Good News from Latin America

JUAN JOSÉ BARREDA TOSCANO holds a PhD in theology with emphasis on sacred Scriptures from Instituto Universitario ISEDET, Argentina. Director of Bíblica Virtual: Comunidad de estudios contextuales. Professor of biblical hermeneutics at Universidad del Centro Educativo Latinoamericano - UCEL.

DARÍO LÓPEZ RODRÍGUEZ holds a PhD in evangelicals and human rights from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, UK. Pastor of the Church of God of Peru, Lima. Professor at the Facultad Evangélica Orlando Costas.

DINORAH B. MÉNDEZ holds a PhD in theology from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, UK. Retired professor after thirty years of teaching at the Seminario Teológico Bautista Mexicano. For the Baptist World Alliance, vice president of the Commission on Baptist Heritage & Identity (2020–2025) and member of the Commission on Theological Education.

SADRAC MEZA holds a PhD in systematic theology from Trinity International University, Illinois, USA. Professor at the Seminario ESEPA in San José, Costa Rica.

VÍCTOR MANUEL MORALES VÁSQUEZ holds a PhD in theology from the University of Liverpool, UK. Teacher of evangelical religion, philosophy, and Spanish in elementary and middle school at the Georg-Müller Schule, Bielefeld, Germany.

RUTH PADILLA DEBORST (PhD, Boston University) is a wife of one and mother of many, a theologian, missiologist, educator, and a storyteller. She has been involved in leadership development and theological education for integral mission in her native Latin America for several decades. She works with the Comunidad de Estudios Teológicos Interdisciplinarios (CETI), a learning community with Master’s and Certificate level programs. She coordinates the Networking Team of INFEMIT (The International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation) and serves on the board of Arocha. She lives in Costa Rica with her husband, James, and fellow members of the Casa Adobe intentional Christian community. Her education includes a Bachelor’s in Education (Argentina), an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Wheaton College), and a PhD in Missiology and Social Ethics from Boston University.

J. DANIEL SALINAS has a PhD in Historical Theology from Trinity International University, Illinois, USA. He has served in IFES student ministry in Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay and has been a lecturer in many other Latin American countries. Currently he is the International Partnership Coordinator for the Theological Education Initiative, a programme of United World Mission. Born in Bogota, Colombia, and raised in an evangelical home, Daniel is married to Gayna and they have three children.

MARCELO VARGAS A. was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He is director of Centro de Capacitacion Misionera, a faculty member at NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, and a teacher and director of the Centro de Capacitación Misionera in La Paz, Bolivia. He has worked extensively in churches with Aimaran indigenous believers and holds a PhD in anthropological missiology from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and University of Wales, UK.

RAFAEL ZARACHO (PhD in Theology, University of St Andrews) is a professor at Instituto Bíblico Asunción in Paraguay. He is part of the Anabaptist tradition in which knowing and following Jesus are crucial elements of the everyday life of being a disciple. His contribution to this book is part of his desire to create and promote discerning communal spaces. His invitation is to promote and create spaces for diverse and multiple models of teaching, learning, and final works. He is married to Rut and they have two children Sofía (nine) and Sebastian (four).