latin america

Laura and I often speak about the 80%-90% of pastors from remote locations that do not return home after graduating from Bible college or seminary. The reasons are many and varied - better quality of life, safety, and security are some of the most common issues. But over the past few months, the 80%-90% figure became just something that was 'part of our presentation'.

Then last week we met the administrator at a Hispanic bible seminary in the Los Angeles area that trains Spanish speakers for church leadership. Many of their students come from Latin America to receive their pastoral training. We asked him what percentage of his 22 seminary students would be going back to Latin America to pastor churches. He paused for a moment and answered....none, 0%. At that moment, 80%-90% became very real to us.

I am headed to Quito, Ecuador on Sunday, March 27 for seven days. I will be meeting with Mission Aviation Fellowship leadership in the Latin America region, sharing about our growing, global ministry through Learning Technologies. We are already working in Latin America, but the opportunities for us to broaden our service to church leaders, church planters and Latin missionaries through Learning Technologies are tremendous!

800,000 pastors and leaders in Latin America have received little or no formal theology training. (Brazil Haggai Institute)

At one of the evening board meetings with MAFLT partner ProMETA, Judy Musselman gave Mauricio a box of Spanish versions of the Bible in cassette format, some cassette players and some cranks to power the players in places with no electricity nor available batteries.

Mauricio and his wife Rosalia were invited to the small rural village of Abangaritos, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, to attend a short weekend mission trip with their local church youth group. Mauricio had to preach that Sunday in San Jose, but decided to be in Abangaritos from Friday night to Saturday afternoon. Very short trip.

Because of MAFLT's involvement in Orality, Mauricio had learned that almost 70% of the worldwide population are oral learners. Mauricio decided to bring some of those Bible cassettes and devices with him, as maybe the Lord had people in that area needing access to the Word but without the possibility of reading the Bible.

His van was already full with his kids and their luggage, plus one more invitee; 6 people total. However, they made room for some of those kits.

They had a great opportunity to share the Gospel, pray, and spend time with some of the families in the area, as well as share some groceries with them. Mauricio preached on Friday night even though electricity was gone for most of the message (fortunately, his flashlight worked well).

The next day (Saturday), some of the sisters from the small church had prepared food for the visiting church team. While talking to them Mauricio discovered that one of those ladies, Maria, was illiterate, depending on one of her grandsons to read the Bible to her out loud when he could. The local pastor was very excited when Mauricio shared that he had a special Bible set using cassettes and devices for Maria to interact with the Bible whether or not she was able to read.

While Mauricio showed them how to use the devices and operate the crank (as electricity power goes out very often in that area), the pastor pointed the second lady in the kitchen named Carmen, saying, "sister Carmen's young son is totally blind, he is a good Christian and the Bible in audio would be a great blessing to him". Carmen expressed great joy when that possibility was offered to her.

Both Maria and Carmen received a couple of devices and tapes of Old Testament portions and the entire New Testament in Spanish. We praise the Lord for this opportunity and pray for more opportunities like this to bring hope to those who are desperately waiting for it.

La Carpio has no known internet connectivity, partly because of major lack of resources but also because of geographical isolation. It is actually within the capital city of Costa Rica, but because it's a slum built around a garbage dump, it is nicely isolated from surrounding areas by a river on each side, a garbage dump on the third, and the only way in and out is a thin road on a sort of peninsula.

Our partnering with the missionary Steve Edwards who has been serving that isolated community for the last five years, has shaped the Christian impact in that poor area.

A computer lab is already in place and running, installed in August 2008. Steve, the missionary there, has been using the lab almost exclusively to allow kids to use. However, with little supervision, the lab has been largely just an arcade. This has also served to open up the lab to become a nice dish of viruses.