May 1, 2019 2 min to read

Multiplying Senior Leadership

Category : Testimony

Bibiana Mac Leod, Resource Facilitator (formerly Regional Coordinator for South America and Caribbean)

Editor’s note: What happens when experienced and expert senior leaders face transition? Some leaders cling to power and position, long past their time of usefulness. Bibiana models the view that a leader’s stepping down actually produces multiplication of ministry.

The core values of Community Health Evangelism (CHE) include multiplication, which must happen not only at the village or neighborhood level but also among us—trainers and coordinators. We know God leads us to people in the field whom He is calling to the task. We invest our lives in them; we build relationships and experience ministry together. He does the rest.

I met Flor de Leon in Dominican Republic while attending her local church. She was interested in our participatory teaching techniques and attended a peri-natal CHE training while also helping us at the local office. In 2009 Flor and her husband, Hiran, were asked to lead CHE training in their country. They had started a CHE program in El Ejido, witnessing transformation of individuals and families, then expanded to other towns through partnerships with other denominations and mission groups.

Meanwhile in Peru, Marco Quispe and his wife, Vilma, were growing in experience, conducting CHE in the outskirts of Trujillo. Marco had learned to use Bible story-telling techniques and taught it to other coordinators in the region.

I started to see that God was raising this new generation of CHE leaders and asked them to help teach their skills to co-workers from other countries. Flor and Hiran traveled to help our partners in other Caribbean countries; Marco taught in Haiti and Dominican Republic. Most recently, they were both fully responsible for the Spanish CHE Internship offered in Santiago, Dominican Republic.

So, my task as Regional Coordinator was shared with Flor and Marco as they progressively took more and more responsibilities over the years. It was time for me to step down.

At the end of 2018, Medical Ambassadors International recognized Flor and Marco as sub-regional coordinators: Marco for South America and Flor for the Caribbean. We are happy to see their growth and desire to serve God wherever He takes them.

New challenges are coming our way: more and more South American indigenous people from oral cultures are asking for CHE training. Marco is the son of Quechuas, descendants from the Inca. Along with Orfa Gómez, a young woman from the Bolivian Guarani tribe, we have been working together to adapt teaching materials to oral learners—a curriculum we have taught in Peru, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia.

He will continue to equip each of us for the task

Do I have less work than before? Not at all! God is leading me into new areas, some of them in cooperation with other MAI co-workers: a program targeting the first 1000 days of life; the training of birth attendants in Haiti; monitoring and evaluation; and…more learning for me. Wheaton College offers a two-year part-time program for a Masters in Humanitarian Disaster leadership. So I am back in school, learning exciting new topics and how MAI can be on the frontlines, offering what we do best—organizing communities for sustainable development in the areas of risk management and response to emergencies.

There is so much to do in the Kingdom! We thank God for raising up new leaders and pray He will continue to equip each of us for the task.


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