New Workers from Latin America

God is on the move in Latin America. The turning of many to Christ in the last couple generations is now reaping a harvest of workers for the nations. Many Latinos come from challenging circumstances and are not afraid to be uncomfortable nor suffer. Their hearts are ignited with passion that is expressed outwardly. Many respond to the call to the most difficult unreached areas having lived through wars, gang or cartel warfare, poverty, dictatorships and economic hardships. They have a ruggedness that faces difficulties and pushes through. They say, “We’ve faced that before, we can survive.”
 

Latinos bring open personalities that knit quickly with others. They are people oriented and prefer to spend a day talking, sharing or working on a project together than working on a computer or filling out reports. They focus on people. They have an incredible ability to talk around issues and gain a person’s confidence and touch sensitive topics without offending.

Latino cultures have an honor- shame value system, which also incorporates guilt and innocence along with fear and power. They have an ability to understand other cultural values as a result. In addition, Latinos are deeply devoted to the purity of the Truth of the Word. They take it at face value and teach it in that way. They have witnessed God’s power and miracles and are not afraid to expect Him to continue to work in that way.

 

But many challenges lie on the road for Christians from Latin America who want to serve the Lord in other countries. Churches are not as affluent as in the West and struggle to supporting a missionary. Many churches believe that mission agencies should pay salaries. Churches may get enthused about sending a worker but after a year lose interest if the missionary does not return home to visit or if they do not have substantial numbers of converts to report. Often the biggest obstacle for Latino missionaries are their families and pastors. Parents worry about who will care for them and pastors do not want to lose a loyal and well-trained ministry leader.
 
Yet despite these challenges and obstacles we are seeing a growing number of Latinos join us in taking the Good News of Jesus to the ends of the earth! And what a richness they bring to our teams! If you’d like to know more about WEC Latino, check out their website!
http://www.weclatino.org/contact/