Planting a New Congregation

07 Nov Planting a New Congregation

We are excited to share that the local congregation of Barrio Belén is planting a new congregation. Our church planting team, through the leadership seminars they conduct, learned of a community in need. The story starts with a family who has a relative in the U.S. who in past years has sent money for the family to build a church building. They invited a denominational pastor to lead the church, which he did until he abandoned them for another community, and the church building has been unused for a while. In recent months, the family that owns the building had a close relative who was murdered. They were so discouraged and fearful as usually these killings are difficult to stop. When our team heard about the family in need, they went to pray with and encourage them. This led to the family asking our team if they would be willing to start up worship again in the church building. Of course, the answer was YES. Our church planting team presented the opportunity to the elders of the Barrio Belén congregation to request that we participate in building up this new church by sending members to conduct worship and Bible studies. The leaders accepted the challenge and now several church members travel one hour, one way to assist with worship. The opportunities to serve and encourage will increase and the goal is to establish a thriving, growing, independent congregation. The group had their first official worship on October 30^th. They had 17 in attendance. Our team has been conducting a Bible study on Thursdays for a few months and generally have 20-25 in attendance. They also visit the community and go from house to house praying with and evangelizing the community. Please pray for the Lord to give the increase.