by Jeff Hahn, Deputy International Director for the Americas
19 September 2011

	Myriam was a highly valued member of the SIM Nigeria team.

Myriam’s pastor smiled proudly as he shared that she would be the church’s first missionary. They’d started by setting up the first-ever mission prayer groups in the Guatemalan church. As a result, the congregation had been strengthened in their prayer life.

They had no systems in place to collect money for a missionary, and weren’t sure if they could do it as a single church. So several churches in the denomination committed to raising support for Myriam. This resulted in the formation of mission committees and co-operation in the collection of funds. By sending Myriam these churches learned the processes and developed the vision to send out many more missionaries.

All of this blessing, of course, is in addition to the lives impacted by Myriam in Nigeria! She was a highly valued member of the SIM team there. Myriam was delighted with the warm reception she received from SIM Nigeria, and expressed a sense of security in knowing that her colleagues from around the world would look out for her.

Despite the violence and unrest that erupted again in Nigeria, she was ready and willing to serve where needed. Finally forced to return home, she continues to encourage other Latin Americans to consider mission and especially to consider serving with an experienced multi-cultural mission like SIM.

Amazing energy and creativity

SIM’s increasing engagement with the Latin American mission movement has richly blessed and strengthened our work. Ten years ago only a handful of Latin Americans were serving with SIM — today there are more than 40 serving in Asia, Africa and Latin America. We have missionaries from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. This makes the Guatemala regional sending office one of the fastest growing sending offices in SIM, and we anticipate hundreds of Latin Americans joining SIM in the coming years. Currently more than 12,000 Latin Americans are serving cross-culturally, with many feeling called specifically to reach out to Muslims. SIM is partnering with this missions movement in innovative ways. In Guatemala Obed and Juanita Cruz have led the way by forming partnerships with Latin American sending agencies.

SIM seeks to strengthen existing sending entities in Latin America. ProVision in Chile is a wonderful example. Though the evangelical Church in Chile has grown tremendously in numbers, it’s known for being quite divided and denominational.

Into this context steps a sending agency that is interdenominational, serving as a living example of co-operation and unity in the body of Christ. SIMers Hans and Carmen Ziefle and Tim and Sharon Sandvig have been key partners in the formation and growth of ProVision, which is under Chilean leadership. This new sending agency has already sent out missionaries to several partner missions, and SIM recently learned that a young Chilean woman will be the first to go through ProVision to join an SIM team going to Mozambique.

The SIM Peru team has also captured a vision to help the national Church send missionaries. One of the team members, Chris Conti, has been mentoring and coaching a group of Peruvians who feel called to serve.

The team recently celebrated sending Lucy to serve with SIM in a restricted access country in East Asia. She had heard God’s call to world mission 30 years ago, but, as she recalls, ‘in those days the only missionaries were white and from other countries’.

God is moving in Latin America. He is strengthening His church, and He is calling Latin Americans to serve as missionaries to further His kingdom plans. The energy and creativity emanating from the Latin American churches that are engaging in mission is astonishing.

At times the task seems daunting, the challenges overwhelming. But then again, we are placed in the position of recognising that we serve an Almighty God, whose kingdom will grow. We praise God for the increase in labourers from Latin America, and we thank Him for allowing SIM to play a part in seeing those missionaries thriving in ministry around the world.

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Read more about the Latin mission movement:

A Stud in my Nose: God's Grace in the Latino Mission Movement

Seven Epicenters of Emerging Mission Movements