Jarred Bess (R) on a bus full of counselors in El Salvador

After we concluded we went out to eat with Albert and Juan Antonio and his wife Esmeralda at Pizza Hut to recount the week. 

The next day we came home.  Overall on this trip I was impressed in the growth of our relationships with the pastors and the churches, with the growth of Jarred and Daniel as ministers, and the growth in the churches through the addition of new souls and strengthening of faith through signs and wonders the Lord allowed us to see.  I am still bewildered by why God gives me, of all people, the opportunity to serve Him and walk in His power.

October 14, 2011 - Hi all, We are having a great time in El Salvador -- salvations, healing, deliverance, counsel to pastors and filling of God's wonderful Holy Spirit. See the two video testimonies of healing -- one lady's hand didn't work and another man was healed from sever sinus problems. More later.... pat

Lady's finger gets healed

Man's sinusitus healed

October 12, 2011 - Well we just completed our first day of ministry in El Salvador, and what a day it was! It started early with our first service at the House of Prayer Church at 9:30am. Daniel Howell and Jarred Bess gave a greeting and did a great job helping me minister at the altar.We enjoyed the two-guitar worship team that played in amazing latin style as we worshiped our Lord Jesus.

After the worship, they had testimony time with many people getting up and sharing what God had been doing in the last few days. Fantastic time! Next we were called to a time of prayer and the whole church kneeled and prayed for about 25 minutes. We walked around and prayed over many. By the time everybody had soaked in prayer, the preaching time was wonderful and I found everyone was engaged and ready to respond to the Holy Spirit's prompting at the altar. Salvation, repentance, filling of the Holy Spirit, deliverance and healing were all part of our time.

Jarred and Daniel both had many people healed, as did I during our prayer time. I got two of those on video testimony. One was a lady who couldn't move her fingers on one hand, and the Lord healed her! The other was a man plagued by very bad sinus problems who was now able to get a full breath. He was excited!

In just a few more days (October 11) Daniel Howell, Jarred Bess and Pat McGuffin will be traveling to El Salvador for the third Heart of Titus Ministries trip there this year. Excitement is mounting for both the North American team and the pastors in El Salvador preparing to receive them.

Street view, San Salvador

During the exploratory first trip in April Pat and Tony "spied out the land" to

Pat and Tony in San Salvador, April 2011

see what opportunities God would open; He opened the doors wide in serving over a three dozen churches.

In July Pat and Tony were joined by Daniel Howell and by Dr. Byron Lopez and his son Marcel from Ecuador. Even though many obstacles were

	The El Salvador team: Marcel Lopez, Pat, Daniel, Tony, Dr. Byron Lopez - June 2011

encountered, the team once again saw many salvations, healings, deliverances, restoration of marriages, and help to pastors throughout the capital of San Salvador. And again, more doors opened with many other churches and Christian leaders in the nation.

On this upcoming trip, we will be expanding our ministry with dozens of churches who fall under the leadership of Pastor Edwin Stephen Guzman, continue working with the two dozen or more churches under Pastor Juan Carlos Recinos, and reach into many other churches through a new relationship with Alberto Rodriguez who works with the 700 Club and Operation Blessing.

Please be praying for this important missions trip to serve our Lord. May the Holy Spirit show His power for life change to a very needy nation. 

We went to "spy out the land."   What we found is that Costa Rica is a beautiful country, as we have heard many people tell us. Lush green hills, clean villages, tremendous vistas only begin to tell the story.  On the spiritual side 10% to 16% of the population is evangelical.  The church appears to be doing well and, as some pastors told me, poised for revival.  

I had the privilege of going to Pastor Alejandro Arias' wedding.  I first met the new Mrs. Arias, formerly Rebekah Wright, on a Skype call 3 or 4 years ago.

Rebekah with Alejandro to the right after the ceremony

 Alejandro was staying with us for a few days in our old home in Apopka and he had been talking to Rebekah, his Australian girlfriend, nearly every night. So we met her over a Skype video call. Yes, the world is changing!  And how incredible is this young man, who at the age of 23 has already preached in over 40 countries, and found a Spanish speaking wife in Perth, Australia.  With God all things are possible!

While there we stayed at a hotel with a beautiful view. Not easy to find but worth the effort.  To the lower right is the view from the hotel restaurant.

	View from Restaurant at Best Western Paradise Inn near San Jose, Costa Rica

You can see all of downtown San Jose (the capital) and some of the suburbs from this location.

We met some wonderful people. Below is Paul and I in the backyard of a family in a suburb of San Jose called Atenas.

The Alvarez family is just beginning the adventure of starting a home group. The patriarch of the family is named Ricardo. I wish I had a picture of him and his family. We made a strong connection with him and he is asking for our

Paul & Tony near Atenas, Costa Rica

counsel as they get started.  Pray for them that they would prosper in their hearts' desire to feed and care for the sheep.

Another wonderful connection was with Pastor Gerardo Bogantes.  A labor lawyer by day and a pastor all the time he has a tremendous burden for bringing unity to the youth of his city. He is planning an event for the youth on New Year's Day 2012 called "Dia Uno" [Day One].  I told him I would pray for this

	Pastor Gerardo Bogantes and look at that burger!

event so if you would also pray for the youth and this event I know he would really appreciate it.  

I preached in a couple of churches during this 4.5 day trip. Below is a photo of me preaching in Cartago, about 45 minutes south east of downtown San Jose (but 2.5 hours during rush hour from our hotel!)

That Thursday night in Cartago I preached on "faith without works is dead."  I challenged everyone to consider that the evidence of their faith should be works of love and service to God and each other.  The Lord touched quite a few that night. One woman was healed of what they call gastritis, another had

Tony preaching in Cartago, Costa Rica

pain in her bones which disappeared, all in the Name of Jesus.  Prophetic words flowed freely and Paul in particular was "spot on" with his words. 

I gave a woman a word in Spanish.  Paul then, without knowing what I said, gave her nearly the same exact word (I translated for him).  She was grateful for the encouragement and edification.

We ate after that service some of the best empanadas ever! The drive home was quite interesting.  We followed the pastor and his wife in our rental car.  When we got to downtown San Jose about midnight he took us through the center of town -- through the "red light district"!  Paul and I couldn't wait to get through there - it was a very long 10 minutes or so. 

Sunday morning I preached in Santa Ana, a church planted about 27 years ago by Pastor Jose Luis.  Very warm church of 200 or so.  I preached on the love and faithfulness of our Father God, starting with his promise in Isaiah 35 to cause streams to flow in the desert.  

I didn't give an altar call for salvation but at least one gentleman, the last I prayed for, got both saved and filled with the Holy Spirit.  Just before that I prayed for his young wife for healing of pain in her lower abdominal area. When I was done she just smiled. I asked her if the pain was the same, worse or better.  She said it was better.  I asked her how much better and she said all the pain was gone.  I asked her who healed her and she said, "Jesus healed me."

Before I prayed for this couple it broke my heart to pray for so many who were separated from their spouses. One woman was so overwhelmed with grief as we prayed that she just collapsed to the floor crying loudly.  So much pain... may God restore these homes! 

One of the highlights of the trip, besides hanging out with Paul, was to hang out with Skip Olmstead.  Skip and I both serve on Pastor Alejandro's

	From right, Paul, Skip and Pastor Alejandro

ministry board but this was the first chance I had to spend some quality time with him. He's on fire for the Lord. It's so good to meet people who are excited about our Lord and His coming Kingdom.

We had our typical logistical issues.  The main roads are very modern but once you get off the highways there are no street signs.  Even the locals didn't know their way around that well.  For example, I was supposed to preach Sunday night. The pastor sent someone to pick me up at the hotel. He kept calling the front desk asking for directions and then finally called and said he gave up. In his defense we were having a wicked thunderstorm and fog had rolled in over our part of the mountain where I was staying. 

I am looking forward to going back and following up on the connections the Lord helped us to make. In a few weeks Pat McGuffin is leading a team consisting of Daniel Howell and Jarred Bess back to El Salvador, our third trip there this year.  "Central America is for Christ, and Christ is for Central America!"

To see more pictures of our trip click here. 

 We are heading to El Salvador the day after tomorrow.  We have been told that 150 pastors will be coming to our breakfast and mini-seminar on Saturday morning.  Also, the 3 day conference has been changed to Monday - Wednesday instead of Tuesday - Thursday. 

The theme of the conference next week is "Mighty to Save." 

¹⁷ "The LORD your God is with you, 
   he is mighty to save. 
He will take great delight in you, 
   he will quiet you with his love, 
   he will rejoice over you with singing.” Zep.3:17

Please pray for us, and also if the Lord so leads you to partner with us on the cost of these conferences we would greatly appreciate it.  

 Pastor Roberto Rios is coming to Clermont TODAY.  He has been at a church conference in Miami and will be coming up to the Orlando area to visit with us for a few days.

L-R Tony & Emily, Maria & Roberto Rios, Gardenia & Fernando Ubilla, in Santo Domingo, Ecuador

Pastor Roberto pastors a church in Santo Domingo, Ecuador, a growing commercial center about 6 hours north of Guayaquil at the foothills of the Andes Mountains.  He is well known in the area and currently serves as the president of the local evangelical pastors council. 

Heart of Titus helps Pastor Roberto and his wife Maria with 2 feeding programs in poor areas of Santo Domingo.  Visit the page on Facebook with hundreds of photos of feeding and teaching children by   clicking here. 

If you would like to visit with Roberto check back here or email us.  We are going to try to get a meeting for this coming Monday night. 

 This video is so good I wanted to post it again:

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site

 It is about 1:30 in the morning and we are packing to leave here at about 8 a.m. to start our trip home.There is so much to tell about our trip, we don't have time to write it all down now.  But let me tell you just 2 stories that happened tonight:

 I wrote most of this starting at 2:20 a.m. Friday morning.  We got back here to the "Christian Embassy" about an hour ago.  We were at a church in a poor area of Guayaquil. There were about 40 people in church and all 3 of us shared the Word.  Emily shared about women of noble character, referring to Ruth.  Paul shared about how tired we can get spiritually and how the Lord wants to give us rest.  I also shared on that theme and quoted from Matt. 11 where Jesus says, "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."  For the altar ministry time after I spoke Emily and I took one side of the room, and Paul and our translator Marcel took the other side and we went out to where the people were standing at their chairs and prayed for each of them there. Emily and I ministered to many women in particular.  Quite a few times Emily would just hug them and love on them and the next thing you know they are crying, and filled with the Spirit, even though she wasn't always able to speak Spanish. Paul had a blast, the highlight being that he got to lead 2 people to the Lord!  Afterwards I got a chance to speak privately with the pastor about his financial and marital struggles and by God's grace was able to connect him to some practical human resources that are equipped to help him in both areas. 

Sunday morning we all travel together to a city about 2 hours north of here called Vinces.  Vinces is where our team leader started a home group less than 2 years ago just for teaching about biblical marriage to 9 couples.  It grew and grew until they became a church which now has 400 members and over 700 in attendance every Sunday.  We will minister there in the morning, then we'll minister to their church leaders in the afternoon, and then on the way back to Guayaquil we will stop at another church plant about 30 minutes north of Guayaquil for an 8 pm service.

Our first ministry opportunity was Wednesday afternoon when we ministered to some of the employees of host church.  It turned out that the messages we all shared were right on point with some of the troubles they are facing together that we didn't know about.  God is good. That night we ministered in a church meeting designed around improving marriages.  Paul shared briefly, Emily shared from 2 Kings 1 about how Bathsheba encouraged the prophet Nathan to speak into her husband's life as a friend (King David) and analogized that to wives today who should encourage their husbands to have godly friends. I then shared on how men have the authority in the home but the authority is to serve and not be served, as Jesus taught in Matt. 20.

A highlight of that Wednesday evening service was the healing of a man born with a congenital birth defect in his back which caused him constant pain.. After some prayer and counsel it was revealed that he had some deep wounds from his childhood in connection with his disability. We then prayed through some of those issues and he got some help, and then the Lord healed his back!  All the pain was finally gone after so many years.  We serve an awesome God!

It was also a blessing to see the couples who got reconciled that evening. Couples came forward during the invitation to seek help for their marriages.  At our urging many asked for and received forgiveness from their spouses for various things they had done to hurt them.  It was wonderful to see a couple married for 42 years crying and embracing at the front of the church after asking each other's forgiveness for various issues.  Our team also dealt with a younger couple in which the man went forward and repented of adultery.   Somehow the wife found the strength after prayer to forgive him.  There is so mudh to report, but more on that later..  

 We arrived late Tuesday night to Guayaquil and were met by most of our team, who as usual warmly greeted us.  We caravaned together to the Christian Ëmbassy, where we ate our 4th meal for the day and laughed and conversed til about 2 in the morning.  Thankfully we didn´t have to go anywhere until 1:30 in the afternoon so we got some good rest.

Great trip, great reception!  But my American cell phone didn´t work and there was no internet where we were staying. So this is our first report 2 days later.

Last night we ministered in the south extension of the main church, CEAD.  We tried to find the pastor, Israel Loor (who I remember as a pre-adolescent) who was out street evangelizing but couldn´t connect. So we ministered at his church and preached on marriage since that is what the Wednesday night service there is known for.  

I´m told my message was pretty hard and direct and Paul threatened to hold me accountable to it.   I´m not worried about him - Emily was there listening too.

Quite a few couples came up for a ´refreshing´ of the Spirit. There were quite a few who forgave each other, hugged and kissed, and reconciled over whatever offenses they had against one another.  There was even a couple married 42 years, crying and reconciling, thank the Lord.  Paul, Emily, Marcel, Miguel, Fernando, Cesar, Alexandra and others were all ministering with me at the front of the church.

This man then came forward who said all he wanted was more of Jesus.  After some prayer he told us that he was in constant back pain due to some defect from when he was born. After some circuitous counseling he got totally set free from some hurts from the past, which then led to his total healing.  The first time we prayed he said that he was 90% healed, the second he was totally pain free. Praise the Lord!

Got to go, my ride is here. More to come!