Mission team from Casa de Luz.

Back in September 2011 some members of Casa de Luz in Sacramento visited a community in Mexico and came back with a burning desire to help. For the next several months they worked incessantly to motivate people and share a vision for helping a community where the church could have a significant impact. The people of San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, in Mexico have now experienced first-hand the love of Christ through the lives of believers.

What started as an idea of some individuals from Casa de Luz became a great experience for most of our church. Soon, there were people collecting school supplies, toys, bicycles and (you guessed!) soccer balls. This joy began reaching people who until now have not thought of Casa de Luz as a sending church… God had started to move in His people to be a blessing to others.

There were also some members of First Baptist Church of Elk Grove (FBC) that decided to join the adventure and became part of the team. A couple of men from FBC Men’s Ministry and others members of “the big church” became key in reaching Casa de Luz’s goal.

A group of eight men spend a whole week in San Luis RC building a stage for the church Jehova-Sama, located in one of San Luis’ poorest communities. Among cardboard houses, dusty roads and millions of needs, the team worked hard to complete the project and bring joy and pride to a community that has very little.

We were also able to minister to the spiritual needs of the people in San Luis. Some members of the team went on several occasions to visit the community. Armed with  joy and faith (and in some cases a stick because of the dogs!) we invited people to come to an evangelistic service. God moved in the hearts of the people and some even started to arrive and hour early! The service was powerful with songs, testimonies from our team and the preaching of the Gospel. At least 9 people gave their lives to the Jesus for the first time and many others returned to him in reconciliation.

It was an amazing week. We finished the project and were able to minister to many people. Even in the middle of some difficulties to get there, God showed us that he was preparing us for this. Our effort has brought glory to God. The church and the people of San Luis Rio Colorado have experienced the love of God through his people. God has changed our lives allowing us to see how much we have to be thankful for.

Casa de Luz has started a relationship with Jehova-Sama church that we hope will turn into a long time partnership in ministry. Plans to continue to work in San Luis opening new churches have already been discussed and one day we hope to see people going back to their own country serving God as missionaries.

Worship at this years retreat.

One of the clearest characteristics of this retreat was the partnerships that have been formed for the kingdom’s glory. Funding was provided by the North American Baptist Conference, short-term missions organizations were represented (Gateway Teams and E-3 Partners), and church planting strategy came from a variety of leaders including workshops taught by several Hispanic for Christ Field Coordinators.

New works started in the last year were celebrated, indigenous missions were presented to the Purépecha in Michoacán and children in the poor neighborhoods of Guanajuato. Plans were also made to send North American Teams to work along side Mexican churches to plant new churches in numerous cities.

The best part of the whole week was the encouragement gained around tables, discussing plans, sharing ideas and praying for each other. This is a luxury many pastors in Latin America seldom get. It will be exciting to see next year the fruit that comes from this retreat.

This year we are working toward our goal of raising $60,000 in new money to support our nine Field Coordinators in four countries. That’s a pretty good use of funds! This effort, Lord willing, will result in over 30 new churches this year alone. Would you like to join us? Contact us through this website for more information about giving to HFC.

Pastor Ricardo Ayala teaching about church multiplication.

Juan Tun, our Field Coordinator in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, will be hosting a Missionary Conference in Mérida, México. The theme this year is “The Harvest”. The conference will begin on Friday January 14^th and go until Sunday the 16^th. Ricardo Ayala, our Field Coordinator in Chicago, USA, will be the guest speaker.

Pastors and leaders from across the Yucatan Peninsula will be attending. After the conference, Pastor Ricardo and Pastor Juan will travel to visit pastors in other villages in the states of Yucatan and Quintana Roo.

Alcides, David and Nicolas.

The Board of Directors for Hispanics for Christ officially appointed three new Field Coordinators to help us plant churches and train new leaders. Alcides Gonzales has lead la Iglesia Cristiana Evangelica Florida in San Lorenzo, Paraguay since 1995. He has also launched a orphanage called El Refugio that just opened this year. David Ibarra planted Independiente Jesucristo Mi Esperanza in Raphaela in 1995 and is currently serving there preparing and sending missionaries throughout the Province of Santa Fe, Argentina. Finally, Nicolas Gallo planted his first church this year in Salta, Argentina. Along with his brother they have started a second group already!

These men have proven themselves as church planters and have an incredible vision to see new churches planted across their provinces and even in other surrounding countries. They have started to prepare teams and have send some already to Peru, Chile and Venezuela. They are preparing Hispanics to be their own missionaries!

Sharing the Gospel in Queretaro, MX.

Hispanics for Christ has connected three churches in the USA with Hispanic churches in Latin America this summer. Teams will be leaving in July and August to work alongside Hispanic churches in Mexico and Paraguay. Hillcrest Baptist in Sultan, Washington, The Table in Portland, Oregon and Grosse Point Baptist in Michigan will be serving what will hopefully become sister churches and lead to long term relationships.

Long term relationships are something Latin American churches are looking for. They are looking for sister churches to pray for them, send teams to help them with evangelism and discipleship in the course of planting new churches and simply to be an encouragement. Connecting these churches is one of the goals of Hispanics for Christ.

I watched Paraguay beat Japan today in the World Cup play-offs and the city erupted in celebration with their win. As I watched people wave banners, flags and singing cheers I was feeling the same way about ministry starting here for us. this is going to be a big win for the kingdom of God!

We can present the vision for a church planting movement but if the local church isn’t ready to embrace the model and the people aren’t open to the Gospel there won’t be success. But that’s not the story here. In Pastors Nico and his brother Lucio they have a great vision of planting churches in each of the hundreds of barrios in Salta but also throughout the state and this region of South America.

Lord willing we will be able to encourage, support and resource this movement and the result will be dozens if not hundreds of new churches over the next decade.

Tomorrow we go on south to teach in three more churches in Argentina and finish the week in Paraguay.

Portland pastors planning over breakfast.

Today a new team of Hispanic pastors began meeting to begin working together to plant new Hispanic churches in the Northwest. We have eight pastors ready to start new churches around the Portland Metro area. Pastor Antonio Lopez will be leading the training and stratigizing with these men. We hope to have three new churches by the end of summer and from these new churches national missionaries will be prepared and sent out to start new churches in their home towns throughout Latin America.

Miguel Montenegro teaching BTCP to HFC leaders.

Four Hispanic for Christ leaders completed training this month in Sacramento for the Bible Training Center for Pastors course material. This is exciting because it allows us to offer formal, academic pastoral education in addition to our “as needed” training materials we have been using.Our leadership training is now full service from an apprenticeship model to formal classroom setting.

By this Fall we plan to begin offering the first of ten classes that will lead to a certificate issued by BTCP for those pastors who complete the entire course. Tony Campos will teach in Sacramento first. We look to be able to offer the courses in Portland, and Queretaro, Mexico by year end.

HFC team at Sacramento training.