Overrun with gang violence, drug trade, poverty, and religious and political scandals, Guatemala might seem like a challenging context in which to spread the gospel. Yet Nelson Morales, professor of New Testament and Greek at the Theological Seminary of Central America (SETECA), says the most noticeable thing about the Central American country is its openness to spirituality.
Few churches can trace their history directly to a passage of Scripture like Ethiopian Christians can.
During high school, Jules Martinez, now a pastor and theology professor, sought answers about the spiritual world. Living on the north coast of Puerto Rico, the Martinez family were “cultural Catholics,” and some practiced Santeria, which Martinez describes as “a combination of Caribbean spiritism and Catholicism.”
The South Asian peninsula (or Indian subcontinent) is one of the most religiously conflicted and densely populated parts of the world. Dominated by India, the peninsula also includes Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, and parts of Pakistan.
Few people would consider opening a university in the middle of a war zone—and David Kasali, a Congolese pastor and academic, was an unlikely candidate to undertake such an effort. Kasali’s father was one of the first people to accept the gospel in their area of Congo, but the young Kasali rejected his father’s urging to become a minister, telling him, “I love the Lord, but he doesn’t pay very well.” Instead, Kasali studied education at the University of Congo and began networking in the business world.
Andrey Kravtsev, like many who grew up in the Soviet Union in the 80s, was educated in atheism and nationalism. At age 19, he witnessed the decline of the Soviet Union and the revelation of government crimes against the people, many of which were exposed by Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost, or “openness.”