Early in the morning on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. When it reached land, it was a Category 3 storm, bringing sustained winds of 100–140 miles per hour and spanning 400 miles across. The storm was catastrophic. Levee breaches led to massive flooding. Hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were displaced from their homes, and experts estimate that Katrina caused more than $100 billion in damage.
Journey Fellowship Church was among the properties completely destroyed in the hurricane.
Alumnus Luis Padilla, born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, moved to Marrero, La., and accepted a youth leader position at the Hispanic Southern Baptist Church around 2001. Luis later served as the outreach pastor at Journey Fellowship Church in Slidell, Louisiana, for 11 years.
Luis explains, "After Hurricane Katrina, there was a unique opportunity to unify with the community to bring healing to a damaged city, both physically and emotionally." He continued, "Everyone came together to rebuild their lives. During this time, our church grew as we discovered creative ways to have services. We met in more than 15 different locations in 6 months."
Luis confirms, "One of the main challenges is spiritual warfare. There is a large presence of idolatry, witchcraft, prostitution, alcoholism, domestic abuse and more."
While rebuilding Journey Fellowship Church in 2008, Padilla graduated from SAGU with a bachelor's degree in church planting and revitalization through SAGU's online program.
After graduation, Luis and his family moved to Argentina and planted two churches. Their goal is to expand into the Northwest regions of Jujuy, Salta, Tucuman, and Santiago del Estero. "We want to equip the next generation to take leadership positions in the churches of Argentina. We will continue our church planting efforts in Northwest Argentina and expand our reach to plant a church in every Latin American country in the coming years."
Argentina is Latin America’s second largest country and has a population over 40 million people. Christianity is the leading faith in the region at 89 percent, mostly Catholic. Evangelicalism is below 10%. But, beneath the surface is an intense spiritual struggle for souls. Operation World says that, "the low-key but widespread influence of the occult (Western and Latin expressions), one of the world’s highest Mormon populations and the growing Muslim population all vie for souls with postmodern agnosticism, hedonistic lifestyles and Christianity. Spiritism’s hidden currents strongly influence far more people than will openly identify with such groups."
Luis confirms, "One of the main challenges is spiritual warfare. There is a large presence of idolatry, witchcraft, prostitution, alcoholism, domestic abuse and more."
With such influences, Argentina is in dire need of leaders. Preparing those leaders is top-of-mind for Luis, who says, "Our goal is to raise healthy leaders that will plant healthy churches on a long-term basis in Argentina." He continued, "This requires a lot of leadership training and pouring into new believers, while equipping them to be church planters and evangelists themselves."
To learn more about the Padilla family's ministry, click here .