Building Partnership Through Short-Term Mission In Costa Rica

An update from Leo Parris, Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania and US Coordinator of Global Missions in SGC…

In the beginning of July, Covenant Fellowship Church sent a construction team to partner with Iglesia Biblica de Playa Azul for the fifth consecutive year. Each year, the ties between our churches strengthen, our mission is galvanized, and our awareness of God’s global heart is enhanced. More than 80 people from our church have participated in these trips over the last several years. More and more folks in my church are carrying the people and mission in Costa Rica on their hearts. These trips have given us the privilege of watching this candidate church grow from 15 people to 50, plant a church, and continue to grow. This year was a particular joy as individuals from 3 other Sovereign Grace Churches participated. This has built our local partnership in the US and brought more Sovereign Grace churches into the mission in Costa Rica.

This year, we also sent a team of Youth, Youth Leaders, and Parents to hold a Youth Camp in Playa Azul. We did this the week after the construction team. More than 30 youth from 4 SG candidate churches participated, along with several other churches. Together, we worshiped, listened to God’s Word preached, played a ton of games, and built lasting ties. Chespi Sandoval, Alvaro Poveda, Jared Torrence and I shared the pulpit together. 

Both teams had the joy of worshipping in Playa Azul and Jaco on the Sunday of the trip. The times of singing and preaching were powerful. Each church is full of new believers that are passionate and expressive in their praise. 

God is on the move in Costa Rica. In La Gracia Iglesia in San Jose and Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Cartago we already have SG churches. In Playa Azul, Jaco, and many other places we have churches nearing full status as Sovereign Grace Churches. Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Jaco is in the midst of a Bridge course right now. Many people are coming to Christ and learning the freedom and power of the gospel. And because of these trips, our church in the suburbs of Philadelphia is deeply invested in this progress of the gospel. 

Short term missions trips are expensive and require a lot of resources to plan, but there is no better way to build a global conscious into a local church than through real relationships with people in other places. 

The church in Playa Azul is praying that more churches will send teams to facilitate their mission. My hope is that there would be an increase in our churches engaging in annual trips like this one so that our global denomination increasingly functions as a family of churches reaching the nations together. Our construction trip is open to members of other Sovereign Grace Churches. Contact Leo Parris if you are interested in joining. 

Check out this video recap of our Youth Camp!