know how the Lord was going to provide for it but I knew it was His plan.

An e-mail from a friend arrived the same day of my vision that stated some people I had never met wanted to meet with me. Due to scheduling, the day I returned would be the only time we could get together for several months. Miraculously, within 2 hours after returning from Argentina and landing in Phoenix, these wonderful Christians were giving me the $5000 I needed for the tower equipment. Hallelujah! The Lord instantly took a burden off my back. I believe Patagonia will have a new high power radio station before the end of this year.

On the Central American front, I just received a video tape from my contacts in El Salvador of the first multi-church rally in the town square. It brought me to tears. I am still amazed by what is happening in San Juan Opico knowing what the atmosphere was like when I first arrived there more than a year ago. The photo shows a UNEO meeting of the town’s pastors discussing what is next on their agenda as the unified body of Christ. Simply obey and the Lord will cause amazing things to occur. We did.. and He was faithful!

We just received a letter from the IRS stating that Amor Ministries International is now an approved non-profit organization and therefore all donations for 2002 and beyond are tax deductible. Hallelujah!

Thanks again for your prayers and other support. This is only happening because of your help. The unified body of Christ, under the headship of Christ, will accomplish amazing things!

– Greig

Summer 2002

When I arrived in El Salvador in February on my last mission trip there, I had no idea of the kind of surprise I had waiting for me. As soon as I arrived, the people of San Juan Opico began asking me if I had heard what has been happening with the pastors in this city. All of you who have been following this ministry know that I was led here over a year ago. When I arrived here that first time, the Lord told me I was here to unify His body. I have done most of my work in prayer, then going to whoever with a message, financial help, or simply prayer. Our Lord of the miraculous did a few key miracles, with key people, at key times that certainly helped them receive my message. The Lord has led me to help various churches with various things. All of them different. He has also sent me to urge certain pastors to move towards working with other churches.

The fastest growing church fellowship here with a very dynamic pastor (Pedro) is the Assemblies of God congregation. God led me strongly to them. He also led me strongly to the Ministerio Laico congregation. They are strong in ministering to the unsaved poor. A dear sister in the Lord, Maria, was the backbone of the Laico church that I was working with to establish a school. I was also led to some other churches. Although I am good friends with both pastor Pedro and Maria, they did not work with each other. Pastor Pedro said he could not work with the Laico church because he did not agree with some of the things their denomination had done. It became apparent that the Lord sent me to work most closely with 2 of the most opposing churches. The Laico church got a new full time pastor named Miguel in October who I met for the first time on the street coincidentally on the only day Rod, the president of this ministry’s board, was is Opico.

Long story short, a month before I went back to El Salvador, pastor Pedro of the Assembly of God church had a gathering where he invited all of the church pastors that the Lord had called me to, and more. It was a large meeting with many supporting members of the individual churches. Pedro had asked his right hand man, and someone who God had also given a heart for unity, to speak on the unification of the body of Christ. Apparently, the Spirit of God hit them with a wave of conviction. Within minutes, all of the pastors were on stage crying and hugging each other and declaring that there is only one church of the Lord Jesus Christ. They made a pact to forget their differences and work together to get back to their purpose which was to enlarge spiritually and in numbers the whole body of Christ. Whoooaaaaaaaa!

Immediately after I first arrived here on this last trip, I went to visit Pedro at the Assembly of God church. I walked in to find a special meeting going on with Manuel, from the Laico church at the other end of town, tag team teaching with Pedro to a bunch of our brothers and sisters, about all the benefits of unity in the body of Christ. Pedro has put together a series of weekly teachings on the scriptural basis for church unity. These men had to be the 2 most unlikely pastors to work together that I was led to. They are now leading the unification charge.

The pastors have been meeting and praying with each other and deciding how they would share various things to increase their evangelistic power in Opico. They have created an organization called UNEO (Union Evangelica de Opico) that’s sole objective is to encourage the working together of the whole body of Christ in San Juan Opico, El Salvador. Each of the officers of UNEO is a pastor from a different organization. President Pedro and Secretary Jorge are shown here. Another photo is of a meeting with Vice President Manuel and my successors. Pedro told me he is already scheduled to speak at several churches throughout El Salvador on the Lord´s message of unity, including speaking in the large cities of Santa Ana and San Vicente. Every church has something that the other churches do not have, spiritually and materially. The Lord made sure that anything I helped with financially would only enhance their need for each other.

To help put into perspective how miraculous this is, Tacualhuya is a town about 10 kilometers from here. It is smaller than San Juan Opico, but has 3 Assembly of God fellowships. They do not even work together!

I feel like this is a dream. People have come to me and said they believe the Lord has already completed the vision He gave me. Our Lord is so faithful. I never thought I would be here to see what I am seeing place here. I believe our Lord is causing things to occur very quickly as His reappearing nears. This has been one more lesson in just doing what I am supposed to do and the God of the impossible will do the rest. Thanks for all you have done to make this happen. We all simply held up our arms in obedience and the Lord of Hosts gave us the victory.

I read to some of the churches again the words that the Lord gave me to prophecy to them when I first arrived here. They were, ‘When the churches of this town unite, the Lord is going to use Opico as a spark to ignite the fire of God in El Salvador’. It is happening! I hope this blesses you a fraction as much as it has blessed me. Pray this movement continues. The enemy really hates this!

I had another great blessing when my sister Diane and brother in law Chris came to El Salvador to visit me in early March. They were able to see many of the fruits that have been produced by your sowing into this ministry. They are shown here gettingSpanish lessons from some local children and flipping pupusas, the local food staple.

The Lord gave me instructions to leave El Salvador long before this last trip. However, unknown to me, He had been setting things up for this work to continue on without me. He led me to fellowship greatly with two people from that area over the last few months who He revealed to me the last week before I returned back to the US, were going to be taking over for my work there after I leave. Their names are Elida Quijano and Carlos Maravilla. They will be able to accomplish many things that I could not have accomplished. Elida is president of the Opico chamber of commerce, a leader in the multi-denominational Christian women’s group AGLOW and also has strong ties to the Catholic community in Opico. Carlos is more technically gifted than anyone else I met in Opico, having worked in television productions for many years. He will be attending a large Bible college in San Salvador. Neither of them have strong ties with a particular denomination but are dedicated towards building the whole church. They are shown here with Maria to their right. I will be staying in contact with them to hear what the Lord is continuing to do in that town and send them some financial help and what guidance I can from afar. I hope to be back to El Salvador within 2 years to see what the Lord, working through His sons and daughters, have done while I was out.

When the Lord told me that this would be my last trip to El Salvador for 2002, I felt like I would be leaving prematurely. Now I feel like I am leaving just in time. The Lord is now leading me into Argentina, a country that has been shocked by economic disaster lately. Like my El Salvador situation before I went there for my first time, I am not sure what I will be doing, but pray that I will hear His directions as I once again head out to help the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our King Jesus Christ.

Thanks again for your prayers and other support. This is only happening because of your help. The unified body of Christ, under the headship of Christ, will accomplish amazing things!

– Greig

Spring 2002

I hope everyone had a good holiday season. I was able to spend some time in the US in December and January preparing for another year of ministry abroad and taking care of those obligations of a good citizen, like taxes.

The two pictures shown here are photos of paintings that a friend of mine from San Juan Opico gave me. They are very close representations of the 2 visions that the Lord gave me before setting out for San Juan Opico, El Salvador.

Over the last year, much of what I believe the Lord sent me to do has been accomplished. Because of the support you have given, we were able to save a church from losing their buiding, provide bus transportation for another church, repair earthquake damage to some houses of worship, get telephones in all the church buildings, provide clothing to many of the poor and, most importantly, get the word of God into the hands of many who could not even afford a Bible.

Things did not go as smoothly, however, with the church that I was led most strongly to and the one that has the greatest heart for unity. But as we all know, the Lord works in mysterious ways! Their heart was to create a Christian based school for the children, with bible based training for the adults as well. We looked into buying the top floor of a building next to their fellowship hall, but could not afford the price of $28,000. Next we looked into buying a small piece of land next door, but first the price was raised and then it was taken off the market. We then looked into bringing plumbing and telephone service into their small fellowship hall and using that as temporary facilities for the school. But prices for new government services are very high and can take months or years to get in. We seemed to be on hold for the school that we strongly felt was the will of God.

The week before I left, Maria, a woman with very deep faith in the Lord and the driving force behind this church, announced to me that the man who held the second mortgage on her house, her sister’s house and the building next door went bankrupt and would be losing all that property to the primary owner. Because he had been allowing Maria and her sister to live on the property, they would both have to leave their houses which were conveniently located across the alley from the fellowship hall. This seemed to be a disaster. But the Lord had another plan.

Two days later, the primary owner, a Christian, came to Maria and told her that he would sell all of the property, including her and her sister’s house and the entire building next door (that was previously priced at $28,000 for the top floor only), worth a total of approximately $50,000, for only $8,000! The building has plumbing, electricity and telephone which can easily be run under the sidewalk between the two buildings in order to bring those things to the fellowship hall.

I returned to El Salvador at the end of February and will be helping finalize this deal and begin retrofitting the building to be a school. God turned the curse into a blessing! All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Your prayers and materials have truly changed lives and the Kingdom of God has been enlarged.

The picture shows the building that will be used to house the new Christian school. Their church building is the blue building to the left. Maria is in the yellow and white dress.

Thanks again for your prayers and other support. This is only happening because of your help. The unified body of Christ, under the headship of Christ, will accomplish amazing things!

- Greig