There are three general conferences in Latin America: Haiti, Brazil and the Dominican Republic. Each has its own vision, mission and government, and consequently only has a fraternal relationship with the Latin American Area. The relationship first began to change when Venezuelans immigrated to Brazil and began opening houses of peace, a strategy of the Community Church Planting (CCP) movement. Because of this reality, Latin American multiplication team members began advising and supporting the work in Brazil. Now, the movement is growing within another general conference.
In 2013, members of the Free Methodist General Conference in the Dominican Republic (DR) received a promise from God. He promised to expand their ministry and unite their country with what He was doing in the rest of the Latin American Area. The young people in the Dominican Republic began praying in earnest and waiting for God’s timing.
In 2019, on a family vacation to Colombia, Pastor Audy Martinez met Pastor John Jairo Leal, who shared with him about the CCP movement. Audy was impressed by how local churches employed this simple but biblical strategy and saw real growth. He shared the vision with his church, which began to pray for the movement.
Then, in March 2024, Audy took a small delegation of youth and another pastor to the first Latin American Youth Summit. At the summit, he met Dr. Ricardo Gómez, who explained the strategy and connected him with Pastor Alí León, a CCP mentor. Alí’s first step was to offer a virtual Disciples Multiplying Disciples (DMD) training to 30 members of two Dominican churches. Then, in November, Alí went to the Dominican Republic, where he provided additional training to the group of 30 and shared the vision with another group of pastors and leaders.
Today, Pastor Audy reports there are already 14 houses of peace meeting in the DR, but they are not satisfied. They believe God’s promise was for something greater and know He is always faithful to His Word. So, they continue to pray and share the vision, training laypeople to share the story of what God has done in their lives so that others might believe. In the process, God is uniting the vision of the Latin American Area and the Dominican Republic.
