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Latin America
January 7, 2014

PREACH THE WORD

Latin America Directors Conference 2014 was held in La Plata, Argentina from Jan. 1 to 4. More than 40 missionaries and shepherds from 18 countries participated in the conference. Msn. Joseph & Maria Ahn from Chicago, Shep. Moses Kim from Korea, Msn. Abraham Lim from New York did long trip to support us. Shep. Moses Kim flied about 30 hours, but he was happy for meeting Latin America missionaries. Msn. Timothy Rhee who is continental coordinator and regional coordinators – Msn. Esteban Cho, Elias Park, Josue Ham, Barnabas Choi and Juan Seo – had Skype conference periodically to prepare the conference. Msn. Isaac Cho (National Coordinator of Argentina), Marcos Kim (Director of Buenos Aires), Juan Moon of La Plata did their best efforts to prepare the conference site and spiritual environment. Most of all women missionaries of Argentina served the conference participants with delicious foods at Msn. Isaac Cho’s house.

The title of the conference was “Preach the word” based on 2Ti. 3:1-4:8. It was very good passage for us who live in the last days. Msn. Timothy Rhee delivered the message with the power of God and revealed that our mission in this time is to preach the gospel in season and out of season. We accepted God’s will and made decision to preach the word more diligently in 2014. Another main message was “The faithful and wise servant” based on Mt. 24:1-51. Shep. Abraham Eric of Bolivia delivered the message very fluently and powerfully. Msn. Esteban Cho helped him about 19 years with patience and tears to be Abraham of Bolivia ministry. By the message we were moved and could understand well that we should be faithful and wise servants of God in these last days. Msn. Juan Kim of Nicaragua served the opening message titled “Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” based on Phi. 2:1-8. He emphasized on collaboration, humility and love among us. The message was very clear that we have to learn from Jesus to be like him in 2014. The closing message was delivered by Msn. Jose Park of Uruguay. The passage was Psalm 126:5, 6 and the title was “Those who sow with tears”. His message let us remember the God’s promise that we will reap with songs of joy if we sow the words of God with tears. Msn. Jose Park passed the last year with the difficulties of health. But he is sowing the words of God in Uruguay students’ minds with the hope in God.

Shep. Moses Kim gave us a special lecture about the sacrifice and love of the missionaries who came to Korea. They are Eugene Bell, Owen, Forsythe, Wilson and Shepping. Shep. Moses Kim explained us detailedly about Shepping relating with Mother Barry, which was very useful for us. Also we had symposiums with two books: one was “The reformed pastor (Richard Baxter)” and the other was “Preaching and Preachers (Lloyd Jones)”. Msn. Josue Chun, Andres Kim, Shep. Gustavo Prato, Mateo prepared the presentations of the book “The reformed pastor” and Msn. Noe Jung, Andres Park, Paulo Kim, Noe Marcos served the book “Preaching and Preachers”. After their presentation we had discussions with the books by which we could understand more about the contents and find applications for our shepherd life.

In the other years we had selected some chapters to share their mission reports, but in this conference all chapters shared their mission reports and we prayed for them every night. In this way we could understand more the situation of each chapter and know their specific prayer topics. On the third day after the mission reports we prayed for new chapter directors. Msn. Mateus Kim pioneered the University of Sao Judas in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And Shep. Gustavo Prato succeeded to Caracas Chapter in Venezuela. We prayed together with the imposition of hands so that God might use them as good shepherds of His sheep.

After the prayer we had a conversation and discussion time for Latin America ministry. The main topic of the conversation was Latin America Continental International Conference in 2015. Through more than 5 hours of conversation, we could share our opinions and visions for the conference. Finally we agreed that the regional coordinators might make decision later if we will have the conference in one place together or three places by region. Also we talked about the Daily Bread publication and decided to translate English Daily Bread in Spanish.
The conference was more abundant for the service of the second generation missionaries. Msn. John & Goh Eun Rhee served the conference with Powerpoint presentation, sound and translation. Msn. Maria Cho and Joseph Moon served the sing along. They collaborate with their chapters as good coworkers.

Thank God for blessing the conference and giving us the direction of “Preach the words” for this new year. May God strengthen each of our missionaries to bear many fruits of the Holy Spirit by the grace of Jesus.

One word: PREACH THE WORD