Latin America Missionary Training Workshop
More Training for Trainers
Today’s article is written by Jonathan Willcock, assistant to the director of the Latin America region. He was one of the presenters at the workshop in Mexico. Jonathan and his wife, Rachel, live in England and travel extensively in their ministries.
In July of this year, over 50 missionary trainers from all parts of Latin America, from Mexico in the north to Brazil and Bolivia in the south, met together in the desert of Chihuahua to learn more about Foundational Bible Teaching. Why meet in the Chihuahuan desert? Because that is where the Mexican missionary training center is located.
Many of these trainers have worked for years, teaching, discipling and training missionary candidates with a certain model of church planting in mind. As a mission we are recognizing that the contexts where the missionaries are serving are becoming increasingly more complex, and our training needs to prepare people for that complexity.
Straighten the Skewed Version
During the workshop the trainers were reminded of God’s eternal plan: to bring His creation, and particularly His people, into a relationship with Him forever which brings glory to Him. This overarching story that runs through the Bible is the truth that provides us with an accurate view of the world. Unfortunately, every culture has taken parts of that truth and adapted, twisted or replaced other parts to concoct their own worldview.
Much of the time was spent thinking through a strategy to address the differences between the perfect story that God provides and the skewed versions we find around the world. Each team of trainers was tasked to prepare two lessons that addressed the disparity between God’s version and the worldview of many of their students, and then to present one of these lessons to the rest of the attendees.
Where to Go from Here
The last three days were spent asking questions such as, “How can we better prepare the students for cross-cultural ministry? What adjustments need to be made?” Some goals were set up, and a team was formed to see that those goals are reached.
We thank God for His provision in making the workshop possible and for His direction in guiding the discussions and conclusions.
[Editor’s Note: This workshop was done exclusively in Spanish with some translation for the Portuguese-speaking Brazilians.]