Photo gallery: Hispanic Baptist pastors enjoy fellowship, celebrate unity

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FORSYTH, Ga. – More than a dozen Hispanic Baptist pastors gathered this past weekend at the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s Camp Kaleo for encouragement, instruction and worship. Rolando Ruiz, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Hispanoamericana in Lilburn, Ga., and president of the Georgia Hispanic Baptist Association, organized the event.

Church planter Pastor Neftali Coronado led the retreat, focusing his teaching on Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, a passage that emphasizes the importance of people working together.

“Our diversity should not divide us if Christ unites us,” Coronado said.

Rafael Valter, second vice president of the Georgia Baptist Convention and pastor of Iglesia Bautista Agape in Stone Mountain, said it was the first Georgia Hispanic pastors’ retreat since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“It's a beautiful initiative that 30 to 40 pastors from the state have come to take advantage of every year for many years, and we trust it will resume its former strength in the very near future, because we pastors need spaces like this to get to know each other, freely share our experiences, ministerial problems, and to learn how they have been handled by the most respected and experienced pastors among us; all in order to be more effective in our work with our God as we rest in Him worshiping together,” Valter said.

In addition to participating in worship, attendees heard teachings from Luis Trejo, pastor of the First Hispanic Baptist Church in Hinesville, Ga., and participated in activities to foster fellowship and teamwork. The retreat concluded with pastors praying with and for each other.