December Kekchi Pastors Module

This week we had the opportunity to hold another training session for the Kekchi Baptist Pastors. 49 pastors arrived for the classes on 2nd Corinthians and Missions. Rick Washburn and Mike Starling were our two guest teachers. We were happy because both of these men grew up as missionary kids and then went back to the field with their own kids. As you can imagine, they have a perspective that is very interesting to us personally about raising missionary kids.

Because they both speak spanish, there was no need for Jimmy to translate. They were able to cover a lot more material this way. Audilio translated everything into Kekchi.

{Rick teaching}

{Mike teaching}

The pastors were very interested the entire time and asked a lot of questions. Many of the answers they now have will forever change their ministries. The pastors were also encouraged to look beyond their specific works to how, through their existing churches, they can reach the lost villages around them. Many told of their new plans to do so.

Last October the church in Libertad (4 families) asked the other churches for help in building a parsonage. They have been without a pastor for a while and thought they would be able to get a new one in this way. The pastors voted to help buy the roof, but mentioned that there was no one to go to this church. On our last day we gave a man a ride who had been without a church for about 19 months. He mentioned that he will probably be pastoring the church in Libertad next month because they just finished their parsonage. He had to leave the church he was at before because they could only pay $60 of the $100 salary/month and he couldn't feed his family.

Rick and Mike have really caught the vision for what KBI is all about. Over and over we saw the needs for further training and a permanent location for a full-time pastor's institute. Over and over we heard about spiritually dark villages where a church could be started if there was only a pastor to go there. This is what indigenous ministry is all about- investing in national pastors.