We give thanks to God for the tool of videoconferencing which is allowing, on one hand, to utilize the best specialists on the continent in their different areas to teach courses, and on the other hand, to save many thousands of dollars in airline tickets. This year we added five new videoconferencing systems, installed just on the Caribbean Field, on the islands of St. Vincent, Grenada, St. Martin, St. Kitts and a second system in Antigua. We are working on connecting the site in St. Martin with other remote sites in the French-speaking countries (French Guiana and Haiti) and we hope that next year we will be able to add Guadeloupe and Martinique to the network. Next January we are traveling to Aruba and Curacao to connect them with the system already installed in Suriname, all Dutch-speaking places. Only the Turks and Caicos Islands are pending to get all the 31 countries/territories in Mesoamerica connected. We have also added several more systems on the Mexico Field and we are sending 11 systems to the NorCentral Field to be delivered to different districts in its jurisdiction.
The systems not only can be used in formal theological education but in workshops for Field development, church growth, lifelong pastoral training or educational seminars by zones.
Given the agreements that the Nazarene Seminary of the Americas – SENDAS signed with Multicultural Ministries USA/CAN and Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, we are starting the process of setting up videoconferencing systems in the USA. We are going to begin with four systems, but there are expectations to launch many more in the future.
Source: Rev. Ruben Fernandez, Education and Clergy Development, Mesoamerica Region
