August 26, 2018
Faith Partners International (FPI) is completing its fifth year since our ministry obtained its 501(c)3 designation in 2013. The past year has been a time of great blessings and growth in this small but very active ministry.
In 2016 we invited Clemente and Judy Okeke to join David and Marta Morillo as our in-country partners. Having in-country partners to run the day-to-day activities is an important part of a sustainable ministry. Since joining with us Clem, Judy, David and Marta are realizing their potential and long-time desires to do mission work. They have great capacity working with our pastors and organizing our program activities around the country.
In February of 2017 we conducted an extensive work trip, visiting more than 30 of the pastors in the FPI network. A very successful First Annual FPI Pastors Conference was held in Santiago. Our pastors and their spouses from the south were transported by bus and everyone was housed onsite at Central’s church camp outside the city. It was a time of sharing issues and discussing problems, prayer and restoration. We also had time for music, skits and some very serious dominoes.
In June 2017 we lead a family and youth mission team to the South where we conducted six VBS programs between San Juan de la Maguana. Our team from New Hope EPC in Fort Myers, Florida were incredible, conducting back-to-back programs over a week. We hope to lead more trips with families in the future.
We are now well into the year with a lot of new activities and expansion of some existing programs. We held our second pastors conference in Santiago in February, launched our Youth Leadership Program this summer, made several trips to The Good Samaritan orphanage and conducted many visits with our pastors.
Our first Youth Leadership workshop was held in Santiago on July 5, 6, and 7 with more than 80 pastors and youth leaders attending from around the country. Later this year our Family Program will be expanded to a second location, El Cercado, in the south and we are evaluating a location in the north. We expect the number of pastors participating in the network will grow by approximately 30% by the end of 2018.
Finally, we always hope to visit churches in the US each year to build a base of support for the ministry. Involving more people in missions by providing a wide range of opportunities is our goal. If you would like us to pay a visit to your church missions council, Sunday school class, or speak individually please send us an email.