Ministries at Bethania
Preschool
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The church has a community preschool for 20 years where around 60 poor children receive a free education and a free lunch Monday to Friday each week. Children are also taught English and Bible classes. The preschool also offers a program for parents of the children where they are taught Bible classes and also classes that focus on different social, emotional, and economic themes. This is coupled with teachings of crafts focused on micro-entrepreneurship.
Sewing
This is a project of 10 women from Bethania Church with the Church of the Great Commission in San Antonio. They have come together to do make different things with fabric and leather. With the sales of the products, each can help their family's economy. These women constant receive training from a professional designer. As this project grows, they integrate other women and teach them what they have learned.
Saturday Classes
About 100 students from the surrounding communities attend classes each Saturday at the church. Classes are given in English, computers, crafts, boy scouts, and spiritual lessons. The Nicaraguan economy is one of the poorest in Latin America. Many children and adolescents do not have the chance to go to university and many will be tempted to join gangs and look to drugs. In this program, they train students to seek an integral development where they recognize Christ as our sufficient Savior. They train them in a vocation so that they can have more options for a good future.
Vocations
This is a vocational program designed for teenagers and young people interested in learning a technical career. Many of these students do not have the opportunity to study formally in a school. In carpentry classes, they are trained so that they can start their own business and be able to live with dignity.
Seminary
Bethania Church offers a remote campus extension of the INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR OF MIAMI. This seminary is focused on providing Biblical and theological education to pastors and church leaders in rural areas, many of whom do not have access to formal education. In our seminary, we offer ability to receive a diploma in theological studies, a bachelor or a masters degree in theological studies. They currently have an enrollment of 30 students from different area churches.
Marriage Class
The divorce rate is high in Nicaragua, both in the church and outside of it. The Bethania Church has directed this program to new marriages of our community, both Christian and non-Christians. We offer counseling and Biblical studies in our group time, but also an informal place to socialize, eat, and form relationships.
Full Statement of Faith
God: We believe that there is only one true and living God, existing in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is co-eternal in His nature in power and in glory having the same attributes and perfections. (Genesis, 1:26; 3:22 Deuteronomy 6: 4, Matthew 6: 16,17; 28:19, John 14: 6-11, 2 Corinthians 13:14)
Father God: We believe that His fatherhood includes all of creation (Eph 3: 14-15, Hebrews 12: 9, James 1:17) and that all creatures that have physical and spiritual life owe their origin to Him.
We believe that paternity establishes a link between the person of the Father and the person of the Son, Ephesians 1: 3 describes Him as "The Father God of our Lord Jesus Christ". In this way, the New Testament reveals to us in a more compressive way that God the Father is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, indicating in this relationship unity of life, unity of character, and attributes.
We believe that God is the father of all by the right of creation, but this does not assure the salvation of all men nor does it give everyone eternal life. The Bible teaches that only those who believe in Christ for salvation are children of God in the spiritual sense. The believer is made a legitimate child of God by faith. (John 1: 12-13, Galatians 3:26, Ephesians 2:19; 3:15)
God the Son: We believe that Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man without sin. He is the only begotten son of God. (John1: 1, Hebrews 1: 8, John 5:20) We believe in the atoning and vicarious death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, the shedding of His blood, his resurrection, and His bodily ascension to the right hand of the Father. He is the only Savior of the people, of those who believe in His name. (Romans 5: 8, John 1:12, 1 Timothy 1: 15)
God the Holy Spirit: We believe in the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the one who convinces the world of sin, justice, and judgment. (John 16: 8-11)
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the one who has regenerated the believer in Christ. He has sealed and permanently inhabited the believer, baptized him in the body of Christ and guides him in all truth through the written word. (John3: 1-12, Titus 3: 5, Romans 8: 9, Ephesians 4:30, 1 Corinthians 2:13) We believe that it is a privilege and an imperative for all the redeemed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He is the one who empowers the believer for service and obedience, as well as being contrite and extinguished when disobeyed. (Ephesians 5:18, 4: 30, 1 Thessalonias 5:19)
Depravity and the fall of the human being: We believe that the human being was created in the image and likeness of God, but the fall of Adam caused the entire human race to inherit the sinful nature. This led man to distance himself from God so that man is totally depraved, and as a consequence of the fall, incurred spiritual and physical death, becoming by constitution and practice, dead in transfigurations and sins and impotent to be able to save himself. (Genesis 1: 26-27, Romans 3: 22-23, 5 : 12, Ephesians 1-3,12)
Salvation: We believe that salvation is a gift of God given to man by grace. It is received by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ through faith as personal Savior, who shed his precious blood on the cross of Calvary to forgive our sins. (Ephesians 2: 8-10, John 1: 12, Ephesians 1: 7, 1 Peter 1: 18-19) We believe that all the redeemed are saved eternally by God and those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ are condemned forever. (John 3:18, 36)
Church: We believe that the true church, which is the body of Christ, is universal, that is, it is formed by the group of believers in Christ Jesus who have been redeemed by his blood. (1 Peter 1: 18-21) We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ established for his Church the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. (Matthew 3: 16,17, Romans 6: 3-5, Acts 2: 42, 46, 1 Corinthians 11: 23-29) It is our conviction that the church is present in the world with the primary goal of persuasively proclaiming in the power of the Holy Spirit the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to every creature.