All articles in category Central America
By Barry Davis
January 2017
Nicaragua
Insights into Nicaragua
Our family have lived in Nicaragua for 16 years. We are involved in mission ministry through Christian education. We find this to be difficult, slow, long-term and unconventional, but far-reaching and effective. My wife is a Korean missionary; I am a British missionary; our son is a Costa Rican MK and our daughter a Welsh MK. Being a multicultural family helps in a cross-cultural ministry. But the work and its results are ultimately not ours, but all of God. We pioneered the first Christian school here in 2007 by God’s grace and power. We began with a pre-school and then added one grade each year....
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July 2013
Costa Rica
Compassion in Costa Rica
He’s split up fights with street gangs in Costa Rica, but Keith Holder says his most terrifying experience came recently in England. The missionary was awarded an MBE in 2011 for the work he and his wife Joy have done in Costa Rica for the last 20 years. Keith (63) says, ‘It was a nerve-wracking experience, meeting HM The Queen, even more so than when we were breaking up a knife fight in the shanty towns of Costa Rica. There have been other scary experiences we’ve been through too. ‘We went to Buckingham Palace to get the award and I was a bit...
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November 2011
Nicaragua
God’s miracle school
Joyce Gaudern, a retired teacher from Ripon, has visited Nicaragua three times since 2007 and has helped home-school Joshua and Esther, children of Barry and Susana Davis. Barry and Susana are British/Korean missionaries who founded Carazo Christian Academy. Joyce had the privilege of observing the school’s progress first-hand. Carazo Christian Academy (CCA) in Nicaragua, Central America, is a wonderful testimony to God’s faithfulness, power and provision! In 2005 the Lord gave Barry and Susana the vision for a bilingual school, providing high quality Christian education for Nicaraguan children, from three years old right through to college student level. The possibilities for further training are innumerable!...
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By Latin America Mission
October 2008
Costa Rica
Missionary Spotlight – Costa Rica at a glance
Costa Rica at a glance Costa Rica is a mountainous Central American nation. Nine per cent of its four million inhabitants profess to be evangelical; 85% are Roman Catholics. Most Costa Ricans are Spanish or mestizo (mixed European-Amerindian); 3% are of black African origin (largely, English-speaking descendants of 19th-century Jamaican immigrants). Spanish is the official language. Agriculture is central to the economy (coffee, bananas, sugar, cocoa), but electronics, manufacturing and tourism are expanding. High literacy rates, relatively low unemployment, and widespread land ownership have produced a relatively high standard of living for many Costa Ricans. One of the most stable democracies...
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By Bill Green
October 2008
Costa Rica
Missionary Spotlight – Coping with upheavals in Costa Rica
Coping with upheavals in Costa Rica The twentieth century witnessed two upheavals, the first being the growth of urban communities. Early in the century 14% of the world’s population lived in cities; today 50% are urbanites.1 If we bear in mind that over the same century world population has more than tripled, we begin to understand urbanisation’s global impact. Its negative manifestations are the same everywhere – inadequate housing, high unemployment, poor access to health facilities, family breakdown, and loss of identity. Fragmentation Urban centres are places of great loneliness. Many Costa Rican families once maintained close ties with parents, brothers...
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By Bill Green
October 2008
Costa Rica
Missionary Spotlight – Dispelling the image
Dispelling the image As one of very few Reformed churches in Costa Rica, our small denomination (comprised of four congregations) swims against a current set by the Roman Catholic Church and the many ‘evangelical’ churches that have sold out to ‘health and wealth’ neo-Pentecostalism. This makes for slow going, but God is good and has given us solid growth over the past years. The Reformed and Presbyterian Church of Costa Rica also has a Christian grade school and high school. The church and school were established in Tepeyac, in the northwest of San José, in 1984 and 1992 respectively. Roberto Venegas is now...
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By Manfred Koehler
September 2008
Mexico
Missionary Spotlight – Things we wish you knew
Things we wish you knew I never dreamed my missionary calling would involve wearing so many hats – preacher, carpenter, translator, mechanic, linguist, plumber, photographer, solar electrician, conference speaker, dental assistant, grave-digger, airstrip maintenance man, and rodent extermination consultant. I’ve donned them all. On top of that, Beth is a pharmacist, schoolteacher, editor, nurse and a social worker specialising in battered women. Since arriving on the mission field in Mexico, we’ve felt the scorn of many who choose evil and the suspicion of those who question our presence among them. We’ve had our home broken into. We’ve lost our only child to...
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By Wayne Anderson
February 2005
Mexico
Missionary Spotlight-Reformed literature in Mexico
I was converted around the age of 12, having grown up in a pastor’s home and known the Scriptures from a young age. When I was 15 the Lord began to deal directly with me regarding a call to preach his Word. On the recommendation of my father and pastor, I enrolled in Bible college to prepare for the Christian ministry. I graduated in 1980 and for the next nine years laboured with my father in teaching and preaching. Tragedies In the autumn of 1985 my wife Debbie and I were commissioned to go to the mission field and in June 1989 arrived in...
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June 2003
Mexico
Missionary Spotlight-Fact File
Area: 756,066 square miles. Neighbouring countries: USA, Guatemala and Belize. Environment: Mexico has high central mountains (highest peak 5,700m) and plateaus, and low coastal plains especially in the Yucatan peninsula. Its climate is hot desert in the north and tropical in the south. However, most of Mexico lacks adequate rainfall. The coasts are exposed to severe storms and the interior to volcanic and earthquake activity. Population: 104 million. Infant mortality: 24.5 per thousand live births. Life expectancy: 72 years. Capital: Mexico City (22.5 million). Major cities: Guadalajara – a mining centre (4 million), Monterrey – a heavy industry centre (3.5 million), Puebla (2 million) and...
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By Manfred Koehler
June 2003
Mexico
Missionary Spotlight-Within a bullet’s breadth of hell
Tall and gangly, Ernesto had a quick smile – especially for the ladies. His light skin was the envy of every Pima girl. Isidra, Ernesto’s wife, was the first female believer of the indigenous Pima people, and mother of his four children. She loved him dearly, but Ernesto felt he needed several women to fill his cup. More than once, Isidra found him in the company of yet another mistress. Late one night, a Mexican dance band drowning out the noise of drunken laughter and shuffling shoes, Isidra searched for her man. She had walked six miles from her ranch, suspecting the worst. She sensed...
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