Costa Rica For Christ
JoshuaOne has been ministering in Costa Rica since 2008. We encourage, train, and assist about 10 pastors and their churches in Costa Rica: in San Miguel, San José, Leon XIII, Santa Elena, San Isidro de General, Quemado de Cajón, Turrialba, and several churches on the Chirripó indigenous reserve.
What does it even mean for a person to identify as a Christian, but to have little actual knowledge of what the Christian faith believers?
These are the Biblical truths every Christian should know, understand, and apply to one’s personal life in order to be a growing, fruitful believer and to experience the many great blessings that come from being a disciple of Christ.
Yet, sadly, many modern Christians have not learned even the most basic teachings of our Christian faith. Many modern Christians and church-goers are Biblically and doctrinally illiterate.
Jovanny & Leticia Baez
We send monthly financial support to Jovanny & Leticia Baez. Jovanny, a Dominican native, has been ministering as an evangelist and missionary in Costa Rica for more than 20 years. Since 2019, Jovanny has been our CR4C Senior Evangelist. Jovanny & Leticia lead the church in San Miguel de Desamparados.
Jovanny visits the churches we work with in CR throughout the year, and he leads a quarterly pastors retreat for the churches’ pastors. Jovanny & Leticia also do the groundwork to prepare for our annual mission team visits.
Discipleship University in Costa Rica
When we first began ministering in Costa Rica, we asked the pastors how we can best assist and encourage them. Their No. 1 answer: training!
Most of our CR pastors have no formal training. They want to know the Bible better. They want to be sure their preaching is doctrinally sound. To meet that need, Terry Hull has been teaching one or two Discipleship University classes in CR each year on the essential doctrines of the Christian faith.
Terry translates the written materials into Spanish himself and hires a translator to assist him presenting the classes.
DU classes are a half-day in the U.S., but in CR, using a translator and including a lunch break, classes are a full day long. From 100 to 150 people have attended each class
Church Conventions: ‘Family Reunion’
Once or twice a year we bring all of the pastors, church leaders, and members to San José for a day of preaching, fellowship, and worship. We call these gatherings “Reunión Familiar” (“Family Reunion”).
The CR churches do not have the abundance of Christian events and resources we take for granted in the U.S. So the Costa Rican believers love these annual gatherings. JoshuaOne covers all the expenses: bus rentals from all directions to transport church members, facility rental, tech, food, etc.
Pastors Retreats
In 2021, unable to have a large gathering due to the pandemic, Terry & Norma Hull hosted a Pastors-Pastors Wives Retreat with 10 church leaders. The pastors loved it and decided to start having retreats quarterly, rotating among the participating churches. JoshuaOne sends funds to help with transportation and refreshments for each retreat.
Short-term Mission Trips
Beginning in 2008, JoshuaOne has made 20 missions trips to Costa Rica. Our teams have ranged in size from 4 to 39(!) people.
The most important benefit of these mission trips may be the life-changing impact they have on our team members and their churches.
We have taken more than 100 North Americans along with us. Actually, almost half of our U.S. team members have traveled to CR with us two or more times.
These mission trips give North American believers a rare opportunity to visit another culture, make genuine friendships with believers of another country, and help people who are less fortunate. Terry & Norma Hull and many of our team members have come to know our fellow believers in CR on a first-name basis.
Many of our U.S. team members describe their experiences with us in CR as life-changing.
Our teams carry our many projects on these mission trips:
➯ Construction: We have built church buildings, galeróns (outdoor worship pavilions), classrooms, restrooms, church remodels and repairs, etc. JoshuaOne pays for the materials and equipment. Our team members work alongside CR volunteers to get the job done.
➯ Medical clinics: We have conducted many medical clinics in low-income areas all over Costa Rica. We hold each clinic in partnership with a local CR church, giving that church an outreach to their community. Some people have told us they had never seen a doctor before in their lives.
➯ Children’s evangelism: On every mission trip we look for ways to reach children with the gospel.
Sometimes we offer classes. Once we held a day-long kids camp. Often it is simply playing games, doing crafts, and reading Bible stories with the kids.
➯ Gifts, assistance to pastors, churches, believers: We have provided many of the CR pastors and church leaders study Bibles, computer tablets, books, and other kinds of pastoral resources.
We have given churches thousands of gospel tracts (in partnership with our sister ministry, Spanish American Evangelistic Ministries) to use in their neighborhood outreach.
At our annual conventions, we give church members books, reading glasses, bracelets (handmade by U.S. volunteers), Christians T-shirts, etc.