In Honduras, TMAI’s training school SEPE has been teaching and equipping men across the whole of Central America.
One training center for seven countries means that men travel for hours, even days, to be taught. Many of these men drive to Honduras in run down vehicles for eight, ten hours on dilapidated roads—others spend those hours in a bus. All do this for the sake of their own local churches scattered around the continent to better know, love, and serve Christ.
In a region with so many minority people groups, indigenous languages, and poverty-stricken villages—these men are frontier missionaries in their own land.
One pastor recognized the vital importance of being properly trained to shepherd and preach, leading him away from career, family, and nation.
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Carlos Par was a man with a plan.
He was the picture of success and intention. In 2016, Carlos was nearing the end of his studies at a university in his home country of Guatemala to become a civil engineer. He had a well-paying job in that field and hoped to start his own company to further establish himself. He had a wife, family, and lucrative career.
Then God intervened.
At this time, his pastor Juan was studying at SEPE. He invited Carlos to attend a conference on campus in Honduras, which Carlos accepted. During this conference, Carlos’s eyes were opened, and he felt the need to begin studying at SEPE himself for the sake of knowing the Scriptures better. With his wife’s encouragement, they began saving money for him to start classes a few months later in July.
The same year, the Lord called Carlos to ministry. He began pastoring a church in Palin, Guatemala, a town that sits at the foothills of the surrounding mountains. Carlos’s studies were now for the sake of shepherding his local church body.
Carlos knew that love for the Savior could not outpace a knowledge of Him.
Carlos began his seminary education and realized he knew very little about Scripture. As he studied, his greatest fear was teaching the Scriptures inaccurately to his congregation. But as Carlos matured in his understanding and love for God’s word, so too did his congregation, maturing them.
And yet, after six months and the first four modules of curriculum, Carlos left.
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Back in Guatemala, Carlos’s church had a pressing need: the surrounding, poor villages had no understanding of the gospel.
In Palin, many poverty-stricken villages live in the mountains. Most of these villagers live off the land, drinking and bathing from the river, living in small shelters with dirt floors. Every Sunday, Carlos’s church was faithful to visit them, feed everyone breakfast, and share the gospel.
It was for this ministry that Carlos left SEPE.
A professor shares with us, “Though his congregation consists of only eight families and resources are very limited, they are excited to serve in the villages week after week, and it’s clear to see that the word of God is at work in their hearts.” Everyone serves in some way—serving, loving, and teaching these people groups.
But something was missing. And Carlos knew it.
When a man is called into service as a shepherd to His flock, nothing will do, except total devotion to knowing and loving Him.
There was only so much that Carlos could teach them with his short amount of study. His study of the basics of hermeneutics and preaching were not enough to shepherd them well—he began to see that he was lacking in understanding. He had started a weekly program in his church to train others how to teach the Bible. His congregation showed a great love for the Lord—but Carlos knew that love for the Savior could not outpace a knowledge of Him.
Carlos came to a realization: he couldn’t dedicate himself to serving the villagers and feeding his flock without being properly trained to do so.
In 2022, Carlos returned to his studies at SEPE, with plans to graduate in 2025.
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The plans of man are nothing when confronted with the Lord’s sovereign design. And when a man is called into service as a shepherd to His flock, nothing will do, except total devotion to knowing and loving Him. After all, eternal lives are at stake (Acts 26:17–18).
When a pastor humbly does this as Carlos has, the result is sound teaching in the local church, resulting in their greater love and devotion to the Lord.
“They’re living a kind of spiritual revival,” a SEPE professor shares with us about Carlos’s church. “They’re wanting to plant their first church there.”
As this story illustrates, your prayers and financial support to train men like Carlos can bear extensive fruit in the life of a local church, reaching then to minority people groups in their own nation and context—from Guatemala to the ends of earth.
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If you would like to financially support the training of more indigenous pastors like Carlos, please know that you can do so HERE.
