AMSLA Paraguay 2008

We've been planning for over a year for the AMSLA congress. AMSLA is Agencia Misionera de Santidad Latino Americana, or the Latin American Holiness Mission Agency. The churches WGM works with in Latin America have united to form a mission sending agency. Every two years we all meet together to celebrate and promote missions and to encourage and get to know each other. This year it was Paraguay's turn to host the convention.

So last Thursday believers from Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, and the United States, as well as Paraguayans, gathered in Asuncion for three days of getting excited about what God is doing. It really was exciting, too. Each country had an opportunity to share and we all worshipped together, mostly in Spanish but also with a few additions in Bolivian Quechua, Peruvian Quechua, and Guarani. The traditional songs and dress were impressive and even more exciting were the stories of God's grace in each of the countries represented.

On Sunday we had a special commissioning service for two couples who are being sent as missionaries—a Honduran couple to central Asia and a Bolivian couple to the southern United States—and for the new Executive Director of AMSLA, Jorge Pacheco, a Honduran. It was thrilling to see these families being sent into the harvest field from the Latin American church.

I was especially pleased with how the Paraguay team, led by Pastor Rafael Flores, put together and executed the conference. There was barely a hitch. It was really beautiful to see, especially since we've never done anything near that big before! A real milestone in the history of the Iglesia Evangélica Mundial in Paraguay!