Dios de Gracia Church of the Nazarene held a special service this month to welcome two volunteer missionaries from the Nehemiah Project. The volunteers, Amy Salazar and Jeimy Navarro, will work with the church to strengthen the youth ministry.

The Nehemiah Project is an initiative of the Costa Rica Central District to send local, volunteer missionaries to churches on the same district in order to build or strengthen a specific ministry for three months.

“This project is a tool to fulfill [Global Missions’] focus: find, train, and send missionaries,” said Natalia Calvo Rodriguez, the district Global Missions coordinator. “Therefore, their objective is to find young people willing to volunteer to be a part of the project through Cross-Cultural Orientation events, train them, and send them in teams to other churches belonging to the same district.”

Calvo believes the project benefits many groups.

“This is a way for young people with a call to missions to grow in their ministry by using a step-by-step approach to cross-cultural missions, while churches on the district strengthen each other through the gifts and the call that God has placed in each of them,” she said.

After the special welcome service, Amy and Jeimy met with the local team and the pastor to share and plan the relaunching of the youth ministry in their congregation, which Calvo believes will bring joy and blessing to the community.

--Church of the Nazarene Mesoamerica Region