What Happened in Costa Rica?

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of churches to our Executive Director. Hey, Mark, how are you doing?

Mark Prater:

I'm doing great, Ben, how about you?

Benjamin Kreps:

Doing great. Speaking of our global family of churches, you were in Costa Rica last week, I believe. What were you doing there?

Mark Prater:

I was invited by Joselo Mercado. If you guys don't know Joselo, he is the Lead Pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana of Gaithersburg, Maryland, a Spanish speaking church in Sovereign Grace. And Joselo invited me to this conference that was attended by about 400 people--pastors and members of churches.

Benjamin Kreps:

So how did you guys get connected? How did Joselo get connected to Costa Rica and 400 pastors at a conference?

Mark Prater:

Well, last year he spoke at Miguel Nunez's conference in the Dominican Republic. And one of the guys from Costa Rica, one of the pastors (we call him Chespi) Chespi was there and got to know Joselo. They began a relationship where they just kept in touch with one another. And what Chespi has done is he's gathered a group of about five to ten pastors in Costa Rica. And the purpose of them coming together is they want to help each other remain faithful to the genuine gospel in a culture and in a country where the prosperity gospel is very pervasive.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's all too common, it seems like. So what were you doing at the conference?

Mark Prater:

Not much. No, seriously, Joselo spoke four times and participated on panels and I spoke twice and participated on two or three panels. And what Joselo did is he just mapped out gospel-centered preaching topics. So Joselo taught on, for example, the gospel and the word of God, the functional centrality of the gospel, the gospel and the family. I spoke on the gospel and the favor of God and the gospel and dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. And what was the response like?

Mark Prater:

The response was so encouraging. There was a man who'd traveled ten hours--he took a ten hour bus ride from Nicaragua to come to the conference--because he wanted to hear gospel-centered, expository preaching. Many of the folks there just said, we've not heard preaching this before. And I think we get used to it in Sovereign Grace because that's what we've been doing for so long now, and forgetting there are people living in other nations who haven't experienced that kind of preaching before. So it was overwhelmingly encouraging. People were just saying, we're so glad you remain faithful to the word of God and the gospel in particular. And I think it just strengthened people's faith.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's excellent. So what does the future hold for Sovereign Grace and our connection with Costa Rica?

Mark Prater:

I think we're still trying to figure that out. There are a couple of churches there. One of them is Chespi's church, who want to explore a partnership with Sovereign Grace (being adopted into Sovereign Grace). We already have a Sovereign Grace church in Costa Rica. Allan Mongei leads Grazia Soberana in Cartago, Costa Rica, which I think is about an hour east (45 minutes to an hour east) of San Jose. And he was at the conference. He bought about twenty of his leaders with him. I had a chance to get some time with him and his wife and then him and his leaders. So they were encouraged. So we could go from one church to a few churches in Costa Rica in the coming years.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wow, that's wonderful. Maybe a Costa Rica region at some point.

Mark Prater:

That'd be great. I'm all for that.

Benjamin Kreps:

Joselo seems to be doing a lot in Latin America and places like that.

Mark Prater:

He's doing a great job. He has a growing influence through not only his preaching, but through the books he's written, his book on marriage. He was telling me it just sold out its first print. And then he's a regular contributor to the Gospel Coalition's Spanish blog. And so there's influence that way as well. So he's a gift to our family of churches.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. Well, thanks for the update. And we'll keep praying that God will give us that influence for the sake of Jesus and his gospel increasingly throughout the world. So thanks for the role you play and for bringing leadership into this area, Mark.

Mark Prater:

Oh, you're welcome, Ben.

Benjamin Kreps:

All right. Talk to you soon. And thanks for watching this podcast. We'll be back soon. Right here. See ya.