World changers: two words that encompass the calling God has placed on the class of Patmos 19. Traveling from California, to Texas, to Florida and back to assist in the hurricane relief efforts, this team grew in love and compassion for those in need early on. Now over three months in, the Lord also sent us out to go and make disciples of all nations in El Salvador and Mexico!

Throughout the month of Love, the students have been challenged to lay down their comforts and desires for the sake of others. 1 Corinthians 13 gives us the true meaning of love, how love “suffers long and is kind…does not envy…does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.” Patmos 19 had the opportunity to minister to Salvadorians living in remote villages, seeking to meet both their physical and spiritual needs. We also joined Patmos El Salvador 5, a group of seventeen students like ours who have been walking through various challenges, memorizing verses and studying God’s Word, just in a different country and language. It was encouraging to see how the Lord is working in this generation of believers outside of the U.S. and how He is using this ministry of reality discipleship to impact other parts of the world. For several of the students, this was their very first time traveling to another country and witnessing true poverty. For others, their hearts quickly grew to love the culture, which has spurred them on to pursue long-term missions!

Following our time in El Salvador, we set out to another foreign land with the chance to pour out and serve those in Oaxaca, Mexico. Our team was welcomed with love and gratitude by the missions organization, Growers First, for volunteering alongside them in running the 18th annual pastors’ conference, La Gran Fiesta! We immediately took notice of how these people are not only hard-working and willing to serve, but how they selflessly love like Jesus loves. As thousands of people traveled from far distances to be refreshed at this event, Patmos 19 was challenged to spend themselves and labor in love on behalf of these families. We saw the very fruit of that labor while distributing all the clothes donated by members of Coast Hills Church, which we previously boxed up back in the states. And throughout the entire conference our primary aim was to glorify God through serving His body, whether that meant assisting in the medical clinic, playing with kids, setting up chairs, praying over the sick, cleaning bathrooms, or picking up trash. As the Lord called our team out of comfortability this week, we grew to “not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18), and follow Christ’s example as the servant of all.

It was truly an impactful and eye-opening experience for the Patmos 19 students as they shared the love of Christ with those in both El Salvador and Oaxaca. The Lord is bringing about transformation all around the globe, and we are blessed to have taken part in just a small way. He is also transforming their hearts and minds to willingly and passionately go anywhere and do anything for the sake of the gospel. Thank you for your prayers and support of this ministry and our current students, who are graduating tomorrow! We ask that you would continue to lift them up and whatever calling the Lord places upon their hearts for the next season. God bless!

Patmos Takes Latin America