Looking at the date I realized that it has been a while since I last gave an update - although in the meantime I was able to see many of you (the Manitobans!) over the month of July and enjoy a good time with family, friends, and my Church family. Last year was the first year that I wasn't able to make it back to Canada and it was long overdue to see many of you in person - and it truly was a blessing. I know that many of you read these updates and continue to pray both for myself and the ministry of CEC, but there is nothing that can replace connecting in person. So, here's a little bit of an update of what's been going on and what's coming up over the next few months.
Returning to San Carlos early August was a matter of simultaneous unpacking/repacking with about five days of turnaround from the trip to Canada to hitting the open road heading down to the southern part of Mexico. Driving most of the way but flying the last leg down to the southern most tip of Mexico to the city of Puerto Escondido, I met up with one of our teachers, Ivan, who as participated in CEC for the last number of years teaching Evangelism. His ministry is unique where he visits on a weekly basis 9 different churches (one a week for about 5 days), teaching and encouraging the churches according to whatever their needs are. For the most part these are small churches where the leaders/pastors have had little or no training - just a willingness to serve. They typically are churches that are in need of a lot of help but are also vibrant and looking for the help that he is able to give them. Arriving there, he arranged for me to visit 7 of the 9 churches he works with (plus one additional church), one per day, for a marathon of visits where he gave a small workshop focused on Evangelism and I shared about the opportunity to study in CEC. The furthest church was probably about two hours away where we would take a taxi, then hop on a "collectivo" (a van or truck that would take you on certain route to the nearby town) and then perhaps hop on another motorcycle taxi or something of the like to get to our final destination. By the way, Oaxaca is the opposite of Manitoba - not a straight or level road in sight - I may have been wiser to pack some Gravol for some of these outings!
Probably the most exciting part of this part of the journey was meeting the members of these churches, seeing their desire to learn and grow while also seeing the needs they have for teaching and training - Ivan has a huge ministry in all that he is doing to help them. At the same time, there was a lot of genuine desire for people in each of the places we visited to come to CEC - these are really the types of places that we desire to reach. They are largely small villages, people mostly of agricultural lifestyles, living off of what they themselves produce. It is rare to have a "full-time pastor" in the sense of a paid position. Most who serve in the church in whatever capacity have their own livelihood apart from the church - there simply are not the kind of resources for paid positions. Of course, the possibilities of studying in a seminary for several years are completely out of the picture. CEC, for the shorter time of the course, and the significantly reduced fee (approximately $225 USD) is a very feasible option for many.
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| The first church we visited in Quequestle, Oaxaca. Ivan is on the left by the two kids. Pastor Pedro is to my left. (You can probably spot me in the photo, right? ;) |
Pastor Pedro (to my left in the picture above) is one such pastor, never having had any formal training himself. Yet his desire to serve is coupled with his desire to learn - they welcome someone like Ivan to come and teach them. Pastor Pedro would love to come to study, though for him, even taking four months might be hard to do - we will see what might work out for this year or for some time in the future.
Omero, a young man from another church was generous enough to give us a ride a couple of hours away to another congregation - he heard about CEC on a previous day when we visited his church. On the drive I got to hear more of his story, how he had attended a church for a number of years but had not taken care of his relationship with God and eventually ended up caught in addiction. While in a rehabilitation center his life dramatically turned around and he came back to the God, now with a deep desire to serve Him. He ended up sharing a little bit of his testimony on one of our final days in conjunction with Ivan's Evangelism workshop - Omero's heart is for evangelism and his desire is to serve in whatever way he can. As he shared about his desire to come to CEC, he was even more excited when he found out that he could possibly come together with his wife and their two kids.
In each place that we visited there were example such as these who are the people we have in mind for CEC - pray for those that we have met, that God would provide the way for them to come, as He sees fit. We look forward to seeing those He leads to CEC for this coming season!
I'll be on the road another couple of weeks. In my second stop, unfortunately some of the churches that I had been hoping to visit have not worked out - there are times where churches look at a school like CEC with a certain amount of suspicion because it is outside their "denomination." But at the same time this time has been a bit of a breather, a calm before the storm that awaits arriving at San Carlos. I'll make one more longer stop along the way to a church in Jalisco that has sent a number of students over the years while also making several other shorter stops on the road back to San Carlos.
As I get back to San Carlos at the end of September, I'll have a week before the program Consiervos beings - a two month intensive course that trains people who want to use their trades in cross-cultural mission work - this will be the second time it has run. Though it is not run by CEC, it is run out of our facilities and I'll be participating as part of the leadership as well as doing some teaching. During those two months we will also host a missions module for Millar College of the Bible as well as a missions team from my parent's church, Bethel, in Winkler. In the meantime we also continue to prepare for the next school session to begin the end of January.
With all of this said, the need for prayer doesn't end! Thank you for your continued faithful prayers. Please feel free anytime to send me a message (rsthiessen@gmail.com) if you have any questions about anything. God bless each one of you! ¡Dios les bendiga!
