Let Us Go To Them......Impressions from our first missions conference.

The Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in Murrieta was an enormous blessing to us. Tony and I had many wonderful opportunities to share our work with pastors, missionaries, and ministry leaders. The phenomenal speakers spoke on their own ups and downs of serving Jesus in foreign lands and people groups they would have never had the privilege of working with had they not entered missions.

One of the biggest surprises and delights of the three-day conference were the amount of participants who asked us to help provide educational and technical expertise to facilitate the training of new and untrained indigenous church leaders. Those that came by our table acknowledged the large leadership gap that is taking place in places like Colombia, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador to name a few. When Tony and I validated the lack of access that exists in rural and isolated places in Latin America to receive biblical and discipleship training, they asked us how soon can their village pastor come to Costa Rica and receive adequate theological training. Our answer: They will not need to come to us; we will go to them. Tony and I explained that MAF-Learning Technologies believes that remote pastors are better served by keeping them in their native country while receiving support and training from us rather than by plucking them out of their natural setting for seminary training (3-5 years) in the United States and risking the chance that they will not return to care and shepherd their flock. Our response clearly hit a nerve. The realization that ethnic Christian churches in America are often the result of national leaders not returning to their homeland to  lead their own people was quickly acknowledged. Many were able to tell us about pastors who meant to go back to Central & South America while studying in seminary or bible colleges in the West only to stay and raise Spanish speaking churches in the United States instead.

Although we did not know what to expect when we arrived at our first missions conference, we walked away encouraged by fellow missionaries and pastors and most of all, desiring to get to San Jose and assist church leaders in Latin America lead strong and healthy churches in Jesus’ name.

-Laura