Colombia 2019: A Very Special
Educational Leaders Summit
Rod and Sherry Boyd

The 2019 Colombia Educational Leaders Summit was a success! Thank you to all who have prayed with us for this very special Summit. The Summit was held June 24-27 at the central Bible school in Bogota. We had 378 attend from nine countries. About half of our international team and sponsors attended. Four things made this Summit very special!

The special presence of the Holy Spirit. The theme of the Summit was A People of the Spirit. Forty speakers shared in 9 general sessions and 25 workshops. The Spirit moved in a powerful way among His people, especially in the evening services.

Strong Colombian participation. Five years ago, educational leaders from Colombia contacted us about having a special Summit for their Bible School teachers and leaders. We have conducted two “off year” Summits in the past, 2013 in Mexico and 2015 in the Dominican Republic. Colombia has one of our largest and strongest programs, but few have participated in the International Summits. Of the 378 in attendance, 306 were from Colombia! The vast majority of these took their first PROCEPA teacher certification workshops. More than 100 joined the ATAL theological association. Both of these are important steps to help those that are teaching the next generation of harvest workers to be properly trained and fully qualified.

The launch of a third, Andean Summit. About 10 years ago, we began to pray about adding a third Summit, one for the “Andean” countries in the northern part of South America – Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador in particular. Because of the geographical nature of the other two Summits – the northern version always in Central America and the southern version in the southern cone of South America – these three bordering countries would never host a Summit. All three of these countries are excited about having their own Summit and taking turns to host it!

Compassionate outreach to Venezuela.

In 2012, we had 83 Venezuelans attend the Summit in Lima, Peru. In 2014, only 15 attended the Summit in Montevideo, Uruguay. In 2016, only 2 attended the Summit in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Our Venezuelan brothers and sisters were such an active part of the Summits in the past. Today, Venezuela’s economy is in shambles and people don’t even have enough food for their families. They want to be a part of these international educational family events, but are not able.

As we were forming plans for the Colombia Summit, the Lord laid on our hearts to look for special help to provide scholarships for our Venezuelan teachers and leaders. I mentioned the need to a special brother who joined me in prayer and said he would also look for help. We received a seed offering and committed to covering the expenses for 50 Venezuelans. The national church in Colombia helped with some expenses. All who attended the Summit reached out to these dear friends in compassion.

As the 50 Venezuelans lined up to load onto the bus that would take them back to the border, we were able to personally thank and encourage each one. One sister asked me if we had heard of Martin Luther King’s famous speech “I Have a Dream.” She said, “my dream is for Venezuela to host the Summit in 2023.” We cried.

Thank you for making it possible to raise up Christian leaders in Panama and throughout Latin America… even Venezuela.