Welcome TMAI’s New School in Argentina

Church leaders trained by IDEAR at Cordillera, Paraguay (Daniel in blue on the right).

Daniel opened his eyes.

It was dark. The clock said 3 AM.

He knew time was slipping away.

He opened his computer, readied his workbook, and—as long as the internet would hold—he seized the moments to study God’s word.

But by 5 AM—and still before dawn—he had to close up his notes to go milk the cows. Then when things were in order, he climbed in his car to go work construction away in the city. And after hours and hours of physical labor, he returned to his home back out on the farm. But when one workday ended and the sun had gone down, that’s when another workday had begun. That’s when he started to shepherd his church.

This was another day for Daniel, a busy pastor in Paraguay.

He often lives in a rhythm of long days and late nights, serving Christ’s people in a rural part of a poor country. There are plenty of hurdles to his pastoral work, and a busy schedule is only one of them. Centuries of Catholic teaching across South America—topped with the ongoing inflow of prosperity gospel preaching—have made faithful mentors and sound doctrine harder and harder to find. Even economic poverty has made his online contact with the outside world unreliable.

But Daniel isn’t discouraged.

God has given him a big heart for the church. And in that, God has given him a desire to “take pains” in his studies so he can take the word to his people (1 Tim 4:15). If that means he has to wake up early to get more of God’s word, then it’s worth the cost.

And that’s why Daniel had enrolled in TMAI’s newest member school, the Expositors’ Institute in Argentina (IDEAR). Thanks to its online platform and hybrid format, IDEAR was able to reach beyond Argentina’s borders and train pastors like Daniel in the rhythms of his busy life—even at 3 AM.

And when IDEAR’s leadership visited Daniel in his home to provide hands-on training, they were encouraged to see that Daniel’s heart for people extends well beyond his church. His congregation has a desire to reach further into their country, into remote jungle tribes that prefer to communicate orally in their unique Guarani language. Daniel and other IDEAR students are preaching in the tribes’ native tongue and desire to translate what they are learning at IDEAR so they can better reach these people with the gospel.

God put this desire in Daniel’s heart, and TMAI is grateful for the opportunity to come alongside IDEAR and serve more students like Daniel, both in Argentina and across the region.