WAGF Missions Connection Volume 2 Issue 1 - Assemblies of God ...

ARGENTINA | Future Missionary Group Sets Pace
Tony Pedrozo, Argenna AG Naonal Missions Department
Editor’s Note: Sensing a need to bridge the disconnect between future missionary
candidates and the Missions Department, in 2004 I asked Daniel Pelozo, currently an
Argenne missionary to Costa Rica and at that me one of their staff members, to
develop a program called “Potenal Missionary Group.” The program helps prepare the
next generaon of missionaries. Its current director, Tony Pedrozo, has been leading
the program since 2007. Tony was a missionary in Congo and Chad for over ten years
before returning to Argenna to serve in the Naonal Missions Department. Since its
start in 2004, at least five other countries have begun similar programs in Lan America.
Please talk about Potenal Missionary Group (PMG). What is its purpose?
PMG rises as an extended arm from our Naonal Missions Department to the local Tony Pedrozo
church and its pastor to enhance the vision of the people being called to missions and
to provide training before they are approved as candidates. PMG members have a
burden or missionary calling but do not have an immediate missions project. The main purpose is to equip them for
two to ten years before being appointed as an official candidate.
PMG provides an environment where applicants can meet others who share the same interests, parcipate in special
retreats that nurture and inspire their calling, and be trained formally and informally. During the period of waing
and training, we offer mentoring, theological and missions training, language studies (especially English or another
language, if they know where they are going), and a secular diploma as part of the strategy to jusfy their service in
restricted countries where it is not possible to get religious visas.
One requirement is that husband and wife enter the PMG walking in the same direcon and under the same vision.
For single members, we pray with them and give them some tools to help them choose the right person to marry,
which helps to avoid complicaons before going to the field. Over the years approximately 30 members have goen
married, and some are already on the mission field.
Describe the annual retreats.
PMG provides a retreat in Buenos Aires once a year—all members are required to parcipate. Most candidates live in
the surrounding areas, because some are studying at our Bible school or a local university, but 40 percent come from
far provinces. All invest their own resources each year to receive appropriate training given by veteran missionaries
and naonal missions leaders. The retreat is a smaller and shorter “School of Missions.” We also provide teachers
and caregivers for their children, using that me to prepare them for future overseas ministry. Workshop speakers
talk about their missions experience with an open heart, more from a praccal point of view, and give the
parcipants a chance to express their concerns, doubts, wrong expectaons, and so on. The program is not always
the same; PMG members will vary subjects and strategies. They may watch a movie and analyze the context, people,
and main theme to get personal lessons for their situaons.
It’s also a me to get to know people from other retreats, somemes making friendships that will help them
overseas. For example, two families with the same last name and called to the same country have been developing a
close friendship, praying for and encouraging each other regarding the calling God has given to them. And as we
menoned above, it’s also a me to meet a future wife or husband.
We have one or two worship services for prayer and consecraon of new PMG members. We pray especially for
those who are geng married soon and for those who are going to present their candidature to the Naonal
Missions Department before the next retreat.