2022 December Newsletter
MARVELOUS NEWS FROM VISITING PROFESSORS IN THE FIELD!
Besides rejoicing in SRL’s most successful Annual Reformation Convention, which was held virtually and reached millions, we thank God for more than 25 teachers who traveled across the USA and Latin America these past few months to personally teach and interact with thousands of students and individuals at different SRL sites. In your daily devotionals, we request that you prayerfully consider these gracious teachers and the students that they instructed.
Dr. Del Belcher and his wife, Nancy, spent four weeks teaching in Cartagena and Bucaramanga, in Santiago, Chile, and in Sunchales, Argentina. Mrs. Belcher conducted ladies’ conferences. Dr. Belcher wrote:
“We were blessed by their warm reception and generous hospitality. The Holy Spirit in these churches and SRL sites is working amazing wonders of God's grace. Many twenty and thirty-year-olds are deeply committed to Christ and active in the churches. There is a great appreciation for SRL’s fantastic teaching ministry. Churches representing Reformed/Biblical doctrine are growing. We were informed that they are involved in planting new churches that need educated and trained pastors. To see firsthand what God is doing through SRL in Latin America is a greater blessing to us than we can express. Our hearts are taken by God's love and work there.”
Dr. Belcher is a BoT member, Director of the Doctoral Program, and the SRL Chaplain.
Dr. Don Galardi and his wife, Diedre, spent several weeks teaching in different cities in Colombia. Mrs. Galardi taught women’s Bible studies. Dr. Galardi wrote:
“I was reminded of how much work there is to do. Growing protestant congregations are mostly first-generation believers who never had the benefit of examples in home or in the church. Consequently, everything is new including how marriages are supposed to function, how to do spiritual instruction in the home, how elders must govern the church as shepherds, and how to protect the next generation from ungodly influences like pornography and obsessive preoccupation with social media platforms. Besides teaching the scheduled courses for SRL, I have branched out into further helps for young churches, including conferences on sexual purity and marriage and family. Now, I am also training elders at the local church level in person and through Zoom at a distance. It is exhausting work, but very gratifying to help look after Christ's sheep.”
Pastor David Theobald taught in SRL Guadalajara, Mexico. He wrote:
“It was a privilege to teach in SRL Mexico. I discovered a group of committed students and a warm and wonderful Reformed host church. They were so eager to learn that members of the congregation joined us every night and during the weekend for the teaching. The fellowship of the saints was as sweet as it has been in all of the SRL sites that I have been blessed to visit over the years. The need for godly, equipped men to pastor local congregations is great and I am thrilled to play a small part in SRL’s efforts to raise up these harvest workers. In addition, I remain very thankful for my own congregation (Grace Baptist Church, Dansville, NY) which shares this vision and makes these teaching trips possible.”
The church in Guadalajara was planted by a Bolivian graduate of SRL, Pastor Jeremias Gonzalez, who was sent as a missionary from Medellín.
Dr. Joseph Fitzpatrick, after traveling to Chile, Argentina, and Cartagena teaching for SRL, has announced a full 2023 schedule to teach in different countries, including a Biblical Geography course in Israel from September 5 to 14, 2023. Some supporters have sponsored pastors to take this course. Sponsors have also expressed desire to take this engaging course in the Holy Land. Dr. Fitzpatrick lived in Israel for ten years.
Dr. Julio Benitez traveled to Chocó in the Darien Jungle region near Panamá, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of the first faithful Reformed churches that, with the help of SRL, was planted by Dr. Sergio Ruiz.
Pastor Alejandro Castiblanco taught in Bogotá and Venezuela and is returning this December.
Pastor Javier Dominguez was the main speaker at the celebration of the Reformation Day in Honduras.
Pastor Jack Jenkins taught and recorded a Biblical Counseling course in Medellín and is now traveling to Costa Rica where he will teach the same course, beginning on December 2, 2022.