Around the World is our monthly rundown of news briefs, links and quotes from Churches of Christ all over the globe. Got an idea for this column? Email Erik Tryggestad at erik@christianchronicle.org.
Featured photo (above): During the Bible Conference in Panama, a woman in the traditional dress of Panama’s Indigenous people watches during a children’s class.
BOLIVIA
SUCRE — Butch and Patricia Sandoval traveled to this South American city to conduct a seminar titled “Images of Spiritual Leadership: Profiles of the Apostle Paul,” hosted by the Sucre Church of Christ. Sandoval encouraged church leaders “to remain tenacious in the midst it difficulties, to keep their integrity in the midst of criticism, to speak and act with authority living what they believe,” he said, “always being responsible, knowing God is aware, and remaining humble just like Jesus.”
Butch Sandoval is a minister and missions coordinator for the Mid-County Church of Christ in Troy, Ohio. In 2007, he and his wife were part of a church-planting team in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, which they visited before traveling to Sucre. Cochabamba now has five Churches of Christ.
Butch Sandoval speaks in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
CROATIA
VARAZDIN — Young people from across this Central European nation learned about Jesus during the annual Croatia Spring Camp hosted by the Varazdin Church of Christ and coordinated by the nonprofit Next Generation for Christ. The camp included activities for youths in the coastal city of Crikvenica and gospel meetings at the church building in Varazdin. Kevin Withem, senior minister for the North County Church of Christ in Escondido, Calif., spoke on topics including “The God Who Searches” based on Jesus’ parables of the lost sheep, coin and son from Luke 15.
Goran Kumric, minister for the Church of Christ in Vukovar, Croatia, also shared his testimonial.
INDIA
KAKINADA — The largest Lads to Leaders conventions outside of the U.S. took place at four locales in southern India, said minister Ricky Gootam.
“We started with 200 kids in Kakinada in 2019, and we have grown to 2,200 in four places and in three different languages,” said Gootam, an India-born evangelist who serves on Lads to Leaders’ board of directors. The 58-year-old ministry, founded by Jack Zorn, hosts conventions for more than 20,000 young people from Churches of Christ at locales across the U.S.
Ricky Gootam addresses a Lads to Leaders convention.
This year, four participants were baptized during the convention in Srikakulam, India, and two more were baptized at the Kakinada convention. Students preached, read Scripture and sang in Telugu, Oriya and a tribal language called Kulu. Two participants memorized more than 500 Bible verses in Kulu, Gootam said.
Organizers gave Bibles to participants and asked them to give a Bible to someone who didn’t have one. “We have been getting reports already how our kids in the villages are reaching out to their friends and family for Christ and gifting them a Bible,” Gootam said.
India, the world’s most populous country, is home to nearly 1.5 billion people. Nearly half of that number is under the age of 25, according to global population estimates. “The fourth largest economy in the world has lot of energetic young Christians,” Gootam said. “We keep on encouraging our young Leaders and Leaderettes to be strong leaders in their local churches.”
NIGERIA
UKPOM ABAK — About 500 church leaders, alumni, government officials and stakeholders in Christian education attended the 72nd Founders Day and Matriculation Ceremony at the Nigerian Christian Bible College, said public relations and development director Uyai S. Joshua.
The college, associated with Churches of Christ, admitted 41 new students. Members of 18 Churches of Christ presented songs of thanksgiving during the event. See africanchristianschools.org.
PANAMA
PANAMA CITY — Bezaleel and Oholiab aren’t names that come up in a lot of sermons. But they were the focus of Esteban Rodriguez’s sermon, titled “God gives us the skills to perform our work.”
Rodriguez was a speaker at the Conferencias Bíblicas hosted by the Bible School of the Americas, which trains ministers for Churches of Christ across Latin America. Hundreds of Christians from North, Central and South America attended.
During the Bible Conference in Panama, a woman in the traditional dress of Panama’s Indigenous people watches during a children’s class.
Bezaleel and Oholiab, from the tribes of Judah and Dan, respectively, had special skills in stone cutting and making artistic designs in gold, silver and bronze. They played an important role of the construction of the tabernacle, described in Exodus 35.
In a social media post, the conference’s organizers thanked God “for every word received about work, money and communion with God, learning to live in balance between material and spiritual.” Watch recordings from the conference at facebook.com/EscuelaBiblicaAmericas.
