Celebrate Recovery Conference in Guayaquil, Ecuador establishes a firm foundation

A 2-man team from Union Bridge, Maryland traveled to Ecuador on May 10th and spent several day's connecting with a local Celebrate Recovery group to aid in training its ministry team. The team was CR International Trainer Dave Dent and a Maryland CR Team Member Brian Hoff.


We were invited to come and review what the Iglesia Bautista Israel Church http://www.iglesiabautistaisrael.com/ had been doing the last 2 years with the curriculum and to make suggestions on how the church might improve its ministry and to work closer with the Celebrate Recovery International movement as a whole. The local church has invested in the curriculum and without any formal training had set off and launched the program. Our first night there, we were invited to sit in on two of the six small groups that the church had operating. It was a great encouragement to see the groups working diligently through the participants guides and to see such large numbers of men and women involved in the program. We spend most of our second day meeting with the local team, led by Julio Bermeo and answering many questions about how to use the materials. We also met that day with their senior pastor Parrish Jacome who shared his passion and vision for taking the gospel throughout Latin America and to include in that, the ministry of Celebrate Recovery. On Thursday, we conducted a seminar all day, with 40 participants from several churches from the area of Guayaquil and also from Quito. Most of the participants of the conference had been using the Celebrate Recovery materials, but had never acquired any training. It was a week of establishing some great relationships and connections with churches who share our vision and we trust that this will open the door for more training and networking in Ecuador and other nations in Central and South America. Several team members are expected to be at this years annual CR Summit at Saddleback Church where we are sure to continue to connect, encourage and see great changes ahead for Ecuador and beyond.