Waxahachie, Texas – March 10, 2016 – After overcoming the adversity of being affected by Hurricane Katrina, Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU) alumnus Luis Padilla is impacting the hurting communities in the Argentine Northwest regions of Jujuy, Salta, Tucuman, and Santiago del Estero through church planting.
Luis shared, “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.”
Luis was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and moved to Marrero, La., and accepted a youth leader position at the Hispanic Southern Baptist Church around 2001.
Luis later served on staff as the outreach pastor at Journey Fellowship Church in Slidell, Louisiana, for 11 years. In 2005, Journey Fellowship Church was completely destroyed by hurricane Katrina. Luis explained, “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 added, “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.”
While rebuilding Journey Fellowship Church in 2008, Padilla graduated from SAGU with a bachelor’s degree in church planting and revitalization through SAGU’s distance education program.
After successfully planting two churches in Argentina, they are planting churches in Jujuy, Salta, Tucuman, and Santiago del Estero.
“We want to equip the next generation to take leadership positions in the churches of Argentina. We hope to 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.”
Luis, his wife and children, face adversity in different forms while serving in Argentina.
“One of the main challenges we face is spiritual warfare. With Catholicism being the predominant religion in Argentina, we have to teach Pentecostal doctrine small steps at a time. There is also a large presence of idolatry, witchcraft, prostitution, alcoholism, domestic abuse and more.”
To learn more about the Padilla family’s ministry, click here .
About SAGU:
Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU) is a private, Christian university located 30 minutes south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Waxahachie, Texas. The University was established in 1927 and now offers more than 60 associate, bachelor’s or master’s degrees on campus or online. More information is available atwww.sagu.edu or by calling 1-888-YES-SAGU.
