2017 CIECAD Congress:
Shaping an Extraordinary Generation
Rod and Sherry Boyd

After nearly two years in planning, more than 500 teachers, directors and pastors from the 154 Christian schools in Central America gathered Sept. 21-23 in Managua, Nicaragua for the 2017 CIECAD Christian School Congress. We are privileged to serve as ChildHope (formerly Latin America ChildCare) Coordinators for Central America and Chair the Central America Christian School Fellowship Committee for Assemblies of God Schools (CIECAD in Spanish). Fellow Panama missionaries Miguel and Maria Morales joined us in Managua to conduct the 2017 congress.

The CIECAD Committee is comprised of the ChildHope Coordinator and national school leader for each of the seven Central American countries. We try to meet once a year. For the last two years, the main work of the committee was the planning of the congress. After conducting the last two congresses in El Salvador (2010 and 2013), the committee chose Managua, Nicaragua for the 2017 congress. After talking with different churches and hotels, the Holiday Inn and Convention Center was chosen.

Most of the $75 registration fee for meals and meeting space was paid for by a ChildHope teacher training endowment.

Our goal was 400. Thanks to excellent promotion, coordination and local fundraising in each country, 503 attended the congress! We are especially proud of the work of our good friend Pedro Vanela, Director of the Christian School Commission in Panama. We had 138 attend from Panama! As host country, Nicaragua had the largest delegation with 154.

We are grateful for the work of the local committee lead by Nicaragua ChildHope missionary coordinators Levys and Bonnie Hernandez. Their team organized several important areas including printing, transportation, music and organized a very large group of volunteers. Our office in Panama was very busy for several days before finalizing country delegations, travel itineraries and materials preparation.

Our committee chose the theme Shaping an Extraordinary Generation for the 2017 Congress, using Romans 12:2 as our biblical text: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (NLT). National and international leaders helped participants understand that being ordinary or copying the ways of the world is a dead end that has only led to disaster. The Lord desires to transform our ordinary into extraordinary! What’s more, the only way we will be able to shape an extraordinary generation is if the Lord transforms our ordinary into extraordinary!

A team of more than 40 leaders, pastors and teachers shared in challenging general sessions, practical workshops and interesting panel discussions. The worship was electric. Our participants, all choice servants dedicated to reaching and teaching children and youth, came expecting to receive from the Lord. And they were not disappointed. We were inspired by the multiple testimonies of trials and sacrifice, of persistence and victory. We feel so humbled by how much need our teachers, directors and pastors endure and the violence that they face from day to day.

ChildHope President Phil Schmidt and Vice-president Byron Klaus presented Francia Hernandez from the Dominican Republic with a plaque in recognition of 30 years of service and Moises Ramirez from El Salvador in recognition of 10 years of service. We then publically thanked Phil and the ChildHope leadership team for the gift of 50,000 Action Bibles in the Nueva Traduccion Viviente (New Living Translation) that are being distributed to children in ChildHope schools throughout Latin America.

We strongly believe that this congress and other congresses past and present inspire, challenge and train our teachers, directors and pastors to stay the course in their ministry to children and youth in our ChildHope schools.

Please pray with us that the 503 who attended the congress (and more than 2,000 that couldn’t) will strive to become extraordinary teachers, directors and pastors… our only hope for shaping an extraordinary generation. Pray for us and for our Central America CIECAD team as we chart our course for the future. Our next meeting will be the end of May 2018, at our LARTC facilities here in Panama! Mostly, please pray for the more than 46,000 children and youth in our schools, that Romans 12:2 will be there experience.