Collaboration and strategic regional thinking have a great impact for the Kingdom

Central American Theological Seminary (CATS)

Josué Fernández, OC's Latin America Regional Director

OC partner Central American Theological Seminary (CATS) in Guatemala City, Guatemala has continued to share resources and offer practical training to other institutions in its region. Last spring, the seminary held a training seminar on communication and fundraising for the staff of Seminario Biblico de Guatemala (SBG), a non-OC partner school located an hour outside the capital city in Chimaltenango. SBG appointed a Director of Communications and Fundraising and then held their first fundraising dinner, raising a great amount of local support and prompting SBG to plan more in the future. The seminary’s budget has never included local support before; in 2008, local support exceeded overseas donations.

Josué Fernández, OC’s Latin America Regional Director, encouraged SBG to continue working with CATS in order to benefit from the many areas of development that CATS has reached. Instead of seeing fellow seminaries as competitors, OC encourages partner schools to share resources with other institutions and work together in order to spread effectiveness and benefit the Kingdom. These school-to-school partnerships ultimately increase the sustainability of theological education around the world and allow OC to help and encourage more institutions.

Josué said visiting SBG “was one of the most encouraging visits I had during 2008, to see a school that took all the suggestions that we made in our first visits very seriously…I was very surprised to see such a turnover in just one year.”

Through the CATS/SBG partnership, many positive changes have taken place. Now every SBG professor, along with students, visits churches three times a year in Chimaltenango. Due to the increase in funds raised, SBG may be able to give a salary raise to all staff, something they could not have imagined a year ago. SBG also held a special congress for pastors with a fundraising emphasis this year; CATS will partner with the seminary on this event in 2009.

Although SBG is not an OC partner school, the Kingdom is ultimately blessed by partners in training and servant leadership. Josué continues to encourage Kingdom spirit and networking among 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. [It is] a great challenge, but we are going in that direction.”

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