The city
Heredia is one of the three provincial capitals within an hour distance from San José, the national capital of Costa Rica. Heredia is only 10 minutes to the North from this national capital. There are mountains to the North of the city. The Barva and the Poás volcanoes are part of that mountain range, but they are non-active volcanoes. The international airport is only 15 minutes away. There are malls, supermarkets, hotels, clinics, schools, etc. Universidad Nacional, the second largest public university is headquartered in Heredia, and there are at least four private colleges. One modern hospital is in place. This hospital belongs to the Social Security System, and it is said to serve a population of 600,000. Heredia has all the services a modern city is expected to provide. Heredia is growing rapidly due to the burgeoning Call Center industry. There are hundreds of Call Centers. Important transnational companies have manufacturing operations in Heredia.
The population
There are easily five hundred thousand inhabitants within a mile radius. People are mostly Catholic. Most of us in the church of the Lord were formerly Catholic, very few were Protestant, although Protestant denominations are becoming larger. Most people I know would be willing to accept Bible studies. Once they accept a Bible study the Lord does the work through His Word. There is a small conservative high class, a sizable and highly educated middle class, and a large thriving low class.
The local church
The local church has more than one hundred members. Total attendance is between 110 and 120, and growing. There are several good men who seem to be candidates for eldership. There are at least ten who could become deacons. There are more than ten young men who are very committed. Close to fifteen women are very committed and very well organized, meeting every Thursday morning. The Youth Group meets every Saturday afternoon and attracts up to 30 young members. They are also well organized, and they function autonomously, with oversight from the leadership. The church owns its own facility. It has an auditorium for 120. There is potential for moving to a larger location
I devote a lot of my energies to working with families. It is rewarding to see them sharing and growing in their understanding of the Scriptures, and making practical applications of Bible principles to their lives.
The plan
I am still in the process of finishing the planting of the church that Freddy Astorga (RIP) started in 1996 (see History of the Heredia Church of Christ). In other words, elders and deacons still need to be appointed, and be helped to grow to the point of being able to have their own preacher to work fulltime with total support from the local church. I don’t know when this process will be completed, but, as of July 2014, we are in the stage of preparing the church with teaching about biblical leadership.
I am already planting a new church in San Rafael, a nearby town, with seed members from the Heredia church. This church began meeting in July 2013. There are 16 members in this church that meets every Sunday at 6 p.m. There are many more towns around the city of Heredia, towns such as San Pablo, Santo Domingo, San Antonio, and San Joaquín, within a 3 miles radius have been targeted for later years. There are no churches in these towns.The church in Heredia is already involved in the planting of the new churches around. Their involvement includes praying for the new work, and sending workers to help on a rotating basis. There are members with enough training and maturity to help with the planting of new more churches.
Once the members of the newly planted church become mature and established in the faith, there will be candidates for elders and deacons. I am already working simultaneously for two congregations.
I plan to keep my membership in Heredia and use this congregation as the platform from where the new works will be started. If needed, I may move my membership to one of the new works.
Rationale behind plan
The above description of plan stems from my experience as a missionary for 6 years in Honduras and after full time and part time involvement for 17 years in the Hatillo, San José church. I actually went through this process in Hatillo, and was able to train many of the men who started new churches all over Costa Rica. In other words, it works!
This approach is natural. It does not require raising funds in the States for new preachers or for church buildings. It does not require preachers to be trained at Bible institutes, although hiring a graduate from a Preacher Training School is a possibility. It is totally indigenous, in other words, the churches are planted in such a way that they soon become self-sufficient in three important areas: organization, finances and evangelization (they will be self-governing, self-sufficient, and self-propagating). The churches will be taught from the very beginning to be responsible for such endeavors. There will not be precedent of dependence on US funds. This dependence is what has kept many churches in Latin America from becoming self-sufficient (see Our Philosophy of Missions at: http://carlosulatecostarica.blogspot.com/p/our-phylosophy-of-missions.html)
