Mission Partners
Benja & Ruth Curin, Abigail & Matias
Benja is leading a church plant called Iglesia Jesús el Camino (IJEC) in southern Chile, in the city of Temuco. It is the Araucanía diocese’s first church plant since the Anglican Church of Chile became an official ecclesiastical province.
Temuco is a highly evangelical city where there are many prosperity and neo-Pentecostal churches (churches that are governed by local apostles and prophets). This makes evangelism difficult because many people have had bad experiences of church, and the prejudice that exists is that "all churches are the same". There is great economic and power abuse in these types of churches and legalism is very strong.
IJEC wants to show that the gospel brings freedom and joy and peace. IJEC is a conservative evangelical church that loves Christ and loves the local neighbourhood, which means that they are always seeking to link to the social activities of the area, and create opportunities to serve the neighbourhood. We do social help and also outdoor recreation activities for the neighbours, seeking to form sincere relationships and friendships, always thinking about the possibility of presenting the gospel. After the strict regulations related to COVID 19 in Chile, IJEC can again begin to have face-to-face meetings during 2022.
- Pray that we can find a good way to link our non-Christian friends and neighbours to the church. A big step for a believer.
- Pray for God's vision to know in which specific places and people we should invest our time and resources to bring them the love of the Lord.
- Pray for Benja and the family, and that the church planter job will not be an obstacle to quality family time.