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Excerpts of Dr. Gibson's
Teaching Mission To Ecuador
Trip Summary
1. The counseling training I offered was enthusiastically
received by 470 students. People find it useful in their own lives,
and with their own families, as well as with people they counsel.
2. Contacts have opened for me and Ruth to teach
in all of Latin America, and virtually all over the world. The first
new country for us will probably be Cuba.
3. More and more, evangelism is emerging as a natural
outgrowth of the counseling teaching I am doing. Two students received
Christ publicly after they came up to the front for me to counsel
them on heartbreaking problems in front of their classes of fifty
or more.
4. We have committed to return to Ecuador next November,
especially to work with pastors and their wives in a camp retreat
setting, operated by a missionary from Iowa.
5. Dennis plans to return to Quito Jan 20, for two
weeks of intensive training in Spanish. He will live with the family
of a former Spanish instructor for Peace Corps volunteers arriving
in Ecuador. His goal is to never again need a translator after this
training.
6. We would most like to finance these trips ourselves
by putting to work a small amount of money we have, to generate
all the money we need. Our vision is to find a retired man who day
trades in stocks or options as a hobby at which he does well. Our
wish is that this man will volunteer his time to trade our money
to generate a steady weekly flow of cash for us, in up, down or
sideways markets. Please put us in contact with such a man (or woman).
A great Christmas to you, and may the new year be
the best ever of your life!
Dennis Gibson
12/12/01
Haggai lives? Wasn't he an Old Testament prophet
from thousands of years ago? Nope! He is alive today and founder
of the Haggai Institute, which every year trains about 2000 Christian
leaders from around the world. These men and women spend one month
together with about fifty others, learning skills of leadership
and evangelism. They return to their homes, mostly in developing
countries, committed to training others in these same skills.
Four of the fine persons hosting me here in Ecuador
are Haggai alumni. I also spoke for six hours to fifty persons getting
four days of Haggai training in Guayaquil. I am struck by the high
caliber of these persons and the program. More than that, I am struck
by the solidarity of the network they comprise around the world.
They number about 20,000 now. My translator, Patricio Salas, is
one of these.
Each one I have met has offered to help me connect
with Haggai graduates in other countries where I may be asked to
teach. The first of these will probably be Cuba. A missionary there
from Ecuador wants to have me teach in Cuba. But how to set it up
is a tall order for her. That is where Haggai graduates in Cuba
can help her with logistics of setting up meeting places, getting
government clearances, and publicizing.
Another country I want to serve in 2002 or 2003 is
Bolivia. My friends, Cesar and Grace Cubas are missionaries there.
They were the first ones to invite me, in 1993, to come to a Spanish
speaking country to teach 150 pastors my counseling techniques.
That started me into learning Spanish. But the trip never came about
because Cesar's superiors in his mission agency said they did not
know this Dr. Gibson, and that Cesar was exceeding his authority
in planning something so ambitious without their initiative.
Now I would love to go to Bolivia by means independent
of Cesar's agency, so that he can tell his 150 pastors where to
get some training that they will find priceless to them back in
their home churches. Patricio of Ecuador has offered to connect
me with Haggai alums in Bolivia. Cochabamba, Santa Cruz - I hope
to taste your sweet hospitality.
Dennis Gibson - Quito, Ecuador
12/11/01
Forty times I put my reputation on the line. That
was how many times in the past two weeks I counseled someone on
stage publicly. These were usually women miserable because of ongoing
affairs by their husbands. If I could not, in any one of these cases,
successfully apply the five steps I was teaching, my credibility
would be gone.
Well, I never blew it in a single one! And 35 of
the 40 got standing ovations! Why? I never do that well back home.
Maybe it's because these clients come with high positive expectations
because of the publicity associated with the seminar and the celebrated
doctor from North America. Maybe it's because I get extra alert
under this kind of tension in front of people. Maybe these dear
people are more easily influenced than are jaded suburbanites near
Chicago.
But maybe I am faced once again with the possibility
that your praying causes things to happen differently than they
otherwise would. Let me tell you why I lean toward this explanation.
What I am experiencing during these entire two weeks
here so far is magnified in those moments of being counselor in
front of fifty students, with a live client. I feel extremely alive.
Curious. Creative. Unusually calm inside. Deliciously eager for
the encounter that is about to unfold. Deeply privileged to be guiding
such a tender intervention into another person's life. Touched to
my core as the person gradually begins to look more and more trustingly
into my eyes. Thrilled to pieces as their faces begin to shine with
a vision of a better life than they have recently known. Marvelously
surprised to discover hidden loveliness in the personalities of
the persons before me.
The vitality that emerges in people time after time
earns for this approach the name Vitality Therapy. It is a precious
condition, inside the person, that is independent of their outward
circumstances. One psychologist I recently read calls it "flow."
Jesus called it "blessedness."
A woman who comes to me about her husband's infidelity
comes convinced that she can only be happy if he changes. I ask
about the emotional suffering going on inside her. Then I ask what
would be opposite of that misery, inside her, in her feelings. She
begins to use words like "alive, clean, free, my real self."
She glows as she says these words. I marvel to her about her glow
and she glows more. Then I ask her how likely she thinks it is that
she might be able to continue experiencing this aliveness in herself
even if her husband never changes. It is a new idea to her, and
she likes it. It no longer matters whether she decides to stay with
this husband or build a life without him. In either case she intrigued
be this new woman of inner beauty and dignity, instead of the old
one of bitterness and shame. I have led her on a visit to the vision.
Elapsed time: about 45 minutes.
It is certainly my own state of vitality that I am
living in during these trips. I do not think it occurs automatically.
This is the fruit of your praying.
Dennis Gibson - Quito, Ecuador
12/10/01
"We three men have come from different paths
in life, which now have converged here. We stand together on this
holy ground in Ecuador." Dennis Gibson, Patricio Salas and
Allen Williams spoke these words minutes after agreeing to conduct
seminars in Ecuador October 30 - November 18, 2002.
Allen will provide facilities for 150 persons at
the camp that he and his wife run outside Guayaquil. Patricio will
let many churches know by way of his extensive contacts and fine
reputation. Dennis and Ruth will provide the content, with seminars
on marriage communication, parenting, counseling and caring for
aging parents.
The first two weekends will host adult couples. The
third will be for alumni of the first two, for extra help in applying
what they learned earlier. Weekdays in between will be for pastors
and their wives. Dennis will also offer supervision to graduates
of his counseling seminars in December, 2001.
Dennis preached with wonderful result in a church
in Quito Sunday, December 9. Afterward, the pastor asked Dennis
to give the same uplifting words to a group of pastors Monday morning.
He said pastors often feel lonely in their positions of leadership
and need encouragement for their own family living. So, here Dennis
has a chance to enlarge the November program for pastors and wives
to include some from Quito as well as Guayaquil.
Possibilities like this just keep dropping into Dennis'
lap like ripe fruit, ever since two innovations: (1) Dennis began
praying the prayer of Jabez daily, asking God to enlarge his territory;
(2) You began praying for this trip to Ecuador.
More commonplace miracles.
Dennis Gibson
December 6, 2001
Ever been a torch to someone? I was to a radio announcer
with the flu.
This dear guy pumps his energy into an afternoon
call-in program for teen-agers on HCJB-2. That is a small sister
station to the larger Christian radio HCJB in Quito. It serves the
greater Guayaquil area.
He had me on for thirty minutes to teach Vitality
Therapy to teens. So, I explained the five steps. Then a kid called
in with a problem. I successfully applied the five steps with him
in 7 - 8 minutes. Then I reviewed with the audience how I had used
the five steps with this Roberto. Very satisfying teaching.
After my portion, the show's host, the man with the
flu, said that he did not think he was going to have enough energy
to do the show. Then I came on so strong, so positive and confident
and enthusiastic, that he caught fire from me!
"It only takes a spark to get a fire going…
You want to pass it on!"
Dennis Gibson
December 4, 2001
"¡Si se pudo!" This has become a
national slogan of celebration since Ecuador's soccer team qualified
for the World Cup for the first time ever.
The words mean basically, "We did it!"
But it carries even more vitality than that. Before their team qualified
by beating Brazil and Peru, the country was saying, "¡Si
se puede!" That literally meant, "Yes, it can be done,"
or "It is possible!" Now their triumphant chant is, "You
see? It could be done!"
You see this on billboards, in newspaper ads, on
television. It creates a thrilling sense of national optimism beyond
soccer. "We are making it as a country! We can bounce back
from this economic valley we have been in. Ecuador is a proud member
of the world community!"
I now make it my practice to conclude each teaching
event by telling the audience, "Thank you. God bless you. Goodbye.
¡Si se pudo!" They rise to their feet in standing ovations.
You gotta learn the language.
Dennis Gibson
December 3, 2001
The class burst into good-natured laughter at me.
I had been counseling a young woman in role play on stage in front
of all eighty-two students. (I've been saying sixty, but I finally
counted them.). I was trying to demonstrate Step #3 of my five steps:
Passion. That is where the counseling seeks to blow on a spark of
hope or optimism or vitality that a client shows in Step #2: Vision.
I tried to tell the class in Spanish to use colorful words, like
"fire, intensity, electricity, bang, zeal."
For "colorful" I used the word "colorado."
Gales of laughter. Patricio finally controlled himself enough to
explain to me that the term in Ecuador means the equivalent of "off
color" in the US. It means to induce blushing. Ah, no wonder
the first Spanish visitors to our Rocky Mountain state named it
for blushing. Ever seen the purple mountain majesties at sunset?
The word I should have used was "colorido."
Just one letter different.
You know, the people loved me for my mistake. They
appreciated my willingness to look foolish in my attempts to enter
their world by practicing their language. Several have commented
that they like my childlike way of being earnest, emotional, and
ready to laugh at myself.
I am tasting what Jesus meant when He said, "You
must become like a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven -
or the hearts of Ecuadorians".
Dennis Gibson
November 29, 2001
Rosa, missionary from Ecuador to Cuba. Home here
on furlough. Will graduate tomorrow with sixty from my forty-hour
Vitality Therapy course. Has loved the course and wants to arrange
for me to teach it in Cuba.
Pray this way for this one: I must enter and leave
Cuba from a country other than the USA. What country? When? Who
shall arrange all the details? Where will the money come from? Should
Ruth come with me? What can I accomplish in my intermediate countries
to and from Cuba? May Rosa get a lucid vision about how to bring
this about, how to recruit interested persons, how to get a place.
Let no governmental issues between the USA and Cuba interfere. May
my web sites and other information I send to Cuba about me and my
course pass censors. I want to be able to present Christian concepts
in my teaching of counseling in a way that is intriguing rather
than offensive to students and administrators.
Justino, another enthusiastic student, wants to get
me back here to teach in many smaller cities in Ecuador. Many such
expressions of interest never materialize. Pray this way: that I
will see what part I should play in trying to make these happen.
When I simply wait to see what develops, how much am I being a man
of faith that God will work it out? And how much am I being plain
lazy?
Dennis Gibson
November 26, 2001
In the dream, I am straining to run, and getting
nowhere. It's as if a strong wind is blowing against me, and my
legs are wading through Jello. All my life this dream has come to
me at least once a week. It usually ends with me giving up trying
to run.
Last night I had a breakthrough. The dream was worse
because I was running not only against a wind, not only in Jello,
but also uphill! However, this time, as I thought of giving up,
I decided to continue running. I focused on the task inside me -
to keep my legs pumping. I could do that. It only took effort, concentration,
determination, persistence. The results outside me became incidental.
Whether I was moving forward or backward, or staying in one place
was no longer my responsibility.
This discovery was a huge relief! It was also a profound
insight: I am responsible for my actions, not my success. This is
a key boundary issue that not everybody learns. Why did I learn
it at this time? I was not working to learn it; it came unbidden,
in a dream, as a gift. Why now, when I am on a mission trip to Ecuador
and friends are praying for me?
Oh, friends are praying for me. And things happen
in my life that otherwise do not happen. Quiet miracles. Who coined
the simple phrase, "Prayer changes things"?
Thank you.
Dennis Gibson
November 25, 2001
"Maybe this is what I am looking for."
The young man studied the sign that said "Christian University."
As he drew closer he saw a poster announcing a workshop on counseling
for psychologists and students. He told the dean that he was neither,
but that he would like to sit in. The dean kindly agreed and let
him join sixty others.
Near the end of today's first eight-hour session,
I asked for a volunteer with a real-life problem they would be willing
to have me do real counseling on. All else had been role played.
The young man volunteered. He told his story of hopeless depression
and a suicide attempt since his fiancé broke off their engagement
a few weeks ago.
This real counseling could not have been more touching
if I had written a script for it. He ended up free, laughing and
crying at the same time. This came after I gently led him through
saying Goodbye to his ex-fiancé, as if she were present.
It was a wonderfully rich demonstration of all the
principles of Vitality Therapy I had taught. I opened the floor
for students to make comments and ask questions. One pastoral counselor
said that he would have led the young man to Christ. I answered
that I wished I had thought of that. I began describing how I would
have done so. Partway through my description, I turned to the young
man and asked him how interested he might be in such a personal
transaction with God as I was describing. Without my bidding he
bounded back onto the stage. In front of all sixty he tearfully
said that he was now surrendering himself to the Christ of the name
"Christian University", and receiving all that God wanted
to give him. I hugged him and said that he and I will reminisce
over this day in heaven in years to come.
I did not push to make any of this happen. I was
like a doctor in a delivery room who simply did some helpful things
as a full-term baby pretty much delivered himself. I have never
in my life felt more empty of myself and used as a tool by a very
good God being powerful through me.
It is a refreshing thing to live a day in awe and
be unconcerned about oneself.
Your praying seems to result in events of this quality. Glory to
God in the highest, and on Earth, peace, goodwill among men.
Dennis Gibson
November 24, 2001
Maybe the 737´s engines were more powerful
than usual. Flight 1345 sprinted down the runway leaving O'Hare.
More likely than the engines, it was my own soul sprinting. I was
filled with joy to be leaving for Ecuador. "Forgetting what
lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead…"
My trip plans have expanded at the last minute. I
now intend to spend an additional five days in Quito, after my fifteen
days in Guayaquil. There I will teach my Vitality Therapy seminar
to a church group. I will also use my "other PhD," as
I address a group of cancer patients. I have learned a lot about
treatment innovations during my own successful seven-year fight
against the terrorist called prostate cancer. Ah, the credential
I never sought. May God who allowed it, now use it. Thank you for
being there.
Dennis Gibson
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