On July 17, Iglesia Bautista en Oak Hill and Pastor Leonid Marsan celebrated their third anniversary as a church. The congregation began in July 2019 with 16 members, and now has an average attendance of 40. In addition, the church offers a Bible Training Center to equip their leaders, and to train other Hispanic church leaders online. Also on July 17, their Bible Training Center celebrated a graduation class of 36 (nine from Iglesia Bautista Oakhill, six in Honduras, 16 in Mexico, three in Louisville, one in Detroit, and one in Indianapolis), and had an attendance of 160 at this event. Next month the church plans to start a Hispanic Bible study in Bloomington, and they hope to plant a new church there in the coming year.
Oakhill Baptist Church in Evansville (under the leadership of Senior Pastor Alan Scott) is the sending church for Iglesia Bautista en Oak Hill. Bryan Gotcher, Associate Pastor at Oakhill (pictured below with Leonid), says, “I praise God for what he is doing in our Hispanic church plant for the last three years. Pastor Leonid Marsan is a faithful man of God!”
At Primera Iglesia Bautista de Clarksville, the church has grown to an attendance of 80 and has baptized 13 new believers (see picture from the baptism celebration below). Recently, they also led an Anglo man to receive Christ! They are currently discipling a significant number of children and youth, as well as hosting one of our SCBI Bible Training Centers to equip church leaders. In addition, the church is continuing to reach out to its community with providing family recreational activities, a food pantry, and a clothes closet to build relationships for the purpose of sharing the Good News. They are very grateful to First Baptist Church of Clarksville (under the leadership of Pastor Russ Lievers) as their sending church, to NAMB, SCBI, and the Southeastern Baptist Association (SEIBA) for their prayers and support.
Primera Iglesia is excited about their opportunity to relocate closer to the Hispanic community in Clarksville by having a building provided for them by SEIBA. Prayer will be foundational to their evangelism near this new location, as they are trusting God to provide a great harvest of souls there (John 4:35). They are also partnering with Hispanic churches throughout the Louisville Metro Area to sponsor an Operation Andrew Revival on October 22-28.
Fall Creek Church en Espanol (meeting at Fall Creek Church in Indianapolis, under the leadership of Senior Pastor John Newland) is celebrating the arrival of their new Pastor, Jonathan Santos (pictured below). Jonathan had served previously as a Hispanic Pastor in Henderson, Kentucky; he and his wife, Lauri, are excited to be serving now in Indianapolis. He is focusing at this time on training leaders and reaching their community through English classes, ministering in a mobile home park, and starting an AWANA ministry. Fall Creek en Espanol will be celebrating their 13th anniversary as a church on August 6th at 6 pm EST. In the future, they hope to plant another Hispanic church in the Indy Metro Area.
For more information about SCBI’s ministries with Hispanic and ethnic congregations, contact jhorn@scbi.org. We are committed to reaching all peoples in our State with the Gospel, and to partnering with our churches to discover and fulfill their next step!