March Seminary

Fifty to Sixty pastors and students will gather in Barquisimeto, Venezuela March 13-17, 2006 to engage in the 3 hour Wesley Seminary Course: Church Administration in the Mission Church. The professor, Dr. Warren Lathem, is also the founding president of the Wesley Seminary of Venezuela. He will be assisted in teaching the course by Rev. Raul Lavinz, Registrar of the Seminary and pastor of the First United Methodist Church of San Cristobal in Tachira State in the Andes on the border with Columbia. Raul will also serve as Dr. Lathem's translator since his Spanish is limited to a few basic phrases. Prior to the week of seminary, Dr. Lathem will join Pastor Raul in San Cristobal for a busy week of ministry. The schedule includes a pastor's conference for the pastors of the Tachira State, a three day revival at the San Cristobal United Methodist Church, interviews on local radio and TV and a leadership conference for the Tachira State Governor's staff. Samuel Rojas will accompany Dr. Lathem to San Cristobal and will assist him in all of these activities. Samuel is a student in the seminary and a great servant for Christ in the United Methodist Church.
Others involved in the March session of seminary include Rev. Dan Dunn, Dean of Students of the Wesley Seminary and co-founder. Rev. Dunn is the Missions Pastor at Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church in Alpharetta, GA, USA. Sensing a much stronger call to theological education in Latin America, Dan has applied to the Phd. program at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY, USA. Assuming admission, Dan and Nancy expect to move from Alpharetta to Kentucky in the summer of 2006. Please keep this new development in your prayers as they wait for admission, attempt to sell their home in Alpharetta, seek housing in Kentucky, await news of financial aide and attempt to raise their financial support for this mission endeavor.
In addition to the above persons involved in the seminary in March is Rev. Jon Herrin. Jon is a minister of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church and a Professor of Church Planting at Wesley Seminary. He and his wife, Jeanne, and their three children, Jesse, Meghan, and Andrew, currently live in a home in Cabudare, a suburb of Barquisimeto. John works closely with the local United Pastors and Church Planters as they work to share the Gospel with their neighbors in Venezuela.

Anyone interested in helping with this very important work of the seminary or the work of the United Methodist Church of Venezuela is invited to contact the following:
Dr. Warren Lathem, wlathem@aslangroup.com
Rev. Dan Dunn, ddunn@mountpisgah.org
Rev. Jon Herrin, herrin@missionaryhome.org