Journey to Honduras spreads apologetic education, Southwestern educational opportunities

What started as an opportunity to speak at a weekend conference in Honduras in August grew to a week of speaking engagements as Armando Hernandez, director of admissions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Terrell Coy, associate professor of theology and director of language programs, connected with Southwestern alumni and students and the Word of Life organization.

“While I was there, people were asking, ‘Hey, can you come?’,” Hernandez recalled. “… ‘I’m here. And if it’s of any help to people, I want to be used.’”

Word of Life is a New York based para-church group that helps disciple and support church leaders across Latin America, including Honduras where it is well established, Hernandez noted.

Connected to the event by Jose Juaquin Carvajal Padilla, the president of the Honduran Baptist Convention and a former student of both Hernandez and Coy, they met with 20 pastors in Palmero. Following the warm welcome, they journeyed to Zambrano, where the Word of Life conference for about 250 youth leaders was held.

Following closely with the conference’s theme of “Equipped” focusing on 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hernandez and Coy, each led plenary sessions on the authority of the infallible Scriptures and how they are necessary “so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:17).

“What does it mean for you and your young people dealing in a post-modern culture?” Coy said he challenged his listeners. “How do you stand on that authority when everybody else is saying, ‘Oh no, there is no absolute’ or ‘There is no authority,’ or ‘It’s over here,’ or ‘It’s over there.’ So how do we respond to that?”

Although Coy said he only spoke for short sessions at a time, he said the young people seemed interested and he guided them to research and study more outside of the conference.

“What I hoped I did was pique their interest to get into it a little further,” Coy said.

Speaking with the students over a bonfire after the sessions, Coy enjoyed sharing wisdom and thoughts on a variety of topics with the young men, noting he “was the oldest guy” at the event.

“After that first plenary session, I got to talk to several young leaders,” Coy recalled. “Just stuff like, ‘How do you know when God’s calling you to ministry?’ and what kind of ministry and even the ‘How do you know when you’re really in love, and she’s the one?’”

Following the weekend of teaching at the conference, Coy returned to the states while Hernandez remained, having volunteered to speak at several other gatherings across the country over the coming week, starting with a church where he preached on the assurance of salvation and Christology.

Padilla and Hernandez then drove to Puerto Cortez, where Padilla showed Hernandez some of the mission work they have been doing. He explained that they have been successfully planting churches but needed more church planters and leaders.

“There’s a lot of opportunity to plant churches, but there’s not a lot of people being called to plant churches, or even called to the ministry,” Hernandez explained. “There’s no one there to lead it.”

That night they journeyed to Second Baptist Church in San Pedro, where Hernandez spoke to roughly 50 pastors, teaching on apologetics in a modern and post-modern world.

They traveled to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, where he spoke at a church planting meeting in a tent led by pastor Hernan Sierra. Sierra was connected to Hernandez through his brother Samuel, who serves as the president and director of the Word of Life ministry in Honduras. For two days, Hernandez spoke in Tegucigalpa on apologetics and how to approach the issues of evil and suffering to approximately 100 people representing about 10 area churches.

Hernandez said the event was moved the second night of teaching as it began to storm and the people, eager to learn, stayed despite the heat and the humidity. He said he was humbled by the listeners’ “desire to learn” even as the storm peaked around them.

Hernandez concluded his journey by traveling back to Zambrano to speak to another group of about 70 young leaders over the weekend through an eight-hour, intensive course on apologetics. Saturday night, he ended his journey in a church called La Roca, where he spoke to another 50 college students.

While providing teaching and training at the different venues and events, Hernandez said they were also able to share about Southwestern’s goal of equipping those called to ministry with further education.

“I think we as Americans, we’re so used to how at-reach education is for us that it loses its significance at times. It’s a privilege to be training at seminary,” Hernandez said. “… Being able to just be thankful for that was really a good reminder.”

Coy and Hernandez were pleased to hear that some of those who participated in the events decided that they wanted to continue to learn through courses provided by Southwestern, including church planter Sierra and his son who filled out their applications the night of the event and are currently enrolled as students.

“I have a picture of him and his son receiving the acceptance letter, in front of all these churches and in front of all these people that are part of his Bible Institute,” Hernandez recalled. “To think, not only is he trying to bring theological education through us, he’s also putting in the work to be trained. That was really encouraging.”

Coy said others they worked alongside also saw the need to continue to be equipped.

“Some of the actual Word of Life missionaries, after talking with them about continuing their studies, or after the plenary sessions and hearing from Armando and hearing from me, they’d come up and say, ‘Okay, you guys convinced me, I need to continue my preparation,’” Coy recalled.