This year, the Central American Theological Seminary (CATS) in Guatemala celebrates 80 years of “training men and women of God for the harvest.” The seminary has carried out a ministry of transformation by providing sound academic training to students through extension centers and grassroots education and reaching the community through innovative programs, such as:

• The Bread and Chocolate Ministry – Several students gather every Saturday to prepare food for 30 youth, mostly drug addicts who live on the streets, while sharing the Good News and genuine friendship. The students also visit a downtown
  park to carry out a similar ministry with a group of 25 people
  comprised of families.
• The Potter’s House – Started by a CATS’ graduate, this ministry reaches out to families that make a living scavenging saleable items from the enormous city dump located near the seminary. An after-school program and a new life are offered to the children and their families.
• Professional diploma program – With the help of Overseas Council, one of CATS’ faculty members started this one-year program for Christian professionals, offering training in administration, finances, project management, conflict resolution and other skills needed to help believers make an impact in the work world.
• Reaching all ages – Students teach Bible studies to 70 neighborhood children on Thursdays, while 35 to 45 mothers meet for the same activities in the “Mother’s Club.” A soccer club for teenage boys is held on Fridays with each receiving a Bible study or devotional.
• The Strength of the Fragile Ones – This ministry consists of young men and women affected by various developmental problems, including Down syndrome. Chapel programs have been held to help CATS’ students better understand the life of these young people, who in turn do volunteer work for the seminary.
• Pastor’s Monday / Women’s Wednesdays – The Monday program draws together 230 pastors to receive a practical course in ministry or theology, while the Wednesday program offers Bible training to 130 women’s Bible study leaders.
  

Despite having to raise tuition due to local inflation, CATS had a record number of first year students and has a current enrollment of 1,175. In addition, the seminary extends its reach through two new extension programs in Bolivia and El Salvador.

Please pray for CATS: for God’s complete healing of Pauline Williams, CATS’ Registrar, who is battling cancer; for God to raise up new donors through CATS’ events; for funds to complete the chapel expansion project; and for approximately 2,500 graduates serving in 30 countries on five continents.

Celebrating the community development project in Itaperussu

The Evangelical Missions Center (EMC) is considered by many to offer the most complete cross-cultural mission training in Brazil. EMC offers students a solid theological and missiological foundation with an emphasis on contextual realities nationally and cross-culturally. To date, the center has 473 graduates, and this married couple is a great example of graduates having an exceptional influence in the community.

Paulo Roberto and Suely Valença lead a transformational community development project in Itaperussu, the poorest town in the Brazilian state of Paraná. Their ministry serves people in a variety of areas, including training local unemployed and underpaid people in computer skills, sowing techniques and arts and crafts. Small farmers receive guidance about crops. A nursery is available to younger children, while a school has been started for older children, providing the same level of education as the good schools in the state capital of Curitiba. The ministry has health and dental care projects in the community and a van equipped to provide healthcare to rural communities. In addition, five community kitchens have been organized in a cooperative where local women are trained, employed and make healthy, inexpensive meals for the local people.

Please pray for Paulo and Suely and their team as they continue to minister; for the poor local farmers; for the church that the couple planted in the community; and for their three children: Timóteo, Rebeca and Julia.

Written by Josué Fernández, Overseas Council Latin America Regional Director

In many Latin American countries, the Church and education in general are experiencing changes that require rethinking what we conceive as theological training. We have to accept that we are in a process of change, a transition demanding the adoption of new mindsets that allows schools to properly respond to society’s realities and makes leadership training available to people where they are located. Overseas Council’s (OC) partner schools are training leaders to be agents of transformation who are able to follow Jesus’ example of caring for those in need.

For example, FIET Theological Institute (FIET) in Argentina is training prison inmates to be pastors in order to lead and disciple other inmates in the Christian faith (400 trained in the last year alone). With the support of OC, this completely new approach is having a tremendous impact in a place that was once considered hopeless. Graduates from the Evangelical Seminary for Pastoral Education (ESEPA) in Costa Rica minister to abused and unemployed single mothers in absolute poverty through the GACELA program. The women are trained to develop small businesses like paper recycling and other jobs that they can do without leaving home, while receiving emotional, spiritual and psychological support as well. Through its Counseling Center, students and graduates of the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology (CGST) in Jamaica not only offer counseling for various needs, but also conduct workshops on such topics as positive parenting and grief management to inner city families.

In addition, OC partnered with Compassion International in 2008 to further the training of Christian leaders in the area of ministry to children. Compassion conducted workshops at each of OC’s nine Institutes for Excellence in Christian Leadership Development, presenting the curricular models for training developed in various global regions. Although interest was shown by many partners around the world, the greatest level arose in the southern region of Latin America. Under the leadership of Compassion’s Director for Latin America and me, leaders from our partner schools in Chile, Argentina and Brazil will gather in Santiago in January 2010 to discuss further development of this training program in seminaries in the region.

Two OC 2009 Institutes for Excellence in Christian Leadership Development took place recently: August 10-14 in Nairobi, Kenya, and August 31 - September 4 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

The Nairobi Institute gathered 28 leaders from 15 strategic training programs, representing the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia. The Abidjan Institute brought together 33 leaders from Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

The five-day Institutes, themed “Nurturing Spiritual Formation in the Seminary,” focused on the hearts of students, not simply their head and hands, as part of a holistic approach to student growth. The seminary leaders were equipped with a deeper understanding of spiritual formation, so that it can be intentionally integrated into the entire program, curriculum and culture of their seminaries.

To read more about the Nairobi Institute, click here, and the Abidjan Institute, click here. The last 2009 Institutes for Excellence will take place in Singapore; Puebla, Mexico; Beirut, Lebanon; and Minsk, Belarus. Click here for the 2009 schedule.

[See Nairobi and Abidjan Institute speaker lists in sidebar]

Please join Overseas Council in prayer for Latin America:

• For Compassion International’s training program to be successful with partner institutions in Latin American countries
  
  
• For partner institutions to deepen their relationship with the Church and cooperatively address society’s needs
  
  
• For partner institutions to develop new paradigms of learning to make leadership training available to more leaders