Strategic Meeting in Mexico City and Puebla
Along with mentoring churches and meeting with future candidates, I was able to have several very strategic meeting. One was with Antonio Pavon, the director of COMIMEX ( a large missions umbrella organization in Latin America). He has seen first hand how God is using Global Focus in Latin America, and we are currently working on a partnership agreement with COMIMEX to mentor even more churches in Mexico, and the first church from this organization Antonio's own church he pastors. He said, Rafael, I want my church to experience how Global Focus helps personalize missions for every church member. We will start the process with them in May of this year.
Not only did I meet with COMIMEX, but I met with a couple of pastor friends of mine from the Mexican Baptist Convention. I told them how God is using Global Focus to help the churches of Baja California, and many of them are already sending workers to unreached areas. One of the pastor I was able to meet with was my good friend, Juan German Ortiz, pastor of Mexico City's First Baptist Church. It is amazing how God has blessed this church of nearly 1,000 members in spite of not having adequate buildings, and being in the downtown area.
From their we were able to travel 2 hours away to Puebla, Mexico and meet with the leadership of Iglesia Bautista Getsemani. Pastor Bruce Bell is one of Latin America's premier missionaries, having served nearly 50 years in Latin America.
He is the founder of Miramonte Baptist Church and dozens of other churches in Latin America. I remember as a 17 year old teenager hearing Bruce Bell speak at Berea Baptist Church in Monterrey, Mexico.
I still, after all of these years remember his sermon. I was honored to preach twice on Sunday am at this wonderful church. The entire leadership was so enthused at how Global Focus has helped Miramonte and other churches that we begin the process with them in May of this year as well.