The Mission Diaries

Wait! Isn’t Bolivia in South America? Doesn’t MCA Missions work with churches in Mexico and Central America? True, but there is an interesting bond between our work in Mexico and the church in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. For the full, amazing story, please go to our Article of the Month (August 2007).

This week we received an update from Leonardo Santana, who leads the church in Santa Cruz. Here’s what he says:

Hi, brothers – I wanted to share about how excited we are here in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.  Last Wednesday I met with about 20 people who are studying the Bible. We studied Acts 26, where the apostle Paul tells King Agrippa that he wishes that all were like him and could become Christians whether in a little or a long time. This week we had two baptisms, and many more people are studying the Bible.

We now have 61 disciples in the church with a Sunday attendance of between 120-150. Last year we had 7 baptisms; this year we have already seen 8 people baptized, and we hope to see 8 more. Although growth is a little slow, it has been consistent every year since we moved here.

Let’s keep our brothers and sisters in South America in our prayers!

J De Anda

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An apology to all our readers. No, the site wasn’t down or under virus attack or anything like that. I’ve been busy with the beginning of the school semester plus a trip to Mexico City. We’ll be right back with news from Latin America, new articles, and announcements of upcoming events!

J De Anda

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As I have mentioned in a previous post, one of the major concerns of our mission work is preparing for the next generation of disciples, those who are or will become teenagers and college students in the next few years. The Guatemala City Church has been blessed with an outstanding group of teens. Here is a report from the couple who oversees that work, Alejandro and Magaly Aceituno…

Thanks to God and with the support of our ministry leaders we have been able to do many things with the teen minsitry in Guatemala City. In April we went to the Youth Ministries Conference in Boston. We came back with a deeper sense of responsibility towards the spiritual building of the next generation. We also received a lot of teaching and many tools to help our teen ministry in Guatemala. But we also came back with a dream to help the other churches in Central America. Here are some of the things that we have been doing in Guatemala City.

Big Brothers: Members of the church’s teen ministry serve as mentors to the pre-teens and younger teens. Six young teenagers, ages 14-16, have made the decision to begin studying the Bible and become disciples of Jesus.

Service Ministries: We have five service ministries among the teens: Music, Theater, Dance, Sports and Set-building. Teens are asked to serve in any of these. These programs keep them busy during vacation, and it also allows them to use their talents, energy and creativity for God and the church.

Family: After returning from the Youth Ministries Conference in Boston, we met with the pre-teen  coordinators and the marrieds ministry leaders. We have begun to strengthen the marrieds group and motivate them to take a larger role in their children’s spiritual growth. We have also started to reach out more to the non-Christian parents of some of the teens in the church.

Communication: At the Central American Conference in Honduras we met with other teen ministry volunteers and leaders and decided to start a web page dedicated to the teen ministry. You can see our blog at http://Lasiguientegeneracion.wordpress.com

Special Contribution: The teens in Guatemala City have several activities to raise funds for the church’s Special Contribution. We have had food sales and car washes. Our teen band, Desconecta2 (=Unplugged), had its first concert on July 7. And on August 5 we will host our second “Race for a Dream“.

Finally, please pray for our upcoming Youth Conference, La vida de un heroe (The Life of a Hero) We hope to bring together teens, college students and parents to share about the life of the world’s greatest hero: Jesus Christ. The Conference will be on August 17-19.

Please bear in mind that Alejandro and Magaly have full time jobs and do all this teen ministry work on a volunteer basis. Let’s keep them, and the teen ministries in Central America, in our prayers.

J De Anda

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