Hispanic pastor issues 'ahora' for Africa - 'this is the time to go'

By Emily Peters

NIGERIA, West Africa (BP)--As Pastor Herberto Becerra strolled through the dusty village, men in brilliant robes of their Muslim faith emerged from mud-block homes to greet the stranger.

The pastor from Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana (First Hispanic Baptist Church) in Plantation, Fla., asked the men about their children, their wives, their crops, but not about their faith. That could spur trouble.

Sharia law, strict social regulations based on the Quran, rules this part of Nigeria.

"Everywhere I go, I want to talk about Jesus," said Becerra, whose church sent him on a vision trip to northern Nigeria to explore mission opportunities. "Here, I cannot do that."

Becerra, a native Cuban, understands persecution. Before he moved to the United States 20 years ago, he was jailed for evangelizing under the communist regime.

"We couldn't speak about Jesus in the street," he remembered. "You couldn't walk down the street with a Bible in your hand. You had to carry it in a bag or in your mind."

"Many (Cuban) pastors in South Florida understand this persecution because they've lived in that same situation. This is a different kind of ministry."

Becerra thinks Hispanic churches are ready to take on this "different kind of ministry." One that takes them beyond their usual mission trips to Spanish-speaking regions. One that takes them to the 10/40 Window, the section of the Eastern Hemisphere where 95 percent of the world's unreached peoples live in Asia and parts of Africa.

"We've always been concerned with Latin America," said Becerra, noting nearly all 400 members of his Florida congregation speak Spanish. Just last year his church sent teams to Peru and the Dominican Republic, but Becerra felt God leading him to explore mission needs in Africa.

On his vision trip, Becerra discovered ways his church can minister in Nigeria. He also learned firsthand that people on mission in West Africa face tough conditions.

He ate beans and rice for lunch in a tin shack on the roadside. He swatted away malaria-infested mosquitoes. He spent hours in a four-wheel drive truck careening down bone-rattling dirt roads to find villages in the bush.

West Africa is home to about 280 million people from 1,600 people groups who all speak different languages. About 350 of those people groups have no access to the Gospel. Many of those unreached people groups live near a church, but they remain separated by barriers like language, persecution and ancient tribal grudges.

Training Nigerian Christians in evangelism and church-planting techniques is needed. Though it wouldn't be the open evangelism that many of his church members are used to, Becerra thinks they will not shy away from the challenge.

"There is an emergency call to this part of the world," he says. "Ahora – this is the time to go."