Back-to-Back: 2018 Educators Summit
and LA Education Ministries Board
Rod and Sherry Boyd

The last week of August and first week of September were busy days! We spent most of August preparing for two important back-to-back meetings that were held in Cordoba, Argentina: the 2018 Educators Summit followed by the Latin America Education Ministries Board meeting. We would like to thank all who prayed for these two very important meetings. Following are our reports of those two meetings.

Educators Summit. We conducted the second of two 2018 Educators Summits (the first was in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in April) Aug. 27-30 at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Convention Center in Cordoba, Argentina. A total of 320 teachers, pastors, Bible school directors, national and international leaders attended from sixteen countries. Alton Garrison, Assistant Superintendent from the US Assemblies of God was a special guest.

The Summit included ten general sessions that centered on three Bible qualities: The Inspired, Useful and Faithful Word of God. The Summit also included 25 workshops offered in five workshop periods during the Summit and two additional periods in a pre-Summit seminar. The workshops are part of the PROCEPA teacher certification program. More than half of the attendees were taking their very first PROCEPA workshop. There are now 6,775 teachers enrolled in the PROCEPA program and nearly 1,500 that have completed the basic level.

We are so grateful to fellow missionaries Miguel and Mari Morales. According to our long-range plan, in March of this year they became directors of the Resource and Advisory Center (RAC) for Bible Schools. It is the RAC ministry that has faithfully conducted the Educator Summits since 1996. Miguel and Mari did a fabulous job working with our local committee to organize and conduct this inspirational event.

Latin America Education Ministries Board. This board, comprised of the Latin America Education Ministries Leadership Team, the national superintendents and the national Christian education directors, meets every three years for major decisions related to the education programs in the 19 Spanish-speaking countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The Leadership Team meets at least once each year. Rod serves as Director of Latin America Education Ministries.

The Leadership Team meets before the board meeting to finalize the agenda and make final decisions. This meeting was critically important to the development of the ministry as our agenda included the final approval of an accreditation agreement with an international university. The Leadership Team met directly after the end of the Educators Summit and met into the early morning hours. The rest of the board joined us later in the morning to begin our two full days of meetings.

We are grateful to report that by unanimous vote, our Leadership Team was empowered to seek and enter in to any agreements for accreditation that would benefit our program. The meeting also included a report on our 2020 Vision strategic planning initiative. Rod summarized a 40-page document, Our Core Values, the result of nearly a year of investigation and writing. The five core values are Quality Training, Pentecostal Decision, Accessibility, Ownership and Unity. We’re also happy to report that Rod was re-elected as Director and Miguel Morales as Assistant Director for the next three years.

We announced at the end of the meeting that the following board meeting (2021) will be held at the Latin America Resource & Training Center in Panama! The ability to host these events at the Center saves thousands of dollars.  Thank you so much for your ongoing prayers for our ministry. You stand with us in prayer while we are on international front lines and while we are at home in the Latin America Resource & Training Center. Thank you!