CIPE

This past week CIPE (Confraternity of Spanish-speaking Covenant Churches) celebrated it’s 25th anniversary. CIPE gathers leaders and pastors from all over Latin America and the USA once every three years for a time of fellowship, sharing and learning from one another. The theme this year was church planting and much of the dialogue focused on how to plant healthy churches and how to form healthy leaders. Countries had a chance to share how the Covenant church is ministering in their respective countries and hear from others. There were times of prayer and worship together. Some of the youth leaders who had been in the youth conference the previous weekend also participated and lead some fruitful times of discussion among the CIPE participants. It was encouraging to hear about the house churches that are developing in Uruguay and the advocacy training they are doing in Ecuador to prevent child abuse. God is at work in the world. God’s invitation is to all who believe in Jesus Christ to follow in his ways and to advance the kingdom of God as we love mercy and do justice.

USA delegation to CIPE

Worshipping together

Youth Delegates from Latin America

It was also a special week for us as we were able to host visitors from the USA and Spain. We were able to spend time with our ministry colleagues from the Covenant Offices in Chicago, as well as our new regional coordinators and a representative from Spain. We enjoyed the time to talk together, laugh, eat yummy food and show them around Medellin. We counted yesterday and in the month of July we have hosted visitors in our home 20 days. The house is quiet now and we’re taking some much needed time to clean, rest, and be together as a family.