A letter from Karla Koll in Costa Rica
June 2014 - Annual Ministry Update
Dear Companions in Mission,
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Karla (3rd from left) with CEDEPCA students
My time of service in Guatemala with the Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America (CEDEPCA) came to an end in June of 2013. I went to Guatemala in 2000 at the invitation of the Latin American Biblical University (UBL) to strengthen the Biblical and Theological Formation program of CEDEPCA. My last semester there was the best I had there in terms of the response from students. I taught three courses, including a course on mission in which 21 students participated.
At the graduation service held shortly before I left CEDEPCA, I offered a reflection about theological education based on Mark 12: 28–31: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all of your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. . . . And you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Studying theology is one of the ways we love God, making use of the intellectual gifts God has bestowed on each one of us.
The study of theology also requires that we love ourselves. In order to study theology, students have to take themselves seriously. They need to believe that they have words to share about God. Over the 13 years I was at CEDEPCA the students came to take themselves more seriously. I think of Esmeralda, who started auditing courses out of her personal interest. One day I sat down with her and asked her if she could see herself as a Bible professor. She started taking courses for credit. Today she teaches for CEDEPCA.
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Karla (far right) and UBL students with visiting groups
As I reminded the students in the course on mission, studying theology is also about love of neighbor. The study of the local context in conversation with the study of the Bible guides us to undertake actions to share the gospel in holistic ways to improve the lives of people and communities. Students like Miguel, who came to CEDEPCA thinking that mission was limited to recruiting new members for the church, left my classes with a much broader understanding of God's work in the world and the many ways we are called to work for life in abundance for all.
I am grateful for the 13 years I served in Guatemala. Though the Costa Rican courts decided in 2012 that the UBL can no longer provide credit for courses taught at CEDEPCA, the theological training program was much stronger when I left. The organization was also stronger in other ways. I also had the opportunity to be a part of the experience of many groups from the United States who visited Guatemala to learn from their sisters and brothers.
It took my husband, Javier, and me nearly three months to dismantle our home in Quetzaltenango and move ourselves and our belongings to San Jose, Costa Rica. Though I have no doubt that it was time for me to move on to another phase of my service in mission, leaving meant saying goodbye to many friends who shared their faith journeys and their knowledge with me. From Marina de Monterroso I learned about perseverance of women within the church. As I accompanied Juana Herlinda Yac Salanic of Pachaj, Cantel, she taught me out of her deep wisdom about community organizing. Daniel Caño and Teresa Leon allowed me to glimpse how they live their faith in Jesus Christ within their Mayan spirituality.
The Latin American Biblical University received Javier and me with open arms and hearts upon our arrival in September. I began teaching my first class in October. Together with students from Chile, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica I explored the first 15 centuries of Christianity over the course of eight weeks. We focused on how Christian communities have understood the relationship between the gospel and culture, forms of women’s leadership in the churches, and the different ways the history of Christianity has been studied.
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Karla's first public lecture at the UBL
On November 13 I delivered my first public lecture on an intercultural reading of the history of world Christianity. In Christian communities throughout Latin America different historical trajectories come together to weave the contemporary experience of faith. We need a way of expressing the history of Christianity that allows churches to celebrate their diverse roots and recognize the validity of different cultural expressions. Tanya Welcome, a student from an English-speaking Methodist church on the Caribbean coast of Honduras, got very excited during the lecture as she thought about how her faith community might be able to celebrate their African ancestry in their worship life.
During the first half of 2014 I taught in a variety of formats. Students in Peru, Honduras, Curacao and Costa Rica took distant courses on the history of Christianity from me. In May I found myself in Nashville as part of the theological education program the UBL offers in Spanish to Hispanic pastors from the United Methodist Church in the United States. In June I started a course in mission at the UBL, exploring with students how we understand God to be at work in the world and the multiplicity of ways we are called to participate in God’s mission. My teaching duties also include organizing study programs for visiting groups. I am grateful for these sisters and brothers who understand that part of mission is learning from those who follow Christ in other contexts.
In October of 2013 we celebrated the 90th anniversary of the Latin American Biblical University. Thousands of women and men from all over Latin America and the Caribbean have passed through the classrooms in Costa Rica. Thousands more have participated in distance programs at both the university and Bible institute levels. As the UBL looks to offer contextualized theological education to students throughout the continent in the future, we are moving toward putting our programs online. I am very thankful to be part of this team of women and men who are committed to a liberating understanding of the gospel. We know that the gifts of sisters and brothers in other places make the service we offer possible. Thank you so much for your ongoing support.
Karla Ann Koll
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 47
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