SOUTH AMERICA CONFERENCE 2013
It has been 1.5 years since the three churches in South America met at the previous South American Conference in Quito, Ecuador. This time round, eight brothers and sisters from Hope Ecuador and four brothers and sisters from Hope Chile travelled to Lima, Peru for a long-awaited South American reunion.
After a passionate gathering at the Hope Peru church, filled with great shouts of “Hola!” and enthusiastic hugs, the entire group of over 40 Christians travelled in a bus (through “Apocalipsis” [Spanish for ‘Revelations’], a bus company owned by a Peruvian brother) to our campsite, an hour away from Lima in the dry desert area. The place where we would stay and enjoy the fellowship of the Spirit and the wisdom of the Word of God for three days was a Christian campsite named “Mahanaim”. In Genesis 32:2, Jacob named the place where his camp met God’s camp of angels “Mahanaim” (meaning “two camps”). Mahanaim was an apt name for our campsite as the South American church met God and we enjoyed a tremendous three days of celebration and learning from Him. The camp opened with a roar with everyone waving Peruvian, Ecuadorian, Chilean and Singaporean flags to welcome representatives from the three South American churches dressed in traditional national costumes, presenting the cultural variety in their country and the need for the gospel in the various regions. As she introduced the various groups, Laura, our sister from Peru, roused the crowd with the question, “Who is willing to go forth and share the gospel to these regions?”
Andrew, leader of Hope Peru then gave the opening address for the camp “A Missional Community” and we welcomed the presence of God with vibrant praise and worship. Over the next three days, we heard from Brother Julian and learned from the Word of God what it meant to be a missional community. Indeed, we also experienced being the missional community as we lived and ate together, worshipped the Lord together, devoted time to the Word of God together and had great fun with games, jokes, sharing of life, music, dance and spending time at the campfire.
On the third and last day of the camp, we rejoiced at the baptism of four brothers and sisters from Hope Peru and Chile in a ceremony led by Shawn, our leader from Hope Chile. It was a joyous time of celebration as we witnessed their declaration of faith and decision to follow Christ. As the camp ended, brothers and sisters from the three churches shared how God had impacted them through the fellowship and teachings from the camp. Brother Julian then led us in a closing prayer, encouraging all of us to lift our hands and challenging us to be wowed by the presence of God and to bring the amazing presence of God with us to build missional communities in our respective countries, homes, offices and schools.
As we bade slightly tearful farewells to each other, the brothers and sisters from the three churches then made our way back to Lima and to our mission fields refreshed in the Spirit, encouraged by the fellowship and strengthened by the Word of God. We look forward to the next time we meet when we can share again, great testimonies of how God moved through us in our communities.
After a passionate gathering at the Hope Peru church, filled with great shouts of “Hola!” and enthusiastic hugs, the entire group of over 40 Christians travelled in a bus (through “Apocalipsis” [Spanish for ‘Revelations’], a bus company owned by a Peruvian brother) to our campsite, an hour away from Lima in the dry desert area. The place where we would stay and enjoy the fellowship of the Spirit and the wisdom of the Word of God for three days was a Christian campsite named “Mahanaim”. In Genesis 32:2, Jacob named the place where his camp met God’s camp of angels “Mahanaim” (meaning “two camps”). Mahanaim was an apt name for our campsite as the South American church met God and we enjoyed a tremendous three days of celebration and learning from Him. The camp opened with a roar with everyone waving Peruvian, Ecuadorian, Chilean and Singaporean flags to welcome representatives from the three South American churches dressed in traditional national costumes, presenting the cultural variety in their country and the need for the gospel in the various regions. As she introduced the various groups, Laura, our sister from Peru, roused the crowd with the question, “Who is willing to go forth and share the gospel to these regions?”
Andrew, leader of Hope Peru then gave the opening address for the camp “A Missional Community” and we welcomed the presence of God with vibrant praise and worship. Over the next three days, we heard from Brother Julian and learned from the Word of God what it meant to be a missional community. Indeed, we also experienced being the missional community as we lived and ate together, worshipped the Lord together, devoted time to the Word of God together and had great fun with games, jokes, sharing of life, music, dance and spending time at the campfire.
On the third and last day of the camp, we rejoiced at the baptism of four brothers and sisters from Hope Peru and Chile in a ceremony led by Shawn, our leader from Hope Chile. It was a joyous time of celebration as we witnessed their declaration of faith and decision to follow Christ. As the camp ended, brothers and sisters from the three churches shared how God had impacted them through the fellowship and teachings from the camp. Brother Julian then led us in a closing prayer, encouraging all of us to lift our hands and challenging us to be wowed by the presence of God and to bring the amazing presence of God with us to build missional communities in our respective countries, homes, offices and schools.
As we bade slightly tearful farewells to each other, the brothers and sisters from the three churches then made our way back to Lima and to our mission fields refreshed in the Spirit, encouraged by the fellowship and strengthened by the Word of God. We look forward to the next time we meet when we can share again, great testimonies of how God moved through us in our communities.
