My name is Evelin Vermont and I am from Honduras currently serving in YWAM in San Jose Costa Rica. And during the last couple of years, the Lord has put a big desire in my heart and a big dream to mobilize Central Americans to specifically to Southeast Asia but even more to the unreached parts of the world. And to be able to go to the places where few are willing to go and where even we have kind of like a foot in the door because of some similarities with skin color or hair or just things that are really funny that we didn’t even realize until we’ve been sending people recently. But anyway when I was younger I remember being at my church in Honduras and we would receive several teams from the United States and they were missionaries. And in my mind I always thought, you know a missionary is either someone from the States or Canada or even Europe who have the resources to go to other parts of the world. People in Central America, we can serve our own people maybe, and be the church but this whole missions thing is probably not for us.
the Lord has put a big desire in my heart and a big dream to mobilize Central Americans to specifically to Southeast Asia but even more to the unreached parts of the world.
Evelin Vermont
And so I lived most of my life with this kind of like this longing, this desire, to go into missions but not really thinking that I could because of where I was from. And until one day I got the opportunity to go to Costa Rica and actually partner with a YWAM team there and realized that most of the people there were from Central America they were from Costa Rica. And they told me “We are missionaries and we have a hard to mobilize Central Americans”. And I was mind blown I got that that concept had never been in my mind. I could never have thought of that by myself but I realized wow, the Lord really has called all people to go to all peoples, and whenever we read in Acts 1:8 of going to even “the ends of the earth”, that is for the church still today not just for parts of it. Right? And so that was just mind-blowing to me and then, so I joined YWAM I did my DTS and decided to stay.
I realized wow, the Lord really has called all people to go to all peoples, and whenever we read in Acts 1:8 of going to even “the ends of the earth”, that is for the church still today not just for parts of it. Right?
Evelin Vermont
And through that the Lord has just been really kind in connecting me to people who have hearts for mobilizing, for training people in different places, and then taking them to other places and it kind of clicked in my mind and my heart that the passion that the Lord had given me to love Central America and the Central American church and to share the gospel in Southeast Asia that these were not two separate things but rather that the Lord wanted to basically use a bridge of bringing Central Americans to Southeast Asia and being able to impact the nations here. And in fact this year we were blessed at our base to have a DTS where we’re able to mobilize including myself that would have been eight Central Americans to different parts of the unreached world. And it’s been exciting and it’s been a dream come true to see that. And obviously, we’re standing on shoulders of those who have gone before us but it’s really exciting to see how the Lord is providing for us because financially I know that we are in a tough situation. We don’t earn that much. Several of our countries are still in political crises and leadership crises but the Lord has been the one who has called us and he’s the one who provides for us. And so I know that it’s still challenging and every year when outreach comes around there’s still a little bit of a question in my heart of Lord I don’t know how you’re gonna do it but I trust that you will. And so as a Central American I feel that tension I feel that tug in my heart of being a little bit scared but also knowing that he is my provider and that he is the one who is going to provide.
And one of the things that’s been just really awesome about being in this part of the world is that there are many cultural things that are similar between the Latino culture and even the Southeast Asian culture.
Evelin Vermont
And one of the things that’s been just really awesome about being in this part of the world is that there are many cultural things that are similar between the Latino culture and even the Southeast Asian culture. We both cultures tend to be a lot around family, about around community, and not so much around the individual. And so we’re able to connect on that regard and it’s some of the things that don’t bother us as much because it’s like oh yeah I understand that. I like that. Oh, you still live with your parents. I did too, like that makes so much more sense. And our cultural backgrounds and even, for example, it’s been interesting to see in the animistic background here in Southeast Asia and thinking about many of the practices back home and how people still believe in spirits in the spiritual world. In my country, they do too. And here they do as well. And so being able to relate about how God is greater than those spirits because I’ve seen that in my own culture has been really awesome as well. So it’s been cool to see some of those areas in even, for example, sending teams to the Middle East where people look very similar. And between hair or beards or noses or color of the skin we don’t stick out and because of that we have kind of like a foot in the door to be able to enter their culture a little bit easier and to have invitations to their houses without them being threatened or even being able to blend in in the market or in different areas. It’s been it’s been really fun to see those things that are similar and to see how the Lord can use Central America to impact the other part at the other end of the world.
And so I’m really excited to see how the Lord is going to continue using Central Americans as their desire to go to the unreached continues to grow. And as we continue to be faithful and as we continue to believe in what the Lord is doing in Central America and as the leadership comes together even and we start partnering with each other and sending teams to the unreached so that they can know him.
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