Annual Report 2005 for LCJE Latin America
By David Sedaca, LCJE Coordinator for Latin America
Jewish evangelism in Latin America is distinctively divided into three main regions, each one representing a different Jewish and Christian environment.
In order of importance, Argentina continues to be the main Jewish community in the Southern Hemisphere. Although over the past decades many Argentine Jews emigrated to either Israel or North America, now the situation has changed, with a noticeable number returning to Argentina. The work of Jewish evangelism there is being carried by four main messianic Jewish congregations and three major international Jewish missions. Being Buenos Aires the city with the largest concentration of Jewish people, most Jewish evangelism in being carried there. Nevertheless, in cooperation with evangelical churches, there is active Jewish outreach in other major cities, such as Rosario, Cordoba, Mendoza and Mar del Plata. Two of these congregations also have regular study programs on Jewish evangelism to train Christians to witness to the Jewish people. Guillermo Sedaca, working under the auspices of The Christian Jew Foundation, has been promoting Jewish evangelism among evangelical churches for over two decades. Jointly, messianic Jewish congregations and Jewish missions throughout Argentina are keeping alive the need to reach out to the Jewish people for the Messiah.
The other major center of Jewish evangelism in South America is Brazil. Although the largest concentration of Jewish people resides in Sao Paulo, messianic Jewish congregations have been established in other cities as well. In Sao Paulo Gilberto Franco leads the congregation Beit Mashiach, Har Tzion in Belo Horizonte is led by Marcelo Guimaraes, and in Rio de Janeiro, the ministry out of Temple Aron HaKodesh is led by Ana Cristina T. Monteiro. Brazil counts with the support of most evangelical churches that are praying for and are directly involved in Jewish evangelism.
The second distinctive area for Jewish evangelism in Latin America are countries with a population of under 100,000 Jewish people. Uruguay, neighboring both Argentina and Brazil has a Jewish population of about 75,000 Jewish people. In Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, Miriam and Victoria Gaguine have worked for almost 40 years under the umbrella of the International Board of Jewish Missions. But the work of Jewish evangelisms has proved difficult, as there is very little support from the evangelical churches. Caracas, Venazuela, has a vibrant congregation, Bet el Shadai, under the leadership of Eliezer Brogad, and there are other Jewish evangelism programs throughout Venezuela. From where they also conduct small scale Jewish evangelism in neighboring Colombia. In Colombia, where the Jewish population is now less than 5,000 there are a number of “messianic congregations,” but in most cases there is no Jewish element associated with them. As consequence, the credibility of Jewish ministries in general is been questioned by the evangelical churches. In Lima, Peru, Henrique Huaman is maintaining a candlestick of witness for Messiah. Lima has a small number of Jews, and in addition the work of Pastor Huaman, there is hardly any Jewish outreach in Peru.
The third area of Jewish Evangelism in Latin America is Central America and Mexico. Because of its proximity to the United States, this area is heavily influenced by missionary organizations from the USA, such as the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America and the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. In most cases, people interested in Jewish evangelism attend regional and national conferences held in the USA and they return to their countries with a renewed vision for Jewish evangelism and an awareness of the Jewish origin of the church. These individuals help in starting messianic congregations, such as Bet Yeshua in Panama, led by Ricardo Krauss.
In Mexico, where there are almost 100,000 Jewish people, there are four messianic congregations. Ricardo Habif, originally from Argentina and under the auspices of Chosen People Ministries, has established congregations in Mexico City and Pachuca, and Ishmael Portillo leads Kehila B’nei Torah. Manuel Hernandez continues to lead the ministry in Guadalajara. The ministries in Mexico have very little support from national churches, although seminar on Judaism and Jewish evangelisms are carried out regularly throughout the country.
Jewish evangelism in Latin America has been growing steadily over the past few years, and it will continue to do so as more Christians become aware of the Church’s debt of gratitude towards the people of Israel. Regrettably, there is very little chance of having a LCJE-Latin America conference. This is due to the fact that leaders are bi-vocational and lack the economic resources to travel to other country, like Argentina or Brazil, and the vast distances separating these nations. Yet, it’s my hope that the Lord will enable me to continue in contact with these ministries and thus maintain alive a connection between all individuals and organizations doing Jewish evangelism in Latin America.
David Sedaca
david@chosenpeople.com