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Pastors' Seminar in San Juan,
La Laguna

Larry Crabtree and his team conducted a two day pastor's seminar in San Juan, La Laguna, Guatemala in March of 2011. This photo story gives you a sense of how earnestly these rural pastors drank up the training in using the Bible commentaries to teach and instruct their own congregations.

Larry reports it was a long and arduous journey to get to San Juan, La Laguna, but very fulfilling for the team, and also for the pastors who were able to be there.

Using the Manna Bible commentaries, now translated into Spanish, Efesios, Santiago, Filipenses, 1 and 2 Tesalonicenses (and available for free downloads on this site), Larry, and pastors Carlos, and Cesar, taught the pastors in various workshops all day long.

Larry writes; "I am going to share with you some of the ways the Lord used us to minister to pastors and some of the ways He blessed us during those two weeks. The first way He used Pastor Carlos, Cesar and me was the 1½ day training seminar we held for 31 pastors in San Juan La Laguna. We had agreed to be responsible for the agenda for the first day but when we arrived we were told that we would be responsible for the entire agenda for both days."

They were a little anxious when they were first told they were responsible for the full agenda. They had not come prepared for that extra half day. But they got over it quickly when they went to the Lord in prayer. He answered quickly. In less than half an hour they had decided what additional training they would do, and they were ready for the seminar.

A seminar means everyone gets to fellowship over meals, and that was the case here too. We get a glimpse of the ladies making tortillas for their lunch.

Larry goes on in his report: "The seminar turned out to be much better than any of us had anticipated, even before the agenda change. One of the sessions we added was, How to Develop a Sermon Outline. This session, taught by Pastor Carlos, was so well received we are making it a permanent part of our pastor training seminars. In addition to the training, we gave each pastor a Spanish Bible dictionary and a commentary on 1 & 2 Thessalonians."

Looking back on this seminar, Larry was reminded of Peter preaching on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-40). In that instance, the Lord called Peter to preach the gospel with no preparations and no sermon notes. He spoke with such boldness and conviction that 3000 were saved. Larry says, "we must always be prepared to respond to God's call: even when we don't have our laptops containing our study materials with us!!"

When it was all over, the SER ministry team gave some of the pastor a ride in the truck. Two hours of travel this way would get them to a bus, and this would cut many hours off of their return home trip. It was another opportunity to help out these poor and isolated pastors in the hinterlands of Guatemala, who do not often receive visitors, much less some who come to help them become better pastors in their church.

Click to See another photo story of Larry's travels in Guatemala on this trip.

Read How Spanish Evangelical Resources Began

The Great Need We See

Mayan church leaders in the Suchitepequez area of Guatemala where we serve have few reference books. A pastor in a western country may have 500-1000 books in his library. A Mayan pastor may have none at all. There are two primary reasons for this shortage of reference materials: the Mayans do not have the money to buy reference materials and low cost, Biblically sound reference materials are not available to them. Our burden is to make the much needed reference materials available to Mayan pastors, church leaders, and teachers through the training seminars we conduct in the area where they live.