We are bombarded with a variety of messages every second of every day from a wide plethora of sources and media! Some messages hit the mark, and some don’t. For example, when we were in Washington state in June, we saw a billboard for an estate planner. The message read, “Leave your children in a better state.” We packed up Juliana and Jonathan and sent them to Kentucky right away! J  Of course, I’m sure that Washington isn’t a bad state…the marketer just didn’t count on my odd sense of humor.
 
We worked through the development of our positioning and messaging document with our team of national leaders and FM missionaries last month to ensure that we are all sharing the same message and working toward the same goals. Likewise, we want to confirm that you receive the following important messages about our ministry in Latin America. 
Message #1: The Latin American Vision
The Free Methodist Church in Latin America develops healthy leaders who multiply committed disciples and plant transformational churches to bring biblical restoration to Latin America.   Thi s mission statement provides a laser focus for all of us so that we know which ministries to say yes to and which ones we can pass on to other organizations. 
 
Toward that end our team was able to teach a Community Church Planting Implementation Seminar to people from at least 8 different Latin American countries in addition to church planters from the USA, Europe and Asia at GC19. Since then, the information has been passed down to church planters in Chile and Colombia.

Overview presented at GC19
Message #2: The Latin American Team
We are honored to serve with a great team of people ! We were able to get together with most of our missionary team to Latin America during General Conference. We are delighted to serve alongside each of them in their varying roles throughout the region. Many of them are now conducting their partnership building in the USA so perhaps you will get to hear from them directly soon. We also got connect with several of our national leaders in Florida…another great group of people we are delighted to serve alongside. Finally, we this week we learned the Bishop providing oversight for Latin American area will be Dr. Linda Adams. It will be our pleasure to add her to our team.
Message #3: Our Support Team
We are extremely thankful for your faithful partnership ! Your prayers and your gifts are very valuable to our lives and our ministry, whether you have been with us several years of just a few months. We echo the Apostle Paul in Philippians 1 when we say that we thank God every time we remember you ! In all our prayers for all of you, we always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel.  Due to our new responsibilities as Area Director and the resulting increased budget, we are in the process of raising new support. If you would like to increase your commitment you may do so using the button below, but definitely please pray for God’s provision on this! (By the way, we just got new prayer cards, if you'd like some for your church, let us know.)
The most important message we send is that Jesus loves you, that Jesus forgives you, and that you were made in God’s image!  When these messages are missed – or not sent - there can be catastrophic results. Lives are regularly destroyed in the pursuit of acceptance, in the depths of shame, and due to the lack of identity! Our job as followers of Christ is to get the message out…and to get the message right…to as many people as we possibly can! Ultimately, that is the goal in our region to participate with God in the biblical restoration of Latin America!  
 
May God bless each and every one of you,
Ricardo and Beth
Latin America Area | Free Methodist World Missions