Costa Rica

Dr. Chris Dotson, Director

During the last week of July 2007, I made my first trip to the Republic of Costa Rica to meet with Pastor Pablo Fernandez Abarca. I initially came in contact with Pablo through missionary Shane Wilson, who had taught him at the Gwen Hendrix Hispanic Bible Institute in Inman, SC. Having completed his studies, he returned to Costa Rica to apply for a religious visa so that he could come again to the United States as a missionary to Hispanic peoples. The Lord, however, had other plans for Pablo.

When he returned he realized that his own city of Pérez Zeledón was without any fundamental, Bible-teaching church. He looked around and saw the plight of his family and schoolyard buddies: they had no gospel witness. These were his people. They spoke his language. They lived in the culture of his birth. So instead of returning to the U.S., Pablo chose to stay and plant the first Free Will Baptist church in Costa Rica.

Today, after only a few months, the twenty-six-year-old pastor is leading more than 150 people in services each week. Approximately 100 of them worship in a rented building across from the public park in the community of El Cajon. The congregation has worked hard to beautify the storefront building to make it a fitting place for worship. In addition, Pastor Fernandez has started two missions: one in downtown Pérez Zeledón and the other in Los Chiles, an outlying farming community.

In addition to his strong pulpit ministry, Pablo is a Bible teacher. Each week he conducts a four-hour Bible institute for his new converts. The course of study is an exact reduplication of the two-year program in which he trained in South Carolina. One middle-aged man commented that he had learned more about the Bible in these few months than he had in the rest of his life attending the Catholic Church.

Pastor Fernandez is making a difference. People are coming to Christ and following Him in the ordinance of water baptism. On September 22 the church held its first baptismal service in which 18 new converts participated. For more information on supporting this new work, please contact me at (423) 318-2202 or email me at pastor@peacefwbchurch.org.