May Newsletter featuring stories of encouragement and inspiration

Volume 2 | May 2022

Be a part of something GREAT!

The Medellin, Colombia missionary women have a training workshop for Sunday morning children's class teachers. There are about 30 children attending each week.

At Great Cities Missions,

Our Mission

is to plant thriving churches

in the Great Cities of Latin America.

Our strategy is for missionaries to work themselves out of a job, leaving behind a completely self-sufficient church that is making a difference in its community.

As we continually see God’s love moving across the Latin World, changing lives in each of the cities we serve and beyond, we are energized and inspired to continue on the mission He has set before us.

Inspired and Encouraged

At the end of last year, I celebrated with 22 graduates from the Baxter Institute in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Great Cities Missions partners with the institute to plant seeds in the hearts of these Latin American students to consider forming church-planting mission teams. The great blessing is that many of these students have already been touched and inspired by former and current GCM teams.

While enjoying chips and homemade salsa with Tavo and his family, Tavo (Nicaraguan) shared that his desire to be a missionary came from the influence of a GCM team that worked in the Dominican Republic. The team encouraged him to pursue this calling.

Another example of GCM teams influencing future missionaries is Yonnly, from Cuba and the valedictorian of the 2021 class at Baxter. His younger brother, Yosbel, is on a GCM team to Artemisa, Cuba. Seeing the work of his brother’s team, Yonnly along with 2 other Cuban families are beginning their team formation process to plant churches in Trinidad, Cuba, a city of 100,000 people. This inspired team will launch in January 2023!

GCM has the great privilege to walk with these dedicated families, training, encouraging, and supporting them as God empowers them to spread his Kingdom. Please continue to pray that God raises up more workers for his harvest!

Jeremy Davis is Director of Latin Teams at Great Cities Missions. He works with the Bucaramanga, Colombia Mission Team and is preparing the 2023 Trinidad, Cuba Mission Team. He and his wife Whitney call Chattanooga, TN home, with their three daughters. In his free time he likes to hike and fish.

What is a Bi-Vocational Team?

This year we have two missionary teams embracing a new approach for church planting using a "bi-vocational" strategy. So what does this mean?

Team members will work part-time while they evangelize and plant a church. The Boa Vista, Brazil Team and the Pereira, Colombia Team are all implementing this strategy. Some of the part time vocations represented from these two teams include teaching, psychology, graphic design, sales and being an Uber driver.

We are excited to watch these new teams explore new ways to reach their communities and grow the local church.

Project Colombia Update

In 2021, Great Cities Missions launched a 5 year plan called Project Colombia. Based on our 18 years of experience in Colombia, we believe this country is open and receptive to respond to the Good News of Jesus. Additionally, the current humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has created a remarkable opportunity for churches to meet physical and spiritual needs.

So far three missionary teams have begun work in Medellin, Bucaramanga and Pereira. God is at work in Colombia and this week recruiting begins for a 4th team to plant a church in Ibague or Villavicencio, Colombia. Please pray for God to raise up a team of men and women who will Share Christ With the Latin World.

From the Executive Director

I recently returned from a trip to Colombia where I attended the inaugural service for our most recent church plant in Pereira, Colombia. I was accompanied on the trip by my co-worker, Chris Fry, and 3 other friends of the ministry from the Houston area.

In preparation for the inaugural service, we worked with the missionary families and divided into several groups to hand out flyers and empanadas in the street to invite people to the worship service on Sunday. One group visited a large apartment building complex which consists of families who have been displaced from parts of Colombia because of the decades long war with the communist guerillas. Another group went to the bus terminal and drew a large crowd who were curious about North Americans handing out flyers and food.

On this trip I was impressed by the dedication of the four missionary families and their commitment to the work of starting a new congregation in Pereira.

Click here for the rest of the article by Kelley Grant.

Faith in Action

She is timid, but she is courageous.

Ana was raised in a farming family in southwestern Colombia. At age 30 she began studying the Bible, became a disciple of Jesus and married Cristian, the man who had taught her.

Six years into marriage she was diagnosed with cancer. The chemotherapy weakened her body and caused her to lose her hair, but not her faith. During this time, Cristian and Ana received an invitation to join two other couples to form a church-planting team in Bucaramanga, a city on the opposite side of the country.

Some of us doubted that was a good idea, but Cristian and Ana had been praying. And they believed. Ana especially radiated faith and optimism and a big smile.

They began making plans to move. Then they got the news: Ana was cancer-free. They have now begun to work in the mission to which they were called.

Ana never doubted that they would.

Written by Calvin Henry

Director of Latin Team Care

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We are primarily funded by individuals with a heart for evangelism and a desire to see fully

self-supporting churches have a positive impact on their communities.

If this describes you, please be a part of something GREAT! Donate Today!