Colombia - Mission History

1973 -- WELS commissions three-man missionary team to Colombia.

1974 -- Missionary team arrives in Medellín. Mission conducts first worship service and confirms first adult member. Radio outreach starts.

1975 -- Dedication of Holy Trinity Church in Medellín. Bible Institute program begins.

1979 -- Provisional seminary opens in Medellín.

1982 -- First Colombian student graduates from Lutheran seminary.

1983 -- Ordination and installation of first Colombian pastor. Work begins in Bogotá with two missionaries.

1989 -- Inauguration of first Christian Information Center (CIC) in Bogotá.

1990 -- Installation of first lay minister in Medellín.

1996 -- Medellín students receive pastoral duties.

1997 -- Medellín CIC moves to downtown church building. Bogotá congregation and CIC move to new location in north of city.

1998 -- Bogotá school becomes first Spanish-speaking school in WELS fellowship. English as Foreign Language (EFL) classes begin as outreach.

1999 -- Medellín congregation has two Colombian pastors. Bogotá church has a three-man council. All WELS missionaries and families evacuate because of increasing violence. Missionary begins long-distance training and counseling of national leaders.

2000 -- Bogotá congregation begins a new congregation in a local school.

2001 -- Three Colombian leaders begin helping WELS Coordinator train nationals in ministry.

2003 -- WELS Coordinator discontinues field visits to Colombia due to increased security risks. Contact and long-distance training continues by phone, e-mail, and fax.

2005 -- Due to improved security conditions, LATTE Professors begin to make periodic trips to Colombia for continued theological training of leaders. The Colombian national church is incorporated as: Colombian Confessional Lutheran Church (ILCC.Wels); giving the church legal standing in the country.

2006 -- Outreach efforts begin in the city of Barranquilla when a family relocates from the Bogotá congregation. LATTE continues to train student pastors of the congregations in Bogotá and Medellín.

2007 -- First national missionary trip to Barranquilla. LATTE work continues with the theological education of church leaders and pastors.

2008 -- The ILCC.Wels begins to support the International Church through the Internet. LATTE continues its assistance.

2009 -- A national pastor and LATTE professor make visits to Quibdó and establish fellowship with an existing congregation. Our Redeemer Congregation of Quibdó is born with 50 members. Mission trips to cities of Cartago, Pereira and Valledupar begin.

2010 -- The ILCC.Wels calls one of the pastors in Medellín to serve as a national missionary and he starts to study full-time with LATTE to finish up his theological studies. Mission trips to the cities of Cartago, Pereira, Valledupar, San Rafael and Manizales are made.

2011 -- For the first time in history, a representative from Colombia attends the world-wide meeting of the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC) in New Ulm, MN. The Colombian national church celebrates a special working congress with the attendance of members of the WELS committee for Latin America. The Light of Christ Lutheran Church is born in Santa Marta with 6 members. The ILCC.Wels through its national missionary pastor prepares men for the public ministry with LATTE's assistance.

2012 -- With the help of scholarships, two leaders begin full-time preparation for the public ministry; one student from the church in Quibdó and another from the congregation in Medellín. Professors from both the ILCC.Wels and LATTE carry out this ministerial training together.

 Our Redeemer Congregation -- Quibdó 

Learning and Serving

Seminarian Raul is a student-pastor in Quibdó, Colombia. He serves Our Redeemer Confessional Lutheran Church. Currently, he receives his seminary training by visiting LATTE Professors along with online education while continuing to serve his congregation members.

How did you become a member of the Lutheran Church?

Due to the fact that God's love, grace and mercy for lost, miserable and condemned human beings is immense, and that his decrees are unchangeable, today I am a member of the Lutheran Church.  I will tell you how it happened:

I became a Christian when I was 14 years old as a Baptist. Later we [my fellow Pastor and I] met a Presbyterian pastor with whom we studied and found that we had many doctrinal errors, the main one being that we were teaching salvation by works.  Having become aware of this delicate situation, we broke ties with the Baptist church and became Presbyterians. Finally -- thanks to the love, grace and mercy of God for us -- our Pastor, Elkin met two confessional Lutheran pastors of Most Holy Trinity Church in the city of Medellín. God used them to teach us true Biblical doctrine, and thus we realized that even as Presbyterians, we still had subtle doctrinal errors, for example: the belief that salvation can not be lost, that once a person is saved, he is always saved, that God has to save even if someone lives in impenitence.

The truth is that it was very hard for us. We were worried. We had already been the objects of false doctrines on many occasions, and at first we were afraid that the confessional Lutherans would also teach false doctrine. But God, in his Word, through a long process, taught us that they were really teaching the true doctrine, which we checked and confirmed with the Bible open.  We were convinced, since the truth prevails and the lie is defeated.  From that moment we identified ourselves with Lutheran teachings, confirming that they were Biblical, and of course we identified ourselves with confessional Lutherans.  We began to study with Pastor Henry, and were later confirmed "en masse". We have been confessional Lutherans for about three years now. Our congregation in Quibdó, Chocó, Colombia is called Christ Our Redeemer Confessional Lutheran Church. We have more than 40 members including adults and children, plus regular visitors.

How does your training in the seminary influence your ministry?

My training in the seminary does not affect my ministry negatively at all. To the contrary, it affects me positively, since currently I am a co-pastor in my church, teacher for an adult Bible study, and an evangelist.  The training is a great blessing for me and very useful because it enriches my knowledge of God's Word, providing me with new knowledge, and reinforcing what I have already learned so that I can offer better service to God. Even though the instruction is very demanding, I thank God because he has strengthened me and kept me balanced.  It is my desire that he continue to help me in this way.

Update from Mexico

 

Extraordinary events are taking place in Mexico right now. Violence caused by the drug war is occurring at an astonishing rate in northern Mexico. And yet, our churches in the north are not just surviving, most of them are growing at a rate which they have never before experienced. 

At the same time growth continues to occur in more peaceful areas of the country as well. WELS Kingdom Workers recently approved the funding of a short-term volunteer coordinator position to Mexico.

Sharing Peace in Jesus

Seminary Student Eligio and his wife, Noemi

 Eligio was born into a family that was very religious, and as such he participated as a young person in many of the activities that his church offered. However he did not know peace with Jesus until years later when he was sitting on the front step of his house when a WELS missionary named Paul Hartman came walking up to him and asked if he could talk with him.  Eligio was struck by the Bible teachings that he learned at the new mission, and he continued studying any Bible course that was offered. So he now says that he began studying for the ministry without being aware of it. When he recommended to his pastor that a different member of the church would be a good candidate to study for the ministry, he found out about the Bible Institute that the mission was offering and signed up to take some classes.

Eligio has served in his congregation in many ways, giving the liturgy, learning how to preach sermons, teaching Sunday school and VBS classes. He has already served as a student pastor. His greatest joy in the ministry has been when he was privileged to preach to larger crowds of people about the wonder of God's grace and the peace we have in Jesus' forgiveness. 

His goal is to retire from the police force (he is a detective sergeant in the municipal police force) and offer his full-time service to the church by the end of this year. Eligio has almost finished his seminary studies with LATTE and should soon graduate from the seminary. We pray that he would continue to be a blessing to the church in Puerto Rico, and that God richly bless his continuing ministry in His name.

Winter Update - 2012

The four LATTE professors are continuing to carry out their teaching according to their previously established plan. Trips to Bolivia, Colombia, and the Caribbean have been made. National churches were encouraged in their evangelism efforts and were provided with the theological education that they had requested.

The additional work with the Colombian church will consist of only occasional visits, since the two new students are remaining in their home cities and will need to be taught online. Pastor Henry, a Colombian national, is working with LATTE to schedule their training, including online Moodle courses and courses taught via Skype.

In Mexico after the last full-time seminary student resigned, LATTE worked with the national church to plan a recruitment effort with the hope of beginning a new class of seminary students in July of 2012. Meanwhile the two LATTE professors residing in Mexico are using the unexpected time to do course work, increase the number of hours taught over the Internet to various students, and make several teaching trips during this time period.

Training to Teach

Seminarian Henry is a student-pastor in Medellín, Colombia. He serves Holy Trinity congregation and assists in training ministerial leaders. Currently, he receives his seminary training by visiting LATTE Professors along with online education while continuing to serve his congregation members and teaching others.

Why did you decide to prepare for the ministry?

In the plans for my life, I never had the idea of being a pastor. When God called me through the church in 2004 to be pastor of my congregation, I began to prepare for the ministry.

How are you putting your seminary training into practice?

Currently, I am instructing the brothers who have been called for the public ministry.

How do you hope to serve?

I hope to serve with love, and I ask God that I never become disconnected from Christ. In my prayers, I pray that God would have me serve him wherever he puts me.

What is your favorite Bible passage?

God shows his love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

And Why?

I like this passage because it reminds me that I am a sinner and that at the same time I am forgiven.

Pana

 

Pana (Puerto Rico) = panpan (Nigerian pidgen English) = breadfruit (English) 

Off the patio of our room here in Puerto Rico there is a Pana tree. While I have eaten it here and in Africa, I didn’t know how to prepare it. It tastes somewhat like a potato. Larry’s student, Elijio, helped me prepare it. Here are the steps:

Directions:

1. Cut pana in 8 wedges
2. Peel and core  
3. Drop it immediately into water (or it will turn brown quickly)
4. Add salt
5. Boil until it is tender to a fork
6. Drain excess water
7. Pour the prepared Recao Dressing (see below) over the warm pana
8. Serve

Recao Dressing:

• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/4 medium onion chopped
• 8 green olives
• 1 Tbsp ground garlic
• Handful of recao chopped (can substitute standard cilantro)
• 2 Tbsp Sofrito
• Salt to taste
• Adobo to taste