Costa Rica

In 1995, the Honduras and Nicaragua conferences began exploring opportunities for ministry in Costa Rica. The two conferences asked Pastor Elias Guzman Guitan and his wife, Margarita, to begin a UB outreach in the capital city of San Jose. Elias, an ordained elder in Nicaragua Conference, studied in Nicaragua and in La Ceiba, Honduras, and went on to pastor a church in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Margarita was a native of Costa Rica.

In 1996, the Guzmans began ministering in the western part of San Jose to a group of people whose lives had been uprooted and impoverished. Many lived in make-shift shacks of cardboard, rough timber, and used zinc. The Guzmans received support from Honduras, Nicaragua, and UB Global Ministries in North America.

The Guzmans are no longer part of the Costa Rica work, but the ministry continues. Two churches received official recognition from the government of Costa Rica in October 2000. There are now a total of four congregations, three in the capital, San Jose, and one in the old Spanish colonial capital of Cartago. These churches minister in areas of the city where few other churches are located. The lead pastor in Costa Rica is Erik Gonzalo Rojas Ramirez. Nicaragua provides the primary oversight for Costa Rica.