A little History about the Costa Rica Initiative

By: Jack Marker

In 2005 FUMC had a team of older youth and adults participate in the first international mission trip for youth. On that team our host in San Isidro, Costa Rica was a young American missionary. His name was, and still is, Wil Bailey.

He was a very personable person. He visited with Richard Hunt and me about a dream he had. That dream was to take a team of Costa Ricans to the U.S. He explained that for many years the people of Costa Rica, and his group of people in San Isidro in particular had received the benefit of numerous American mission teams. Teams had built pastors’ homes, summer camps, school buildings, etc. Wil wanted to return the love by taking a group of Costa Ricans to the U.S. He, Richard and I discussed some logistics and said we would begin to see what it would take to bring a group to America.

And what do you know. Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. in 2005. In February 2006, Wil and I talked about the next team from FUMC going to Costa Rica. Wil exclaimed that now the opportunity was looking us in the face to bring Costa Ricans to the U.S. – Katrina Recovery and Repair.

On the 2006 trip Richard and Susan Hunt, Wil and I began to make plans.

Now we fast forward to February of this year. FUMC collectively supported the effort of the Costa Rica Initiative. It would be the first time, which we knew of, that a Missouri UMC would sponsor, support and join a mission team from another country for a joint mission project in the U.S.

Wil couldn’t have been more pleased. His dream was coming true.

And here we are on a joint mission project that FUMC can be proud of. Each member of the Costa Rica team is immensely thankful to FUMC for this opportunity that would probable never had happened. One Costa Rica team member cried when she addressed our team last night because she was so appreciative of FUMC’s effort, support and love for another team of missionaries.

And it doesn’t get any better than that!

We have been having trouble loading pictures to our church’s photo album but we will continue trying as much as we can.—Christine