Students at OC partner school South American Theological Seminary (SATS) in Londrina, Brazil, recently organized a “Forum on Holistic Mission,” drawing over 100 people from all four corners of Latin America. Participants learned ways for the Church to be an agent of transformation through working with street children, prostitutes and transvestites; teaching adult literacy classes through Bible study; and providing music ministries and ecumenical dialogues

The forum tied into the seminary’s mission of preparing students for holistic ministry in the Brazilian and Latin American context. SATS offers free consultation services to local churches, NGOs and non-profits to promote holistic community development, education and healthcare to children and adults. Many churches are now contacting SATS for guidance and training, and several graduate students are starting holistic ministries in their churches. Doctoral student and OC scholarship recipient Marcio Jose Novais de Carvalho is one such example.

Growing up, Marcio was surrounded by social inequality: people struggling with unemployment, lack of proper schooling and too much leisure time. At 14, he got involved with anti-culture groups, leading to occultism, violence, drinking, drugs and prostitution. Feeling trapped, he came to Christ after hearing a Christian speaker on the radio proclaiming that Jesus gives freedom. Now Marcio says his goal is “to spread the Word of God, trying to reach people who are living in destructive ways like I was.” With the support of his church, Marcio along with his wife and other young adults have an outreach program, evangelizing marginalized people such as anti-culture group members, drug addicts, homosexuals and prostitutes. He says his DMin classes are very practical, helping him to learn and put into practice the skills needed to minister to these hurting people.

Marcio also founded and pastors a Presbyterian house church called "Refuge Community" in a low-income neighborhood. The church evangelizes prostitutes and transvestites; provides a home for children at risk and professional courses for prostitutes who want to leave the streets; and will soon provide computer classes. The ministry has proven so successful that the city government now sends people to Marcio to be restored in his church.

OC scholarships helped Marcio become the leader he is today. To support scholarships at SATS, please click here.

Read another great example of a Latin American partner school’s impact in the Church and community.

With over 1100 graduates, the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Port-au-Prince (STEP) has a long history of providing quality training for Christian church leaders and modeling a commitment to integrity and orthodoxy. As a leading interdenominational seminary in Haiti, STEP has 18 denominations and 74 independent churches currently represented in the student body. Many of the country’s evangelical leaders are STEP graduates as well.

Community projects include providing access to drinking water, training underprivileged pastors for rural churches, enabling thousands of children in school and addressing societal challenges, such as voodoo, poverty, AIDS and narcotics. The seminary believes Haiti would have less capable leaders and the Church would be more easily swayed by departures from doctrinal orthodoxy if the seminary did not exist.

In a remote northwest Haitian village, the impact of one STEP graduate is evident. “The community had a very small congregation of believers with no school, medical care, water or hope,” said former STEP President John Berger. “Because of the visionary and capable leadership of this graduate, the church has grown to more than 200, and voodoo practitioners have left the area.” The church now operates a clinic and pharmacy; established a school for more than 400 children; and partnered with others in the region to create a potable water system serving many villages with no previous water source. John says this one example is what STEP calls “community transformation through disciple-making leadership.”

Scholarships make a difference! To support STEP scholarships, please click here.

OC encourages partner schools to cooperate with other schools in their regions and share resources. This past March, several seminary leaders from six theological schools across Mexico attended leadership meetings together for the first time, including representatives from Mexico City, Hermosillo, Mérida and Puebla. “There was a great outcome in terms of relationship among the leaders. Now they are visiting and supporting each other,” says Josué Fernández, OC Latin America Regional Director. The meetings were “an encouraging time of dreaming and thinking together and building a network,” said Jason Ferenczi, OC Vice President of International Partnerships.

Only one month later, the new relationships aided one of the schools when a crisis occurred among the students, school leaders and denominational leaders. Having been through a similar situation himself, a Presbyterian school president was invited to the Baptist Seminary in Mexico City to share a time of reflection and encouragement with the school leadership, staff and students. “I was so happy to see the outcome of what OC triggered in March,” Fernández says. “It was not theological training, research or library resources; it was pastoral care which is much needed in theological training centers all over Latin America.”

The Kingdom is ultimately blessed by partners in training and servant leadership. Fernández continues to encourage Kingdom spirit and networking the Body of Christ for the greater good. "It is something we are trying to accomplish in many Latin American countries...helping them see the potential of networking.”

OC’s seventh 2008 Institute for Excellence in Christian Leadership Development took place September 8-12 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; no Institutes took place in August. The event was hosted by OC partner Evangelical Theological College (ETC). Seventeen leaders from strategic training programs in the region attended the Institute, representing Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

During the five-day Institute themed “Leadership Matters,” participants focused on topics designed to equip them to more effectively lead their schools. All presentations and materials were available in English.

“As a theological leader, I found almost all of the topics addressed to be pertinent to my ministry,” one Institute participant said. “I have realized that to be a leader in the current African context comes as both a challenge and opportunity. I have learned to use the opportunity by leading with integrity,...reproducing others and caring for myself to avoid stress.”

To see more pictures from the Addis Ababa Institute, click here.

The next two Institutes for Excellence will take place October 6-10 at Malaysia Bible Seminary (MBS) in Klang, Malaysia, and October 13-17 at South African Theological Seminary (SATSSA) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Please commit to pray with OC over the following Latin America prayer requests:

• For the students, faculty and staff at each of OC’s 18 Latin American partner schools
• For New Pines Seminary (NPS) in Cuba and the aftermath of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike
• For financial provision for day-to-day operations at all OC partner schools, especially those dealing with high rates of inflation and poor economies
• For the relationship between the Church and seminary; OC Latin America Regional Director Josué Fernández says, “It is crucial that seminaries understand how to help the Church face the challenges of:
  • A strong current of anti-intellectualism, making it difficult to convince pastors of the value of intense Bible study;
  • The pervasive belief in the prosperity gospel amidst the Church, making Bible-centered teaching unattractive to many Christians; and
  • New ecclesiological models that challenge the traditional curriculum of schools.”