Lausanne World Pulse – WORLD EVANGELISM & MISSIONS REPORTS – Latin America Blessing the World
By Chacko Thomas
The Gathering of the Latin American Mission Force
It was a privilege to join nearly two thousand church and mission leaders from forty Latin American nations 13-17 November 2006 at the third international gathering of the missions association of Latin America, COMIBAM (Cooperation of Missions of Iberia and Americas), in Grenada, Spain. Previous gatherings were in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1986 and in Acapulco, Mexico in 1997.
Nearly three hundred attendees were Latin missionaries serving in sixty countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. About 150 volunteers, from places such as Chile, Peru, Mexico and Canada, came on their own expense. They helped with details such as transporting participants to and from the airport and acting as security at the conference centre.
According to David Ruiz, president of COMIBAM, “Grenada was chosen not only for its conference facilities, but also to bring the meeting closer to the missionaries,” most of whom are serving in the Indian Subcontinent, Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa. “This also enabled many of the participants from Latin America to visit their missionaries before or after the conference,” he added.
The conference included a series of five messages entitled the “Message to the Church,” during which missionaries reflected on the Latin America Church as a sending church. One missionary who had served for twenty years in North Africa pleaded, “Put Christ in the centre of the Church!”
Nearly twenty-five years ago Latin America formally joined the world missions force; today there are four hundred mission agencies sending out nine thousand Latinos.
One Egyptian encouraged those at the conference to work closely and in consultation with the national Church. “It is a lie of the devil that we can do it alone,” he said. A married couple from Morocco and a pastor from Albania were converted through Latin missionaries, and are now serving the Lord full-time, one through radio ministries, the other pastoring a significant mission-minded church in Albania. Experienced mission leaders such as Bill Taylor, Samuel Escobar, David Ruiz and Bertil Ekstrom led the panels. They spoke on themes such as training, sending and missionary care.
Two experienced researchers working with COMIBAM spoke on the history and future of Latin American missions. Their findings formed the basis for discussion of the work groups which met daily. Each group had Latin missionaries in them. The research is available in Spanish, Portuguese and English at www.comibam.org.
Latin America in Global Missions
Nearly twenty-five years ago Latin America formally joined the world missions force; today there are four hundred mission agencies sending out nine thousand Latinos. Another three thousand are thought to have gone out without a sending structure. Of the nine thousand missionaries, only two thousand are serving outside of Latin America. This is partly because many must serve cross-culturally in Latin America before they are considered for Asia or Africa. Below are some statistics:
- 780 serve among Muslims
- 246 serve in India
- 128 among the Buddhist people
- 1440 serve in the 10/40 Window
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.