Benja is leading a church plant called Iglesia Jesús el Camino (IJEC) in southern Chile, in the city of Temuco. It is the Araucanía diocese’s first church plant since the Anglican Church of Chile became an official ecclesiastical province.
Temuco is a highly evangelical city where there are many prosperity and neo-Pentecostal churches (churches that are governed by local apostles and prophets). This makes evangelism difficult because many people have had bad experiences of church, and the prejudice that exists is that “all churches are the same”. There is great economic and power abuse in these types of churches and legalism is very strong.
IJEC wants to show that the gospel brings freedom and joy and peace. IJEC is a conservative evangelical church that loves Christ and loves the local neighbourhood, which means that they are always seeking to link to the social activities of the area, and create opportunities to serve the neighbourhood. We do social help and also outdoor recreation activities for the neighbours, seeking to form sincere relationships and friendships, always thinking about the possibility of presenting the gospel. After the strict regulations related to COVID 19 in Chile, IJEC can again begin to have face-to-face meetings during 2022.
- Pray that they can find a good way to get to know non-Christian friends and neighbours and open gospel conversations.
- Pray for God to direct them to know where they should invest their time and resources so they can be effective in sharing God’s love.
- Pray for Benja and the family, and that leading the church plant will not be an obstacle to quality family time.