Israel launched the summer internship program several years ago and has lead seminary students from Rio Grande Bible Institute in Edinbrug, Texas. The program lasts between 10 and 12 weeks each summer.

The goal of the program is host evangelistic events for established churches as well as reach out with the gospel in new communities that are potential locations for future Spanish-language churches.

The team this year consisted of two families who facilitated several fruitful outreach events.
The evangelistic outreach was especially strong in Waterloo where they were able to connect with over 200 new people. It started with going out into the neighborhoods with flyers to invite guests to an evangelistic service where at least 3 individuals made a decision for Christ.

Pastor Israel spent most of his summer working in Waterloo and hosted an evangelism training for 10 church members from Waterloo. The Waterloo Block Party had around 90 visitors, including many youth in middle school and high school.

Additionally, there was a lot of new work in Perry, a city that has been identified as a key city for planting a Spanish-language church.

One of the couples, in the middle of a 1-year internship, spent most of their time this summer doing gospel outreach with Kairos Church in Marshalltown. This fall they will continue their work in both Waterloo and Marshalltown.

BCI provides a grant to allow Kairos to facilitate this summer internship program and bring families into Iowa for evangelistic ministry.

Pastor Israel’s has several goals in mind for this program. “First, we want to reach our Iowa Hispanic communities with the gospel. Second, we want to provide opportunities for the interns and their families to grow in their gifts and discover their call to ministry. Third, we hope they will thrive in ministry and consider coming back to serve in ministry in Iowa. The harvest is ripe but we need more laborers!”