Letter from Guido and Sara Mahecha in Costa Rica
May 11, 2007
San José
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Gilberto, Silvia, Marlen, Joyce and Rita in Bible and culture meeting.
Time is flying by, and we have many duties that keep us busy, such as teaching courses in San José and the extensions centers of the Latin American Biblical University (UBL) all over Latin America. We also help mission groups and participated in a local Presbyterian Church. A mission team from Clairmont Presbyterian Church of Decatur, Georgia, is coming to help in La Guacima Presbyterian Church this July.
In the next years, the UBL will be undergoing many changes. Arturo Piedra, 54 years old, a Costa Rican Presbyterian pastor and UBL professor, passed away due to cancer this year, and four professors are retiring between 2008 and 2010. The university continues to work on creating and improving contextual Biblical and theological education for the region—we have 12 centers and 8 associated institutions—but at the same time it is exploring new perspectives in the indigenous culture and in the black communities and is participating in the study of religion Biblical text.
Andrew from McKendree University with children from Los Guido Presbyterian Church. The mission team painted and repaired the meeting room and the manse.
We are planning to be in the United States (Decatur, Georgia) from September to October 2007, and we would be delighted to visit with churches and share our witness. We’d especially like to visit churches that have been supporting us so that we could express our gratitude.
We can rent a car for travel. We are happy to preach, of course, and we have a Powerpoint presentation, which includes the university, its work, Biblical studies from a Latin American perspective, and the pastoral counseling movement in Latin America. We are also ready to do a minute for mission (hopefully a little more than a minute).
We thank God for your support and the care and friendship of many of you. Some of you have made mission trips to Brazil and to Costa Rica to help the churches where we have been working, and for this too we are very grateful.
Sincerely,
Sara and Guido
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study, p. 56
