In July 2016, MAG Director of Pastoral Ministries, Pastor Carlos Paz, was joined by Honduran Pastors Pastor Esaú Nuñez Sosa and Roman Lopez Chow on a mission to provide biblical training to 60 pastors from the Miskito people group – 40 pastors in Waspan, Nicaragua and 20 pastors in Suhi, Honduras. This is part of the ongoing effort of Missionary Air Group to strengthen the local church by bringing needed pastoral training to this remote part of the Nicaraguan frontier.
Some of these pastors and church leaders walked for days to participate in the 4-day workshop in Waspan, Nicaragua along the Coco River. The MAG Team (Pastors Carlos, Esau, and Roman) are wearing the light blue golf shirts.
The objective of this particular mission was to deliver a complete survey of the Old Testament using a presentation called “CASKET EMPTY”created and written by Dr. Carol Kaminsky of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Carlos and his MAG Pastoral team will be some of the first missionaries to make such a presentation in Latin America using her “Casket Empty Study Guide” that has recently been translated to Spanish. The acronym CASKET stands for: Creation, Abraham, Sinai, Kings, Exile, and Temple – the six major periods . It delivers an effective overview of the Old Testament through 12 hours of lessons that the team delivered over four days.
Dr. Kaminsky recently decided to partner with Missionary Air Group and our Pastoral Team by generously making most of the Spanish resources available to us free of charge. Every pastor received a complete outline for the training sessions, plus an OT timeline.
A typical batu – this one is meeting the team to take them accross to the Nicaraguan side of the Coco.
Travel was difficult as the team made its way to from Puerto Lempira, to the Miskito village of Leimus, across the Rio Coco, then finally to Waspan, Nicaragua in a series of pick-up trucks and by dugout canoe (called a “Batu” – see photo). They were joined on the Nicaraguan side of the border by Baptist Leader Rev. Orlando Marquez Mendez. It was all worth the effort as Pastor Carlos reports, “The training of the pastors in Waspan turned out to be a greater blessing than last year. There were more pastors, we were better prepared and the lessons we shared were enthusiastically received”.
As the mission wrapped up, plans to expand the training to a total of 3 countries in the region were developing. “This is just the beginning. We are getting to know and trust each other as we develop and nurture these relationships,” shared Pastor Carlos. While Pastor Carlos and his team were in the Honduran village of Suhi, a key village on the Coco River, the teaching time ended with great rejoicing by all those gathered as two older girls were baptized in response to the team’s visit.
One of the girls being baptized in the village of Suhi