ABOUT US
We are a group of families and individuals interested in bringing transformation to our communities and nations through the truth of the Gospel.
Our Mission:
To extend the Kingdom of God among families in Costa Rica, loving them and discipling them to be a generation that fulfills the dreams of the Lord.
Our Vision:
To train and equip individuals from Latin America to bring development to their nations through the message of the Gospel.
Statement of Faith:
We believe that Jesus is the son of God. That He died for our sins and that He rose again. By grace we are saved. He called us to repent and follow Him. He has power to forgive us and give us eternal life.
We believe that He called us to have a relationship with Him, to be discipled and disciple others so we can fulfill, by His grace, the great commission of sharing the good news with every nation.
We also believe that His church should work as one body so we can witness to all nations that He came to give us life, and that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
We also believe that we need to repent and surrender our lives to Him, to surrender our minds, our souls, our whole self to Him so we can be more like Jesus and less like ourselves. We believe that He is the Potter and we are jars of clay that He can shape in His sovereignty to fulfill and perfect His plans of hope for our lives.
We believe that Jesus commanded us to share His message with all the nations and that He commanded us to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that is what we do.
Salvation:
"Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved." Rom. 10:9-10
ABOUT COSTA RICA
Costa Rica means "rich coast" in Spanish.
Costa is pronounced like "coast ah", not "cost uh".
The official name is Republic of Costa Rica or in Spanish: República de Costa Rica.
Not to be confused with the island of Puerto Rico, it is a beautiful country in Central America. It is south of Nicaragua and northwest of Panama. On our west is the Pacific Ocean and on our east is the Caribbean Sea. To the south of our Cocos Island is the country of Ecuador.
One of Costa Rica’s main sources of income is tourism.
It is a democratic and peaceful country. It has not had an army since 1949.
It is said that although our country is small, only 0.03 % of the earth's surface, it proudly shelters 5% of the existing biodiversity in the entire world. Over 25% of the country is composed of conservation and natural protected territory.
Come for a visit or a longer stay. Volunteer with us. You can make a difference!
Demographics:
According to the United Nations, in 2016 Costa Rica had an estimated population of 4,857,274 people. Together, whites and mestizos make up 94% of the population, 3% are black people, 1% Amerindians, 1% Asians, and 1% other. The population density is 94 people per square km, the third highest in Central America. Approximately 40% lived in rural areas and 60% in urban areas. (Source: Wikipedia.org)
Religion:
Christianity is Costa Rica's predominant religion, with Roman Catholicism being the official state religion according to the 1949 Constitution, which at the same time guarantees freedom of religion.
70.5% are Roman Catholics (44.9% practicing Catholics)
13.8% are evangelical Protestants
11.3% report that they do not have a religion
4.3% belong to another religion.
The rate of secularism is high by Latin American standards.
Due to immigration from Asia and the Middle East, other religions have grown. The most popular is Buddhism, with about 100,000 practitioners (over 2% of the population). Most Buddhists are members of the Han Chinese community of about 40,000 followed by new local converts. There are also smaller numbers of Hindu, Jewish,Baha'i, and Muslim adherents.
(Source: the most recent nationwide survey of religion, conducted in 2007 by the University of Costa Rica)
Language:
The primary language is Costa Rican Spanish.
Some native languages are still spoken in indigenous reservations. The most numerically important are the Bribri, Maléku, Cabécar and Ngäbere languages, some of which have several thousand speakers in Costa Rica – others a few hundred. Some languages, such as Teribe andBoruca, have fewer than a thousand speakers.
A Creole-English language, Jamaican patois (also known as Mekatelyu), is spoken along the Caribbean coast.
About 10.7% of Costa Rica's adults also speak English, 0.7% French, and 0.3% Portuguese or German as a second language.
Education:
The literacy rate in Costa Rica is 96.3%, one of the highest in Latin America. When the army was abolished in 1949, it was said that the army would be replaced with an "army of teachers". Universal public education is guaranteed in the constitution; primary education is obligatory, and both preschool and high school are free. There are only a few schools in Costa Rica that go beyond the 12th grade. Students who finish 11th grade receive a Costa Rican Bachillerato Diploma accredited by the Costa Rican Ministry of Education.
There are both state and private universities, with the public universities being regarded as the best in the country. The University of Costa Rica has been awarded the title "Meritorious Institution of Costa Rican Education and Culture". In recent years, many private universities and colleges have consolidated because demand for higher education exceeds places available in the public sector.
Come join us!
Costa Rica is waiting for you!