Recently Hispanics for Christ has completed one of our most important projects to date. Thanks to the work of our Field Coordinator in California (Tony Campos) we have translated for use in Spanish the evangelism/discipleship tool called “Story of God.” This was originally put together by Soma Communities and has been a great resource for sharing the whole Gospel story (the Good News Jesus Christ shared) with English speakers, giving a complete biblical picture of God’s work of redemption that began in the garden and continues until Christ’s return.
Seeing the value of this resource in English, we began translation and use in our Hispanic context. We use this as a basis for gathering a new group (non-believers, un-committed, un-informed, but not those already attending churches) and begin by sharing the story of creation, the Fall, Israel, Christ’s ministry, work on the Cross and return. This is covered in 21 lessons taken directly from the Bible. As conversion happens (and it does!) we move to baptisms, institute the Lord’s Supper and more advanced discipleship/teaching. You can find the Spanish version here (http://wearesoma.com/resources/story-of-god-spanish/ .)
All this occurs in homes or other simple locations allowing the group to grow naturally and without the burden of rents and salaries. Leaders are eventually raised up and mentored by our Field Coordinators and the group is recognized as a new church in time. Our experience is it takes 2-3 years to develop a group from gathering to church.
El Salvador
This month Ricardo Ayala returns to El Salvador to visit for a third time with a group of pastors in the capital, San Salvador. We held a discipleship training there last year and have stayed in touch with a small but committed group of leaders. Ricardo is returning to follow-up on their efforts to increase their focus on discipleship and has also been asked to hold another training on the same material in Santa Ana, a city about 45 minutes outside the capital.
Our prayer is to one day have a Field Coordinator working from Central America to encourage and train pastors to emphasize discipleship in their church planting efforts. We have had numerous requests from Guatemala, Honduras and other parts of El Salvador.
Summer Activities
A team from Calvary Baptist in Easton, PA is serving the first week of August in Merida, Mexico. They will be assisting our Field Coordinator Juan Tun with their second Youth Camp on the beach in Santa Clara. 20-30 teens will attend to hear the Gospel, be challenged to live for Christ and have a lot of fun.
Another team from Crosspointe Christian Church in Grosse Pointe Woods, MI, at the same time will be in Paraguay. They will be assisting our Field Coordinator Alcides Gonzales with evangelism and medical clinics in communities near San Lorenzo. Both of these churches have made multiple visits to these fields over the past few years through their long term relationships.
In Queretaro, Mexico, Paco Damian and his team are holding VBS outreaches, English language camps and evangelism campaigns with their local network of churches and others visiting from the U.S. Paco continues to also support a new church planting effort in Baja California with groups meeting in homes in Rosarito and Tijuana.
Opportunities
We have two opportunities we are praying for partnerships to assist with. The first is in Rafaela, Argentina. Here our Field Coordinator David Ibarra has a fantastic network of churches in both cities and villages. I had the pleasure of speaking to this group in June and David has a vision to expand their Christian radio impact throughout the region. They currently broadcast in Rafaela and Sunchales and would like to see small stations in many more cities and villages. They have a studio at his church in Rafaela and are looking for a partner church to help them upgrade the studio for better production of local programs, train other pastors to operate their own stations and produce new local Christian programming. We are hoping to hold a radio training conference there in 2015.
The second opportunity is in Salta, Argentina. Nico Gallo, our Field Coordinator there, has established his first group in a community called Constitucion. They have targeted the communities around them as additional fields to establish new groups to grow into churches. We would like to see an NAB church partner with him to help him do this. There are a variety of ways this could be accomplished. If you are interested in either of these two projects please contact us and we can give you more information.