Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world, with more than twenty-million souls calling it home. The city is largely Roman Catholic, and the relatively small portion of the population that is Protestant suffers from a lack of sound doctrine. That reality led three Mexico City churches to reach out to Grace Church in 1997 for help in establishing a ministry training center. The next year, with a burden for Mexico City—for the church there and the millions of lost souls in need of the gospel—our church family (in partnership with The Master’s Seminary and The Master’s Academy International) sent out three missionaries to launch what would eventually be known as Word of Grace Biblical Seminary (WGBS).

By God’s grace, the ministry has flourished over the past two decades. In 2004, the first graduating class of WGBS included six men. Five of those men are now serving on the WGBS board of directors, and a few of them have even seen their sons be trained and start serving at WGBS. All of these men, along with the rest of the faculty, also serve the local church in a pastoral capacity, which is a distinctive commitment of all TMAI training centers. The training centers exist to serve and equip churchmen for church service, and every member of the faculty models this commitment.

Over the years, the Lord has also expanded Word of Grace Biblical Seminary’s training ministry. In twenty years, nine extension campuses have been added, covering all areas of Mexico City, much of the nation, and even reaching into El Salvador. In total, more than 500 graduates and 200 current students of WGBS are serving in over fifty churches in the Spanish-speaking world. Several students, including current GMI Missionaries Isaías Godoy and Alberto Solano, have also gone on to receive more theological training and then returned to WGBS to serve and expand the training ministry there. The seminary has also added programs for training lay leaders, pastors, and elders, helping them use their gifts to serve the local church. Under the direction of Antonio Ortega (one of the members of the first graduating class) and the faculty, Word of Grace Biblical Seminary is poised for a lengthy future of training churchmen for the work of ministry.

Your prayers and support help make this ministry and other training ministries around the world possible. You enable partnerships between Grace Church missionaries, The Master’s Seminary, and The Master’s Academy International—partnerships designed to accomplish the goal of training, equipping, and encouraging indigenous church leaders as they take the gospel to those who desperately need it. Join us as we praise the Lord for two decades of ministry in Mexico City and please continue to pray for many more.

For more information about WGBS and The Master’s Academy International, visit www.tmai.org.