On January 27, 2015, SENDAS celebrated its graduation ceremony as part of the opening service of the 46th Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene in Cuba. The event was held in the chapel of the Cuban Nazarene Theological Seminary where pastors, delegates, members of the nearby churches, Regional leaders and General Superintendent Dr. Gustavo Crocker were in attendance. SENDAS graduated twelve students from the License program in Administration of Church Resources with concentration in Pastoral Ministries.

It was an inspiring service and from seeing the dedication of the students to complete the coursework in a short time, many pastors felt challenged to continue their studies as well. The license program is the level between the bachelor and master degree, and it consists of 34 credits. The students completed the coursework in two years, traveling regularly to the Cuban Seminary to receive intensive two-week courses.

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Rev. Loysbel Perez (Academic Vice President of the Cuban Nazarene Seminary) shared that the students’ experience was excellent. Many of the students, through the work of their final projects, have begun new ministries within their local churches that are bearing much fruit. For example, Loammy Lopez Hernandez developed her project by starting a new church mission with children and adolescents. These same youth then evangelized in their community and many adults accepted Christ through their efforts. In less than one year, the district named it an official mission (mission type church).

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Two of the graduates are Haitians who also worked hard to complete the theological formation program. Alexis Sonel and Jeudi Dezama will return to their home country to develop their pastoral ministries, with aspirations of continuing their theological studies by pursuing master’s degrees with SENDAS. Jeudi will focus on the ministry with children and youth with the goal of helping them to discover their gifts and talents so they can better serve the Lord. Both students express their gratitude to SENDAS for the opportunity they have been given to reach this level of ministry preparation, with the goal of applying what they have learned to their pastoral ministries.

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Rev. Franlym Pena (Program Coordinator at SENDAS) shares that beginning in January of 2016, it is projected that a new cohort group will begin the program in Cuba with 42 candidates. We pray that God will provide the economic resources for all these students who desire to enter the License program.

Would you like to help a student in Cuba to continue studying with SENDAS? The SOS (Send One to SENDAS) program exists to complete the mission of SENDAS, which is to prepare with the highest level of excellence the largest number of students possible in order to extend the Kingdom of God. It is easy to help a student by giving online to SOS.  Just click on the link below:

http://app.nazarene.org/tenpercent/results.jsp?s_keyword=sendas