Have you met my friends, Wil & Yolanda Bailey with Costa Rica Mission Projects?
Wil Bailey is a North Carolina Conference Missionary. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Duke University Divinity School in May of 2003 and has been commissioned as a United Methodist Volunteers in Mission Individual Volunteer. His wife, Yolanda, is an active, life-long member of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Costa Rica.
Wil went to Costa Rica for the first time when he was 15 years old with a United Methodist Volunteers in Missions youth work team. He went back every chance he got, and by the time he moved to Costa Rica in 2003, he had been 14 times. The majority of those trips were mission work teams. Wil says, "I have known since that first trip that doing mission work in Central America would always be a part of my life." Wil has also been on work teams to Honduras and Belize and spent the Summer of 2001 working with the Methodist Church of Southern Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Wil spent the Summer of 2002 back in Costa Rica living with a pastor and his family in San Isidro. It was over the course of those three-and-a-half months that God showed Wil that there was a ministry for him in Costa Rica. The week before he left to come back to the States to finish seminary, Wil met with Bishop Fernando Palomo in San Jose, and the Bishop invited him to come to work full-time as a part of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Costa Rica.
In March of 2014 Wil and Yolanda were overjoyed to welcome the newest member of the Costa Rica Mission Projects family, Isabella Caroline Bailey Ulloa.
Wil and Yolanda believe that when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, he taught us, in dramatic fashion, that if we claim to be His followers, we must be servants to one another. Christian service comes in many forms and they believe that they have been called to provide opportunities for churches in Costa Rica and churches from other countries to serve one another and explore what it means for us to be part of a body that extends far beyond the walls of our own individual churches. Their hope is that they might be able to help foster long lasting, fruitful relationships between the congregations who participate in this ministry. It is very important to them that they avoid establishing or reinforcing already existing relationships of dependency, but rather, that the churches involved will discover the benefits of interaction with one another. They understand the communion that takes place across borders, cultures and languages as a glimpse of God's Kingdom and as a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit among us.
Wil and Yolanda (and Isabella) are looking forward to seeing how, with your help and participation, this ministry and the Kingdom of God will continue to grow.
