Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – Latin America Blessing the World
By Chacko Thomas
January 2007
Pastor Waldimar from Brazil said that his mission, Kairos, is celebrating its twentieth anniversary in 2008. He began his career in missions with the Operation Mobilization ship M. V. Doulos in the early 1980s.
American missionary Don McCurry was a missionary to Pakistan and has spent much of his life serving among Muslims. He is currently training Latinos to be more effective in missions to the Muslim world. He has conducted programmes in every nation in Latin America. He assured me that his counterparts are also training Latinos for the Hindu and Buddhist worlds.
One couple had come from a small church of only sixty members in Brazil to work in Spain. They shared with me their long and difficult journey into missions as a young couple and as new converts with no financial or other support. Their difficulties included a six-month separation from their little boy who was sent back to the grandparents (to spare him the troubles on the mission field). When the wife had a miscarriage, the husband could not afford the bus fare and so had to walk eight kilometres daily to see her in the hospital. According to the wife, God’s hand was upon them. “All the difficulties have drawn us together to each other and to the Lord,” she said. They have begun a small church plant in Spain and enjoy part-time employment which puts bread on the table. Their son is back with them and enjoys life in Spain.
Ending the Conference and Stepping Out with Renewed Passion
Dr. Bob Fu of China spoke on “Missions in the Midst of Martyrdom.” He had three points: stand up (for the gospel), speak up and shut up. There are sixty million Christians in China who are not persecuted because they toe governmental lines. However, if you stand up for the whole truth you will be persecuted, Fu said. For the third point, Fu gave the illustration of a young lady who was imprisoned and tortured, but refused to betray her pastors or other believers. Fu shared that “people are giving thanks to God, not for their second car or something similar, but for the honour of suffering for Christ.” His message was based on 2 Timothy 3:12: “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
Latin missions is not only a movement of the Iberia-American Church, but more importantly, it is a movement of the Holy Spirit.
The closing ceremony included flags of many nations and a speech by Ruiz, who passed the leadership of COMIBAM on to Carlos Scott from Argentina. Ruiz has been president of the movement for nearly seven years. “The Latin American missions movement will continue,” he reminded his audience. As a pastor with a heart for the unreached, he has left his mark on the missions movement.
Scott gave a fiery message entitled “A New Chapter of the Acts of the Holy Spirit.” He made it clear that Latin missions is not only a movement of the Iberia-American Church, but more importantly, it is a movement of the Holy Spirit. Missions, he said, is centred on God and obedience.
Perhaps the reflection of one Korean mission leader when he was asked what he would take back from the conference speaks for all of us: “Koreans are not the only ones doing missions.” We all, including Latinos, can add the name of our nation to this reply. While “standing on the shoulders of giants” who have gone before them, Latin missionaries have their own distinct identity. Latino churches are blessing the world by the design and power of the Holy Spirit. With more than eighty-five million evangelical in this region, Latinos have a major role to play in missions.
May the huge Church growth in Latin America spill over and overflow into the rest of the world. Let us rejoice for the Latin flavour entering world missions today. The whole Church taking the whole gospel to the whole world is becoming a reality.
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Chacko Thomas is coordinator of Missions Mobilisation Network (MMN). He is also a missionary with Operation Mobilisation, having served in India, and on three of OM’s ships, the Logos, Doulos and the Logos ll, in various ministry and leadership roles. |