This month we finish our apprenticeship with four young men, Jefferson
Alayo, Alexis Alayo, Luis Mendoza and Bryand Cruzado. We are very excited to
see their progress.
We started
with a plan to divide half of their full-time schedule with theological
education and the other half with practical ministry. We also spent half a day
every week doing maintenance work around the church (sanding and refinishing
windows and doors). They have been involved with various ministries such as
youth ministry, Sunday school, helping with Geneva School, Christ's Kids and Bethesda Clinic.
They participated in teaching daily devotionals and had opportunities to preach
in the evening services. Several pastors took turns teaching them Worship,
Mission and Theology. We taught them how to study the Bible in preparation for
sermons and are working through a free certificate program in Christian
Ministries with Birmingham Theological Seminary in connection with Third MillenniumMinistries. We also had a long break from course work dedicated to practical
ministry when we provided flood relief to the affected areas during the months
of March and April and part of May of 2017.
We started the apprenticeship just thinking it would equip them as
better servants and help them discover God's will for their lives. As we draw
near to the end, it appears that all of them are confirmed in their calling to
ministry and have grown and learned much. They may all end up
becoming pastors.
The pastor of one of our extension works, Percy Padilla, has requested
to the session help to hire one of the apprentices as a pastoral assistant in
Christ the Redeemer in Parque Industrial. Our session has agreed that it would
be good if the Lord provides the funds and also has considered that it would be
helpful to hire two of them to assist with the church in Arévalo, especially
since I will be leaving in March for a year of home assignment.
We have calculated that it will cost $600/month for each of them. We are
praying to raise $1,800 per month to be able to hire three of the apprentices
in order to continue sustaining the work of the church and providing experience
for these young leaders. (One apprentice will be offered a job by our
university ministry, SUSA.) These last two years, we used funds from your
donations given to us, the Mills family, to finance a major part of the apprenticeship
program. As per recommendation of our mission board, we need to raise the money
separately from our personal funds.
Will you consider
helping us put these men to work in the advancement of the kingdom in Trujillo?
Give here. Select Compassion fund and in the details describe for Arévalo apprenticeship.
Please pray with us as we seek the Lord's will for this and for the Spirit to
guide us on who to call and to which specific field of ministry in the
church.
