Sunset International Studies Division

Huge populations of Spanish speaking people have been multiplying in Miami, Houston, Phoenix and Los Angeles. From these four population fountains there is a rapid, northern spread across the United States. Some churches have seen the vision and are trying to provide facilities and limited opportunities for Hispanic residents in their areas. But they have found there is a scarcity of trained leaders among the Hispanics even to conduct weekly assemblies. There are just a few evangelistic efforts to plant Spanish speaking churches in one of the most promising times to reach millions.

Sunset, a leader in preacher training for forty years with a particular emphasis on Spanish training, is making progress to confront the void in trained, Hispanic leaders in the States.

1/ Sunset Branch schools will be established in four anchor cities, with interactive, Internet hook ups to regional schools further north in the same time zones.

2/ The first model will be a connection made from the existing anchor branch school in Miami to the first regional school in Arlington, VA. A working agreement with the Virginia elders, facilities and a prospective dean have been secured. Other regional schools along the Eastern Seaboard will be put on the planning board.

3/ The second model will be the establishing of the second anchor branch in Houston, TX. A working agreement with a Board, use of facilities and an administrative team are being put in place for a Fall 2004 opening. Hookups with regional schools in the time zone will be a further development.

4/ Discussions will soon begin with brethren in Phoenix and Los Angeles concerning establishing anchor schools with regional schools in the future.

There can easily be interchanges among the anchor schools to make the best use of faculty resources and curriculum offerings.

With four anchor training schools with full curriculum programs, feeding study courses to regional schools, we should be able to make a significant difference in the number and quality of well-trained spokesmen to the Spanish speaking peoples spreading throughout the States.

At the same time Sunset is developing Spanish speaking schools in the Carribeans, Mexico, Central and South America. Now there are Sunset related, Spanish speaking training programs in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Ecuador with other nations being considered. Study courses are being translated and local extension studies are being conducted to go along with other ministries in church planting, printing, television, radio, orphanages and medical missions.

Partners in this vision are being enlisted either to support the development of a school, provide faculty support or student scholarships. We are living in a mission field whose greatest hope is multiplying the number of able, well trained spokesmen of the Word in a culture and language still foreign to most of us.