By ICEJ staff writers

In March, Dr. Mojmir Kallus, the ICEJ’s Vice President for International Affairs, travelled to Panama for a Latin American regional conference, where he shared the ministry’s vision and how it is being implemented during the current war by emphasizing prayer, giving and solidarity with Israel. The conference was organised by local representative Yeni Moreno and her team, and was attended by Luis Solares from Guatemala, Marco Zevallos, ICEJ director for Panama and Peru, Mauricio Bolanos from Costa Rica, Valeria and Daniel Ashllian from Argentina, Cesar Folgar from Peru, Fedra Bonnels from Colombia, and Luis and Adeline Velarde, guests from the Dominican Republic.   

Most participants met face-to-face for the first time, and informal fellowship was an important feature of the meetings. They exchanged experiences, shared ideas, laughed and prayed together, and encouraged one another. Yeni Moreno was appointed as the new regional coordinator for Latin America, taking over from Claudia Fiero, who will return to the Jerusalem staff as head of our language coordinators. 

In addition to the conference for ICEJ regional leaders, a rich program of additional meetings and activities was planned. The group visited the Israeli embassy in Panama, and were invited by the Israeli Ambassador for a special screening of a new documentary about the October 7 attacks. They also visited the Shevet Achim synagogue, and met with Edwin Alvarez, pastor of Hosanna, the largest church in Central America with over 10,000 members. And, of course, they took a tour of the Panama Canal. 

It was evident that Yeni Moreno enjoys extraordinary relationships with both the Israeli embassy and the local Jewish community. The meeting at the synagogue was arranged to honour pro-Israel Evangelicals, with dozens of pastors in attendance. All Jewish speakers spoke very highly of the Christian Embassy. It was an unforgettable event, showing an extraordinary level of trust and friendship between Jews and Christians in Panama.  

Two years ago, Yeni started a project called “Flags and Friendship” in cooperation with the Jewish community. Together, they distributed over 1,000 Israeli flags to churches who pledged to pray for Israel. This project can easily be replicated in other countries in Latin America and elsewhere. 

The experience underlined an important dimension of our global ministry. We witnessed valuable local initiatives with significant impact. There is great potential for pro-Israel support in Latin America, a continent with hundreds of millions of Evangelical Christians. They could play a key role in standing with the Jewish nation in these difficult times, as we have recently seen in Argentina. Please continue to pray for the Israeli supporters to stand up in Latin America.