Ted
& Juli Kautzmann...with
the
Latin America
Training Network
Apdo. 239-2350, San José, Costa Rica.
Tel. (dial as
if in U.S) 1-765-997-1710
e-mail:
tedkautz@efcaim.org
October, 2006
Dear Friends,
Things are going very
well here in Costa Rica. Lately we’ve been impressed again with the
enormity of the need for what our ministry, LATN, is providing. We train
Christian leaders in various parts of Latin America. At the same time,
we’re seeing God provide resources for LATN in amazing ways.
People here want to
learn. We offer courses in 7
countries and plan to expand that number every year. But the need is great
everywhere Spanish is spoken. In a span of just four days, we received
letters from people in six countries urging us to offer courses in their
countries soon because they have no workable alternative for effective
Christian leadership training. We put an advertisement in the web page of
a magazine aimed at pastors in Latin America. It was a banner that said,
“Online studies for Christian leaders”. When you clicked on it, you were
taken to the LATN web page in Spanish (www.pro-meta.org).
Response was immediate. Thousands per week began clicking through to our
web site. Within a month About 75 filled out the 6 page application form
online. Though we were able to accept a fair number of them, we had to
tell many that we were not yet ready to serve their country. But this form
of promotion is fruitful for LATN because so many Christian leaders are
hungry for good ministry preparation.
A
whole new library! LATN has just
signed an agreement with an older seminary here in Costa Rica that allows
our students to use their library at least through 2012. We plan to make
the library catalog available to our students all over Latin America via the
Internet. They will be able to search the library and request to view
specific pages of any book listed. We can service these requests within the
copyright laws of Latin American countries. The vast majority of leaders in
this region live hundreds of miles away from the nearest good Christian
library. This new agreement will bring a great library to the doorstep of
even our remotest students.
More
are joining the work. God is calling more people to join us. Last week a professional
librarian with extensive experience in online library services decided God
has called her to come to Costa Rica
to work with LATN full time as a career! Have you any idea how hard it is
to find people with that specific skill set who are available to move here
permanently within just a few months? Trust me; she can only be sent from
God. She visited us here last month to see the work and after praying,
knew that God wanted her here. Notice how this happens to fit with the
previous paragraph? We didn’t see the possibility of her coming before a
few months ago, and she didn’t know about the plans in the works for the
online library. But God knew.
In another act of God, two weeks ago a very
experienced university administrator joined us to work in areas where we are
badly understaffed and completely untrained. She will stay this time
through December to set up our systems in the admissions and registrar’s
office. Please pray many more financial supporters get behind her so that
she can work with us long term.
Last month we received from God a new full
time teacher, a fellow who is an expert on Christian leadership in Latin
America. He is already a missionary with over 20 years of experience,
outstanding Spanish, and his full financial support. I don’t need to tell
you such people don’t grow on trees. Others have fallen into our lap
before.
Why?
Why is God showering us with such high quality staff? Not because we
deserve it, but because the need for training is so great in Latin
America. The task is really impossible, far greater than we can ever
accomplish on our own. If He is not with us, we would drop the whole
project. But because it is His work, we can do the impossible.
The Kautzmann family is
doing well, comfortably settled in our new home on the east side of San
José. Ted is embarking on a month-long trip, so Juli, James and Joanna will
be holding down the fort.
Please pray:
- For the family as dad
travels.
- For the students
studying with us right now that they would become great leaders for God,
able to guide the church in their nations on a truly biblical course.
- For the development
of our new online library system, that it will be adequately funded and
effectively designed.
- For the Kautzmann’s
financial support, that it will be greatly strengthened this year.
Finally, a sad note.
About a month ago, my computer died and I lost many email addresses and most
correspondence dating back to 2003. If you use email, I would appreciate
it very much if you would send me an email at the address at top so that I
have your address and any others you care to give me for others who know us.
With much appreciation
for you,
Ted, for the Kautzmann family
