VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 11/5/18)—Ruth Vindas of Santo Tomás, Costa Rica, has been appointed to serve as an International Ministries (IM) associate missionary in San José, Costa Rica. Vindas currently serves on the faculty of IM partner the Latin American Biblical University (UBL), a seminary founded in 1923 that prepares pastors and leaders to serve in churches throughout Latin America.
As an IM associate missionary, Vindas will continue on the faculty as an instructor in the Christian education department, director of Ediciones Lumbrera (the university’s publications department) and campus pastor for the students.
Vindas will be replacing current IM missionary Ruth Mooney at the UBL where Mooney now serves in the roles that Vindas will be taking on. The two Ruths have a long history of working together in Ediciones Lumbrera, writing Sunday school materials and training teachers together for years before Vindas moved into the pastorate. Mooney wholeheartedly affirms and supports Vindas in her new role.
Vindas is delighted for the opportunity to join IM and expand her role with the seminary. “I am especially excited to be able to offer pastoral care to the students and to teach Christian Education from various perspectives,” she said. “I feel called to this ministry because of my own experiences in life. I have always felt the need to share with others what I have learned.”
“The synergy between our global servant Ruth Mooney and a national of Costa Rica, Ruth Vindas, is significant,” said the Rev. Dr. Rodney Ragwan, IM director of Mission Mobilization.
“We see here IM’s unique mission model of building relationships of mutual giving and receiving at its best. We are honored and pleased to appoint this talented Costa Rican to serve as an international associate missionary from Latin America in Latin America, to train the next generation of ministry leaders with her experience from her own context.”
Vindas is an ordained member of the Federación de Asociaciones Bautistas de Costa Rica. Her home church is Iglesia Bautista de Santo Tomás in Heredia, Costa Rica.
Associate missionary is one of IM’s several categories of mission appointment. Associate missionaries can be individuals or couples primarily serving through and employed by a cooperating mission agency, organization or international partner, and partially supported by an IM-related Mission Partnership Network. As an IM associate missionary, Vindas is employed by UBL and also supported by IM.
American Baptist churches may make gifts for Ruth Vindas’s ministry through their regional office, and individuals may contribute through their churches; by mail, using IM’s new address: 1003 W 9th Ave, Ste A, King of Prussia, PA 19046; or online through IM’s secure donation form.
More information about Ruth Vindas is available on her profile page on the IM website. Use her contact form to send words of encouragement or support.
International Ministries, also known as the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, works cross-culturally to invite people to become disciples of Jesus Christ and to proclaim, through both word and deed, God’s reign of justice, peace and abundant life for all creation.
American Baptist Churches USA is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with approximately 5,000 congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.