Living @ Work

Posted on May 23, 2021 in eNews | Comments Off on Living @ Work

Yesterday we started ANOTHER National Quarantine. Instead of working from home we have been living @ work! I am not even quite sure where to begin, this last year has drug us through such a wild field of emotional highs and lows that it sometimes feels like we no longer know up from down. Living and working in the country that held the longest record for full national quarantine it is hard to truly convey the broad scope of feelings we’ve experienced here. From March-October we were not permitted to leave our home except to buy groceries, medicines, and go to the bank.

Thankfully our 3 children had already been accustomed to online schooling; however, it was still hard not to have the option of leaving the house for anything. We were relieved in October when we were allowed to somewhat return to public activity with socially distanced outdoor activities. But even over the last few months the government has decided to put us back on a 6pm-6am curfew with no public gatherings. Social activities, including church, are again not permitted and even the Bible school campus has been closed to outside teachers coming on campus in an attempt to curb COVID cases. And now they’ve announced a 9-day nation-wide quarantine which we are praying doesn’t get extended. Last year it started with a 10-day quarantine and then was ultimately extended to 8 months.

As a media missionary I have been pushing everyone I come in contact with to have an online and digital presence since we began serving with AGWM over 20 years ago on June 1, 2000. We have been able to work with MANY churches and ministries throughout the years, but the recognition of the importance of media ministry was never more appreciated than it has been in this last year. Never before have I felt so much confirmation of our work in media ministry and in training as many media ministers as we can. However, it’s hard to put into words the feelings we’ve felt being so isolated from others and uncertainty that come with border closings etc.

Our media ministry school at the River Plate Bible Institute continues to grow as we produce pre-recorded classes as well as live classes; in 2020 we had 167 students and so far this year we already have 77. When the national quarantine was announced in March 2020 the bible school students were given the option of staying on campus 24/7 or returning home and working online. I am overjoyed to report that not 1 single student was lost as some chose to work from home while others worked on campus. For months my department and I were thanked publicly and privately for our years of service and preparation “for such a time as this” as we quite literally overnight went from the full “normal” residential program to a hybrid in-person/online/pre-recorded system with many of the courses already filmed and available online as well as live multi-camera zoom chapels and classes. I can honestly say that I have never felt more appreciated in my media ministry work as I have in this last year.

God’s Divine Timing

The Lord knew exactly what He was doing in January 2020 when we decided to start a major push and began filming as many of our School of Media Ministry (EMM) courses as possible for our online school. We of course had no way of knowing how soon we would need it, but within the 2.5 months we were filming we were able to record 15 of our 22 courses. This was no small feat as courses have as many as 25 classes while some of the lighter topics have 7. We knew we wanted to capture as many as we could and we would eventually edit them when we had time.

Little did we know that soon we would have PLENTY of time to edit. Within a couple weeks of the beginning of quarantine we were able to offer our full course for “Streaming” through EMM. We launched with a live zoom event explaining the basics to where pastors who had no idea how to start were equipped to stream THAT Sunday and then we also made available the 7-class course which covered more in-depth training on advanced techniques for online services; it was well received.

Click to discover more about our School of Media Ministry on Facebook

New Manuals and a
New Leadership School!

During this pandemic our work with King’s Castle and Castle Club International was amplified like never before through newly re-written, updated, and completely re-designed Castle Club manuals as well as a new online leadership school called “CDR Institute” for King’s Castle; which presently has 85 students from literally all over the world.

A New Gear

This past year Michelle had to relearn how to train leaders and do evangelism and discipleship changing almost every way she did ministry in general. Something clicked inside of her as she began understanding what it meant for us to be “media missionaries” as I began to show and help her use media in her ministry. She did trainings for teachers to relearn how to do ministry and saw the Holy Spirit move in every workshop. The Holy Spirit showed her time and time again that there are no limits to His moving. She saw teachers healed, delivered from anxiety and depression, filled with the Holy Spirit and injected with purpose. Teachers were healed from back pain, arches formed in feet, chronic pain was healed, cataracts disappeared, a tumor dissolved… so many things happen in every zoom meeting as they received practical training to work with their kids ministries.

Then in November she did an online training for 120 new Castle Club Instructors from all over the world and saw God prepare these revivalists in every meeting, class, and homework assignments. Now she is seeing the fruit of these trainings this year as it is producing ripple effects throughout the nations in which these leaders work. Children are being saved, filled with power, and reaching other children!

Click to discover more about Club Castillo Argentina on Facebook

The Club CastiShow

Every Saturday we have been releasing a new “CastiShow” on youtube and we have heard stories of healings, salvations and so much more. A little 5-year-old girl in Cambodia started watching the show and her mom wrote to tell us that her daughter was watching the show on salvation and began to weep and said “mommy pray for me I want to receive Jesus in my heart.”

We probably will never know the full ripple effect of who we have reached in this time of being obedient and producing, producing, producing but we are being obedient and doing what God has been telling us to do.

Check out both Spanish and English Club CastiShows

The Lord woke Michelle up at the end of last year in the middle of the night and said to start an Online leadership school. She got out of bed and wrote out the entire plan of what the Lord was saying and on March 8^th “CDR Institute” was launched. It’s been an amazing adventure to see what God does thru pre-recorded teachings! We have had students delivered from addiction after being confronted in a class on holiness. Students who weren’t baptized in the Holy Spirit, receive the Baptism after watching a class. Students who had lost their focus and drifted into sin, revived and redirected to fulfill God’s call on their lives.

Thanks to YOUR support!

We are fully convinced that there is NOTHING that the Holy Spirit can’t do through media!

This year we have started several newsletters, but it is hard sometimes to put into words what is going on. It’s like something we have never experienced before; an “Online Revival”. The world has gone crazy and if we don’t stay connected to Jesus, we will too. We are excited to see what God is going to do this year and we wanted to say thank you for sticking with us. Without your prayers and support we would NOT be able to remain on the field!

We appreciate each one of you SO much. We are reaching so many people because of your partnership. We couldn’t do any of this without your faithful support.

Every time we get a financial statement, we pray for each one of you by name. We are looking forward to itineration next year to see you guys face to face and share what God is doing.

Prayer Requests

We are entering into the 4th year of this term. As we do we continue to pray for quickened obedience. When God asks us to do something, we will have quickened obedience.

*Pray for strength and speed to complete current projects before the term ends.
*Pray for current and future students in BOTH the media ministry school and CDR Institute.
*Pray for our family and sanity during quarantine, restrictions, and pray the airports don’t close again.
*Pray for our finances to continue to come in so we have operating funds to go above and beyond.

Thank-you for being a part of this missionary journey!

Blessings,

Jonathan Wellborn & Family

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