Faith Facts

• Evangelical leaders from Paraguay, Costa Rica, Spain, Colombia, and Uruguay gathered for the Latin American Evangelical Alliance general assembly.
• The October 15 meeting in San José, Costa Rica, focused on missions, pastoral care, church credibility, and child protection.
• Christian leaders are addressing internal challenges to strengthen the witness of the church across Ibero-America.

Evangelical leaders from across Latin America and Spain met in Costa Rica this week to confront pressing issues facing the church in the region. The gathering brought together representatives from five nations committed to strengthening the credibility and pastoral effectiveness of evangelical congregations.

Discussions centered on how churches can maintain trust while providing faithful pastoral care amid growing cultural pressures. Leaders emphasized that protecting children and upholding biblical standards remain essential to the church’s witness.

“Evangelical leaders from Paraguay, Costa Rica, Spain, Colombia and Uruguay discussed missions, pastoral care, church credibility and child protection on Thursday (Oct. 15) at the general assembly of the Latin American Evangelical Alliance (AEL) in San José, Costa Rica.”

The assembly provided a platform for honest dialogue about challenges that threaten the church’s moral authority. Participants recognized that credibility must be earned through consistent faithfulness to Scripture and compassionate care for the flock.

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Faith Facts

• The Bible is central to making disciples and brings life-changing hope, love, and redemption
• 535 language communities still need Bible translation to begin
• Believers worldwide are called to ensure Scripture reaches those still waiting

The Bible remains the foundation for making disciples and carries the power to transform lives with hope, love, and redemption. Yet these truths only reach hearts when Scripture is made available in languages people understand. Translation work continues to open doors for spiritual growth across the majority world.

More than five hundred language communities still lack any portion of the Bible in their heart language. Without this access, countless believers cannot read or hear God’s Word in the format they grasp most clearly. This gap leaves many without the spiritual nourishment that Scripture alone provides.

Christians everywhere share the responsibility to support translation efforts so that every people group may receive the truth of the gospel. Faithful giving, prayer, and involvement help bring the written Word to those who have never held it in their own tongue.

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Faith Facts

• More than 300 neighbors gathered for an old-fashioned tent revival despite frigid winds and rain from an early season nor’easter.
• One baptism and several Bible studies resulted from the two-day event held by the Sandtown Church of Christ.
• The revival theme, drawn from Ezekiel 37, centered on God’s power to bring life to dry bones and hopeless communities.

Baltimore Police patrolling from the sky and the ground were just background noise as Davis Worley, minister of the Sandtown Church of Christ in West Baltimore, welcomed the crowd to an old-fashioned tent revival.

More than 300 neighbors attended, despite rain and frigid winds from an early season nor’easter that hammered the mid-Atlantic states for days.

“Revival is more than a date,” Worley told the crowd. “Tonight, family, we stand under the banner of our revival theme, “God’s Power for a Hopeless People: When God Breathes, Dry Bones Live.”

Just a few years ago, the Sandtown-Winchester community was hit by a different kind of storm that left boarded-up buildings, crime scenes and blight when rioting followed the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Gray suffered a spinal cord injury and died in police custody.

Today, Worley said, the congregation is filled with people and hope, and Baltimore police have built a cadre of community chaplains who conduct prayer walks with volunteer chaplains in the community.

Worley garnered support from Churches of Christ across the mid-Atlantic area to fund community events, revivals and an annual backpack drive that serves 400 children. He said church members and contributors donated thousands to complete the simple building where the congregation has met since April 2025.

The retired U.S. Marines staff sergeant worked full time at the Pentagon until May 2025. He began his Sandtown work in 2016 with meetings in a recreation center. He doesn’t take a salary.

“It has been a labor of love for my wife, Tracy, my daughter, Enomi, and others,” he added.

During the tent revival, which was shortened on Saturday because of the rain, a half-dozen ministers preached lessons from Ezekiel 37:1-3.

“The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, very dry bones. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’”

Evangelists who spoke included Edward Maxwell, from the Clinton Church of Christ in Maryland; Wesley T. Leonard, from the Southside Church of Christ in Orlando, Fla.; Alvin Daniels, from the Hope Church of Christ in Miami; Norman Newton, from the Central Church of Christ in Baltimore; Willie Hubbard, from the District Heights Church of Christ in Maryland; and Melvin Jones, from the Oxon Hill Church of Christ in Maryland.

Alluding to the revival’s theme, Leonard told his audience, “You don’t want to preach in the graveyard.”

Daniels compared Sandtown to Baltimore, where he preaches. For him, the question at hand is, “Can the church take back the community?”

Worley called the event, which led to one baptism and several Bible studies, a “resounding success.”

“My heart is truly rejoicing,” he said.

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