In the Colombian mountain range, a church has been proactive in training its members to see the needs of its community and respond. In this case, three members of a local congregation have dedicated themselves to church planting work. Sora, Rosa, and Fernando have loved being discipled in their church and want to establish more communities of faith where others can have the same.

The church planter training through Multiplication Network Ministries (MNM) has been vital to their progress. "There were things the training explained that we were unclear about and it affirmed other aspects of our work," Rosa shares. "We now have strategies we can use to make contacts and plant a church."

Fernando especially liked the session of the training that prompted them to look at the needs of the community. Through this exercise, he discovered that Vereda de la Sirena was a place with broken homes that could only be restored through God's love.

After months of sharing the gospel, visiting homes, and establishing houses of prayer, Sora, Rosa, and Fernando celebrated the official birth of Church of the Nazarene La Sirena in March. In this community of faith, people are finding spiritual nourishment, social help, and above all, hope.

María Elvira has experienced this hope through her son's story. He had been addicted to drugs but when he accepted the Lord and began to live out his faith, he began to believe that even the impossible is possible. María has seen a great change in his family and they are all part of the church. In addition to María's story, the team of church planters has seen God working in the area. When they would go from house to house, they witnessed God's healing through the power of prayer.

Encouraged by the responses they have seen in the ten small group Bible studies, Sora, Rosa, and Fernando are going to work in planting another church and also some social work projects to help those in need. So far they have an infant feeding program, a rehabilitation ranch, and clothing help for the most poor.

Above all, they want to see restoration take place in the families they have met and for the name of Jesus to be praised.

Pictured left to right: María Elvira, Rosa, Sora and Fernando