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Over the Summer and Fall we have been involved in some new areas in our ministry that have some exciting potential for Kingdom work. Previously we have been directly involved with the theological education of several of our field coordinators. Recently, we have begun working on theological/pastoral education for potential new missionaries and pastors these fields plan to send out.
Two of our field coordinators are currently completing their programs of study. Tony Campos (CA) is at Sioux Falls Seminary working on his M.Div. Paco Damian (Mexico) is studying at SETECA in Guatemala. Both of these field coordinators have a number of church planters working under them. Tony has a group of young leaders working with him in the Sacramento area with the intent of preparing them to plant new churches. Some have recently enrolled in SFS themselves! Paco oversees a network of new church plants across Mexico. They are working in Guadalajara, Baja, Puebla, Querétaro, and other places. The education they are receiving is directly impacting the work they are doing.
New this year to HFC is our work in helping establish educational partnerships between Sioux Falls Seminary and theological schools in Argentina.In early September, Geoff Hartt and Greg Henson (President of SFS) met with several schools in Buenos Aires. We spoke with the leaders of Instituto Biblico de Buenos Aires (a Baptist seminary) and Centro de Capacitación Pastoral (Pastoral Training Center for Bible Missionary Churches) about partnerships with SFS for theological training. Both meetings went well, and it seems will lead to strengthening the work these schools are already doing. From these meetings we have already seen the first fruit as the director of CCP has begun his studies at SFS himself!
Our next steps in these areas are to continue the discussions about formal partnerships, continue to provide teacher training for CCP that we started earlier this year, and mentor the director of CCP through his program. Beyond that, there are invitations from seminaries in several other Latin American countries to meet with them to discuss partnerships in theological education. We are excited to play a part in seeing workers prepared to step out into the harvest!