Summit Vision: 2018 International
Educators Summit and LARTC Vision
Rod and Sherry Boyd

Four hundred twenty Bible school teachers, pastors, leaders and missionaries from fifteen countries gathered April 18-21 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, for the 2018 International Educators Summit. This is the northern Summit, always held in one of the seven Central American countries. Typically, 90% of those attending are from Central America. For just the second time, a non-host country, El Salvador, had more attending (117) than the host country of Honduras (115). Cordoba, Argentina will host the southern Summit conducted August 27-30.

The theme for this year’s Summits is The Word of God. All ten general sessions and many workshops focused on three principal truths from Paul’s words to his young apprentice in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (NLT).

Speakers and workshop leaders focused on the three main qualities of God’s Word mentioned in these verses. The Bible is inspired. It is “God breathed,” infallible and dependable for His people. God’s Word is useful. The Bible is life’s instruction manual for His people, like a mirror that helps us to see areas that need correction. Finally, God’s Word is faithful. He uses His word to equip us to serve Him. The large 10x16 foot banner behind the platform featured a large open Bible. It became a popular Kodak moment spot!

The Summit is a pinnacle experience. The Lord speaks to us. Vision becomes clear. We gain full, 360-degree perspective with the top leaders gathered. These high level, deep influence International Educator Summits epitomize and typify the three-part vision of the Latin America Resource & Training Center (LARTC), both as a facility and as a ministry, to empower leaders, train teachers and provide resources.

EMPOWER LEADERS – Influence the influential

The LARTC strives to empower key leaders. We have identified approximately 75 national and international leaders – superintendents, Christian education directors, Christian school directors, ministry leaders and missionary educators. We serve them as consultants and influence them through advocacy. They are the main speakers at the Summits. They conduct their team meetings before, during and after the Summits. We gather them for board meetings and international dialogues. We can and will host most leadership meetings in the new LARTC facilities and do so at a fraction of the cost! For example, we just hosted the CIECAD Commission meeting (Central America Christian School leaders) in our facility at a third of the cost.

TRAIN TEACHERS – Train the trainers

The LARTC strives to inspire and equip teachers. This is no small task! We have more than 6,000 pastors and leaders teaching more than 45,000 Bible school students in more than 1,000 schools and ministry training centers in Spanish-speaking Latin America. The International Educator Summits effectively inspire and equip those teachers that attend. The Summit purposely moves from one country to the next to give nearly all countries the opportunity of hosting the event and have a larger local participation. It is also impossible for the LARTC facilities to train directly 6,000 teachers. Even so, the LARTC does host our two advanced training schools.

PROCEPA

In addition, we can and do provide both an attractive training program and accessible opportunities for national and at times regional training seminars. The combination of offering the PROCEPA teacher certification program at the International Educator Summits as well as at National and Regional PROCEPA Seminars has resulted in phenomenal levels of participation and program adoption. From just 485 enrolled in 2008, ten years later there are 6,673 enrolled in 2018 as of June. The Argentina Summit will likely add an additional 150 to the enrollment. The enrollment will increase more than 650, nearly 11% from 2017 to 2018! Basic certification requires that a teacher take ten two-hour workshops. Some other interesting PROCEPA statistics:

• 1,426 of 6,673 (21%) have completed their basic level

• 2,280 of 6,673 (34%) have taken 1-4 workshops

• 3,001 of 6,673 (45%) have taken 5-9 workshops and are just one event away from earning their basic certification!

In addition to training Bible school teachers, we also have more than 4,000 teachers who are shaping nearly 100,000 children and youth in more than 300 Christian schools in the Latin America/ Caribbean region. As ChildHope coordinators for Central America, we are privileged to work with the CIECAD Commission, the group of national and missionary leaders from the seven Central American countries that represent about half of the schools, teachers and students in our network.

We conducted the second CIECAD Congress last September in Managua, Nicaragua. At our recent CIECAD Commission meeting in Panama, we scheduled the third Congress for Sept. 19-21, 2019 in Panama! We also discussed the need for a formal training and certification program, like PROCEPA, to provide orientation and practical training for our teachers, directors and pastors.

PROVIDE RESOURCES – Equip the equipper

Just the Summit itself is a rich resource for those who attend. There is nothing like being together with people that breathe the same rich air! This rich environment is perfect for sharing ideas and networking. The Summit also showcases relevant, accessible and innovative curriculum, textbooks and teaching resources. Outside Christian publishers help to sponsor the Summits and provide hundreds of books and Bibles that are given away to participants. Members of our international team and key leaders share their newly published works. All of this, by design, to fulfill the LARTC’s vision to develop and provide needed resources. These resources are just a part of our growing initiative to equip the equipper!

Once again, we say thank you to our prayer and support team that undergird the strategic ministry of the Latin America Resource & Training Center. What you do behind the scenes strengthens us and the entire LARTC team to empower leaders, train teachers and provide resources, in effect multiplying ourselves to become an army of harvest workers spread around Latin America and the world. Thank you!