Servant Spotlight: Mateo Beltran

BUA grad, Logsdon Seminary student and 

Student.Go missionary receives the 

Mary Ellen Long Scholarship.

Mateo was born in Cali, Columbia and came to the US to enroll at the Baptist University of the Americas (BUA). He graduated from BUA in 2018 with a dual major in music and theology. The practical side of his ministry training occurred, in part, at Baptist Temple, where he has served in with children, youth, community ministries and more. During summer breaks, Mateo would serve at different churches across Texas to gain a broader understanding of how churches understand and carry out their missions.

He keeps returning to Baptist Temple because of the creative ways we fund and carry out our ministry to the community. He sees a genuine love for both our neighbor and the members of the church. “I was made to feel welcome,” he says.

This atmosphere of welcome is reflected in the diversity of Baptist Temple's campus community. A diversity reflected not only in terms of race and ethnicity but, also, in economic, social and age as well.

The student body of BUA is around 50% international with students from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe. This multicultural mix has served Mateo well in his work at Baptist Temple.

This year, Mateo has returned as a Student.Go missionary; a missions program of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) that provides opportunities for students to serve with our field personnel and ministry partners as they live out CBF Global Missions commitments—cultivating beloved community, bearing witness to Jesus Christ and seeking transformational development.

Mateo is currently enrolled in the Master of Divinity program at Logsdon Seminary in San Antonio, where he leads music during chapel and is this year's recipient of the Mary Ellen Long Scholarship. Mateo seeks to apply his training by ministering to communities of need. At BUA he learned about Business as Mission (BAM) and began to develop a concept for supporting himself through bivocational ministry. In this way he will not be limited to serving only those churches that can afford to pay him. 

 

UPDATE 2/25/21 - Mateo will be licensed this Sunday and will join the BT staff as Minister of Outreach