Bolivian Escuelitas Help Young Leaders Begin to Preach

January 21, 2009

Langham Preaching "escuelita" participants prepare an outline in class in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

What educational support would you want if you had to preach your first sermon?
For most of us, formal preaching training prior to a first sermon is expected. But for some
young leaders in Majority World countries, that training is unavailable or too expensive.
So when young church leader Miroslava Riffarrachi of Cochabamba, Bolivia, prepared to
preach to a congregation for the first time on Dec. 6, 2008, the training supported by JSM
was invaluable. In preparation, Miroslava had been studying a book on Bible exposition
she received during JSM-Langham preaching training (known as an “escuelita”) for young
leaders six months ago. And now the time had approached for her to put her training into
practice.

Miroslava came to the preaching seminar in La Paz along with her mentor and several
other members of her preacher’s school to better prepare herself for this opportunity. “I have
two passages I am working on,” said Miroslava. “An Old Testament prophetic passage and
one from the New Testament. This is why I was attracted to the workshop this week.” This
seminar focused on preaching from Jeremiah, enabling Miroslava to create several sermon
outlines that were reviewed by her small group and then by the workshop attendees.

“I am very grateful for people who support JSM and make it possible for people like us
who want to share the Word well, as it comes from God. This workshop helps us to study
it and to work on it, and encourages us to think that it is not impossible,” Miroslava says.

Miroslava Riffarachi at one of her first public preaching events following her training with Langham Preaching.

On December 6, 2008 Miroslava preached her first sermon. She preached on the text from Mark 8:31-38. To all of those praying for her she says, “Thank you for your prayers, I have felt so blessed the day of the preaching and they asked me return, preaching my biblical text again on December 28.”

Here is the full interview with Miroslava as she attending the Langham Preaching Seminiar in La Paz, Bolivia.

Interview with Miroslava Riffarachi
Nov 13, 2008
La Paz, Bolivia

DH: First can you tell me your name and where you are from?

MR: My name is Mirslava Riffarachi and I am from Cochabamba Bolivia. I am in La Paz to study from Chris Wright at the Langham Preaching seminar.

DH: What do you do in Cochabamba?

MR: I study business administration and I am working for Food for the Hungry at the moment in the area of child sponsorship.

Langham Preaching students with Chris Wright in Cochabamba, Bolivia

DH: What made you want to come to this seminar?

MR: I am part of the preaching school in Cochabamba, and they encouraged us to come to the seminar to learn about studying prophetic books. I have been in the preaching school for six months, and at the beginning of December, I will be giving my first sermon. I’ve chosen a prophetic passage, and I see now that it’s a bit difficult, but it helps me for the following ones.

DH: Tell me a bit about the escuelitas. How many people are involved and how often do you meet?

MR: OK, the school started with 15-17 people and all young people cause it’s a young peoples group. There are 10 that are going on with it. We are from different churches and institutions. We are learning together, and the majority are university students, with some of us graduating already. Each one is working with either with the young people in their church or in young peoples’ ministry.

DH: When you preach, will it be to the young people in your church, or the whole church, or is there another group that you preach to?

MR: Most of them are young peoples’ leaders, and they preach in the young peoples’ groups. Some of them are invited by other youth ministries. One of them has already preached in a Sunday service. And the rest are being considered by our pastors to preach to the entire congregation at some point. After my first one in December.

DH: When will you be preaching your first sermon?

MR: Dec 6. The preaching club meets every Saturday early at 7:00 a.m.

DH: Do you then talk about what you will be preaching on and help each other?

MR: Until last Saturday, we have been going through the book, The Seven Steps to a Good Bible Exposition. From now until the 6th of December, we are preparing a sermon based on what we have learned from the book and from this seminar.

DH: Will you be preparing your Bible passage on the prophetic verse you will be preaching on?

MR: But I have two passages. An old prophetic passage and a New Testament one. This is why I was attracted to the workshop this week. I am not going leave the prophetic passage and will continue to work on it, but I will be using New Testament passage for my exposition. Then I will finish the other one.

DH: When you leave here, will you share what you have learned with your escuelitas?

MR: Clara [of course]. I am taking recordings for those who are working and could not be here. Then we will have a mutual experience.

DH: What would you like to say to the Langham supporters?

MR: I am very grateful for people like you who make it possible for people like us who want to share the Word well, as it comes from God. It helps us to study it, to work on it and encourages us to think that it is not impossible. Thank you very much!

DH: How can we pray for you?

MR: I would like for you to pray for me that God is in my life so that I when I come to the Word, I am able to share with people what God puts in my heart. It’s easy to share what’s happening to someone, what God’s done in your life. But it’s more difficult when you are doing an exposition from the Bible and what it actually says.

DH: How can we pray for the youth of Cochabamba?

MR: Pray that the heart of the young people really seek God and that they look at the Word. Because, our youth are like the youth in all the world, in that they only look at superficial things and they should seek the Word, and not just what it seems to be or what they feel. That is so common in our postmodern age. Pray that they do not push that aside because that is what young people are doing. Pray that the Word should be their foundation.

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