For Beto, this isn’t a job… it’s his life.
To see him seated on a log between two native pastors in a mud-brick house, you’d never guess he is a physician. Yet, a decade ago, he set aside a promising and profitable career to move his family to a remote mountain village where his work as a missionary doctor would help build trust with the tribe and demonstrate the love of God to a forgotten people. Now, after a full day of clinic work, this Mexican missionary sits among the new Indian believers and opens God’s Word to begin teaching from the Gospel of John in the local dialect. For Beto, it’s not a job, it’s who he is; a bondservant.
The Bondservant Project is a missionary training and mentoring program for Latin American believers who desire to use their skills, trade and professions to advance the Kingdom of Jesus.
The project was born out of the frustrations, challenges and opportunities that pioneer church planting teams face as they minister in limited access countries and marginalized regions where health care, education, employment and community development are lacking. When Christian professionals (or educators and tradesman) are incorporated into these church planting teams, the entire team and ministry benefit as each one can minister in their spiritual gifts and God given talents.
In our program we refer to these missionaries as “bondservants” (those servants who serve out of love rather than obligation) and also as “deacon missionaries.” In the book of Acts the apostles faced a situation that resembled what many church planting teams face today. The pressing and legitimate health and social needs of the people can pull the team away from praying, teaching or learning the language. We believe God gave us this ministry model and we are seeing just how powerful and beautiful the example is of God’s concern for the spiritual and physical needs of the people.
The program is based in Sonora, Mexico and is an intensive two months of classroom training given by missionaries and pastors while the “bond servant missionaries” live in community with each other. An additional year of clerkship is also offered to continue mentoring them while they minister with an established missionary team. Many of our students are planning to minister abroad in other countries.
If you would like to come along side of the program and partner with our “bondservants”, your prayer, encouragement and financial help would enable even more of the Latin American missionaries to receive training. Your partnership with Paraclete Mission Group for the Bondservant Project would provide funding for administrative costs, course materials, building a library, travel expenses, and hosting students during the program (room and board, plus ministry outings).
