{"id":975,"date":"2023-04-07T18:22:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T22:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/?p=975"},"modified":"2023-05-04T10:18:02","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T14:18:02","slug":"south-american-missions-conference-gets-a-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/news\/south-american-missions-conference-gets-a-makeover\/","title":{"rendered":"South American Missions Conference Gets a Makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>2023 ushered in a \u201cmakeover\u201d for the South American Missions Conference.&nbsp;The Missions Conference is a highlight for church leaders from South and Central America and the Caribbean, serving as a hub for sharing best practices and receiving ministry training. After taking a pandemic-induced hiatus, the conference emerged not only with new leadership but with a host of new faces this January.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" data-src=\"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Caroline-768x432-1.jpg\" alt=\"Caroline Silva (left) and Natalia Aguilar assist with registration.\" class=\"wp-image-978 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Caroline-768x432-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Caroline-768x432-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Caroline-768x432-1-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Caroline-768x432-1-600x338.jpg 600w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" src=\"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Caroline-768x432-1.jpg\" alt=\"Caroline Silva (left) and Natalia Aguilar assist with registration.\" class=\"wp-image-978\" srcset=\"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Caroline-768x432-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Caroline-768x432-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Caroline-768x432-1-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Caroline-768x432-1-600x338.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Caroline Silva (left) and Natalia Aguilar assist with registration.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>First, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">South American Missions Society (SAMS)<\/a>&nbsp;has a new International Administrator, Caroline Silva. Becoming a Christian as a teen in the One Miami Church, Caroline has always had a heart for missions. She resigned from her nursing career and moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to work with the campus ministry in January 2020.&nbsp;Caroline answered the call to administrative service with SAMS when she was transitioning out of full-time ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to be involved in SAMS,\u201d said Caroline. \u201cI love missions and serving abroad. I see the potential of our South and Central American churches becoming even more unified. Now that I better understand the specific pieces of ministry and administration, I feel that I am a better advocate for these churches. I love the development of creativity between administrators from different congregations. Our faith is growing!\u201d These connections are enhanced by the fact that Caroline is fluent in three languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another significant change was the sheer number of young leaders who came to the Missions Conference. This year over 200 participants came to the meetings in late January; 65 of them were new, having never attended the previous 10 missions\u2019 conferences. Through the financial gift of a generous donor, more participants attended \u2013 small group leaders, campus and teen leaders as well as teachers, elders and ministry staff. This infusion of young and mature lay leaders brought another level of determination to spread the gospel, plant new churches and mature existing congregations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe missions conference profoundly renewed my vision of love for the lost and strengthened, in an incomparable way, my relationships with other churches in Latin America and our partner US church,\u201d said Cristian Duque, evangelist for the church in Santiago, Chile. \u201cLocally, we want to give a series of classes based on what we learned and we also want to do a self-analysis of how we have carried out our management in leadership in light of everything we have learned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-src=\"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Tiago-and-Steve-640x640-1.jpg\" alt=\"Tiago Silva (left) and Steve Brown fellowship and support their favorite soccer team.\" class=\"wp-image-980 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Tiago-and-Steve-640x640-1.jpg 640w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Tiago-and-Steve-640x640-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Tiago-and-Steve-640x640-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Tiago-and-Steve-640x640-1-600x600.jpg 600w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Tiago-and-Steve-640x640-1.jpg\" alt=\"Tiago Silva (left) and Steve Brown fellowship and support their favorite soccer team.\" class=\"wp-image-980\" srcset=\"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Tiago-and-Steve-640x640-1.jpg 640w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Tiago-and-Steve-640x640-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Tiago-and-Steve-640x640-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SAMS-Tiago-and-Steve-640x640-1-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">From left to right, Tiago Silva and Steve Brown fellowship and support their favorite soccer team.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Alongside the fresh faces and new aspects of the conference, a well-loved tradition continued: church members from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/onemiamichurch.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">One Miami<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/palmbeach.church\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Palm Beach<\/a>&nbsp;and Broward Church hosted a significant number of visiting church leaders in their homes. Host families provided daily rides to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.browardchurch.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Broward Church<\/a>&nbsp;building, which hosted the conference. Meals were shared and friendships were built and renewed despite language differences.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a three-year break, the SAMS Missions Conference saw new faces, renewed vigor and reunited friendships to kick off 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2023 ushered in a \u201cmakeover\u201d for the South American Missions Conference.&nbsp;The Missions Conference is a highlight for church leaders from South and Central America and the Caribbean, serving as a hub for sharing best practices and receiving ministry training. After taking a pandemic-induced hiatus, the conference emerged not only with new leadership but with a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":45},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":992,"href":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions\/992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southamericanmissions.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}