One Latin America Team – Spring 2025 Quarterly Update

Changes for the One Latin America Team

With the departure of Missionary Nathan Schulte, who accepted a call to serve at a church in Wisconsin, plans for new locations, personnel, and structure were accelerated.

On May 22, 2025, Rev. Zach Satorius was assigned to the One Latin America Team. Missionary Satorius (pictured above, left, with Missionary Luis Acosta as his installation in June 2025) will be focused on multiplication work, working with advanced students who are in the process of gathering groups. He and his wife, Ava, will initially be based in Doral, Fla. Missionary Satorius previously served as a vicar in Medellín, Colombia, under Pastor Henry Herrera.

Missionaries will remain in Quito, Ecuador, and Doral, Fla., and those locations will remain as permanent hubs for the team. The plan is to discontinue Asunción, Paraguay, as one of the One Latin America Team hubs. Missionaries Joel Sutton and Abe Degner have been asked to redeploy to other locations. Additionally, a new, mobile hub concept is being developed.

The mobile hub is designed to allow the One Latin America Team to remain flexible to pursue emerging opportunities. It also keeps locations diversified in case of regional instability. Using this approach, the One Latin America Team will temporarily place missionaries in various locations. Mexico City has been chosen to serve as the first mobile hub due to feasibility of visas, efficient connections to the rest of the Latin America through its major airport, and the number of active students and church planters. The Behmer family will be moving there after their furlough in summer 2025, with the Sutton family joining them in January 2026.

A snapshot of blessings during the past quarter: 

• Academia Cristo has their first advanced student from Africa! A student from Equatorial Guinea, Africa’s only Spanish-speaking country, has made it through the first 12 live courses of Discipleship Level and is currently participating in the capstone course. He is currently in the doctrinal agreement process with Missionaries Luis Herrera and Luis Acosta.
• On April 4, 2025, María Vasquez, a called church planter, was called home to heaven after suffering a heart attack. Missionary Matt Behmer was able to travel to Costa Rica and see her and her family after the heart attack and before she passed away. Missionary Angel Otero and his wife Maribel were able to attend a funeral and provide support to the family. On April 27, 2025, an online memorial service was held for the Academia Cristo Missionary Nathan Schulte shared a message of comfort at the service based on Revelation 7:9-17.
• On April 20, 2025, a special online Easter worship service was held for the entire Academia Cristo student body. Lester Soto from Nicaragua and Camilo Herrera from Colombia, both called church planters, led the liturgy. Missionary Nixon Vivar preached.
• Over the past several months, 11 students from Paraguay, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Mexico were welcomed into doctrinal agreement after reviewing 95 key doctrinal questions with a missionary. This means the students have expressed a commitment to the teachings of the confessional Lutheran church and a desire to be doctrinally affiliated with the ministry of Academia Cristo.

Fast facts

• A total of 37,129 students have enrolled in the Self-Study Level of courses
• 1,342+ students have completed one Discipleship Level live course
• 152+ students have completed the Discipleship Level (13 live courses)
• 53 students have completed the Church Planting Level (ten live courses)
• 43 Academia Cristo students are actively leading church plants (Grupos Sembrador)