Former professional soccer player leads fulltime ministry to train Latin American leaders

Before graduating with his Doctor of Ministry degree from the South American Theological Seminary (SATS) in Brazil, Omar Gava was a professional soccer player and worked for his brother’s meat packing company. A few years later, he was officially accepted as a preacher/evangelist in his church where he taught Sunday school and trained small group leaders before he dedicated himself to full time evangelism ministry.

Omar founded the Crosscultural Mission Training Center that has prepared many men and women for missionary work. The center is being run by another director now because Omar has started a new ministry: Global Evangelical Resources (GER). The objective of GER is to offer missiology and pastoral leadership programs to Latin American countries where there are little or no courses. Thus far, Omar has brought the ministry to Paraguay and Cuba, among other countries. SATS is also a partner of GER.

Omar says he has two main challenges in ministry: to develop the GER program in Cuba more effectively and to develop a new program of training professors who will train others. He remains thankful for his wife and two adult daughters. He says that the Doctor of Ministry program at SATS was very important for him as it gave him tools to develop his projects. He was also grateful to have colleagues from different denominations who could share about their ministries, frustrations and achievements.

Omar is a 2005 DMin graduate of SATS. He has worked as an evangelist in the interior of Argentina for 28 years and is a member of the Christian Apostolic Nazarene Church. He also serves as the Director for Theological Training of COMIBAM (Ibero-American Missionary Committee).