Central America/Caribbean Conference

What a glorious time we’ve had.  For the past several days, we have been involved in a bilingual conference with our missionaries   Some of us did not speak Spanish.  Others did not speak English, though most of the group was bilingual.  We sang and prayed together in both languages.  We listened to translated teaching from God’s word.  We laughed and talked over meals.  We travelled together to church, singing and quoting Scripture verses to each other.  I got to give a brief presentation on children’s ministry.

Sergio and his daughter, Sharon

Sergio Herrera, a Chilean national, is planting a church in Cuernavaca, Mexico, the fourth of his missionary career.  He sees his time there nearing an end as the church is ready to be fully self-supporting.  When God makes it clear, he will move on to another work.  He doesn’t know yet where that will be, so he plans to take a year to return to Chile to report to churches and find out from the Lord where his next assignment should be.  At 61 years of age, his youthful energy surpasses most people his age and even younger.

Salvador and his wife, Maricruz, also came from Mexico.  A number of years ago, they went to California looking for a better life.  They found that “better life” when they both found Jesus Christ and trusted Him to be their Savior.  Instead of staying in the US, they decided to become church planters.  For the past three years, they have been working in Apatzingan, Mexico.  At first, only one man came to their services.  Their church is growing.  Now they have enough people that they need a building.

Giovani Avendano, a Guatemalan, also went to California looking for a better life. He too found a better life, in both a Mexican wife and the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is now working in a remote town in Guatemala. 

When we went to their church on Wednesday night, it was packed with people.  Of course, our group added twenty people to the crowd, and they knew visitors were coming, so almost everyone was there.  What a great group.  What a testimony the church is to the grace of God.


Enrique Mejia, is planting a church in El Seibo, Dominican Republic.  He is also the director of a Bible institute in the middle of the country.  Recently they have had remarkable answers to prayer.  A young lady who had left the church because she was interested in having an affair repented and returned.  Another man who had been arguing for years with Enrique suddenly believed and is part of the church.  For the last couple months, however, Enrique has been very ill and needed to take a rest, so a couple young men in the church are preaching while he is gone.  This is giving them some much needed experience.

Laura is from Colombia and is interning this summer with the Avendano family.  Four years ago, she was engaged to be married when her fiancé was encouraged to go to Puerto Rico to study the Bible.  Believing that this opportunity was from the Lord, they put off their marriage for the five years it would take him to complete his studies.  A year later, her pastor encouraged her to consider joining her fiancé in Puerto Rico to study.  Only a year and a half remain until she will graduate and they will marry.  They plan to return to Colombia to work as church planters.

Laura with Avendano's daughter

Missing from the group this time were our missionaries from Haiti:  The Lucien Saul and Royden Saul families.

In some ways, this conference was more helpful to me than anything I’ve attended so far with IPM.  It gave me a picture of what God is doing in Central America, which is a small part of what IPM is doing in the world.  How I would love to join the missionaries from Nepal and Myanmar to hear in person what they are doing.  Somehow prayer letters aren’t quite the same. 

In future years, we may end up going to other conferences. If we do, it will be a joy to be able to spend some time with these godly men and women that God has called to be in His service.