STAFF REPORT
Glasgow News 1
A Glasgow church partnership is helping young people in Costa Rica gain new skills and new hope through a recently completed Dream Center in the capital city.
River Lake Church member Seth Harper said that he is preparing for his seventh mission trip to Costa Rica, working with Iglesia de la Ciudad, or Church of the City, and its outreach organization For the City.
According to Harper, local volunteers from Glasgow and other areas joined mission teams last year to help start construction on a Dream Center facility in San José.
He said additional groups continued the work throughout the year until the center was completed.
The goal of the Dream Center, Harper explained, is to bring in children, teens and young adults from nearby neighborhoods and “give them dreams of a future” through education, counseling and faith-based support.
This year, the center hosted its first major program, a six-month computer programming class.
Harper said For the City partnered with an organization called Forward Costa Rica to offer the course.
He reported that 26 students enrolled in the programming class and all 26 have now graduated.
Many of the students come from low-income neighborhoods where families may live with dirt floors and lack basic furniture.
Harper said one young man he met on an earlier trip grew up in that kind of environment, but recently finished the programming course and has already started a paid internship doing app programming and development.
Harper also emphasized the spiritual side of the Dream Center’s work.
He said that most of the 26 students were not initially part of the church, but by the end of the class many had begun attending weekend services.
According to Harper, four of the students have now been baptized.
One of those, he said, comes from a family connected to Jehovah’s Witnesses and recently chose to be baptized and begin what Harper described as “a walk with Christ.”
Leaders from the Costa Rican ministries have also visited southcentral Kentucky.
Harper said Pastor Miguel, who leads Iglesia de la Ciudad, and Danny, who directs the Dream Center and has a psychology background, recently spent time in the Glasgow area with partners at River Lake Church.
Harper said he first traveled to Costa Rica in early 2023 on what he described as an exploratory visit to see if this was the right mission field for the church.
He said that from the first day his group felt Pastor Miguel and his team were the right partners and that subsequent trips now feel like “going home.”
Harper is currently coordinating two mission trips each year, one in the spring and one in the fall.
He said 14 people are scheduled to travel with him in about 10 days for the next visit, and that many team members who go once end up returning on future trips.
Key Facts
• Glasgow’s River Lake Church partners with Iglesia de la Ciudad in Costa Rica through recurring mission trips
• Volunteer teams helped build a Dream Center in San José last year
• The center’s first six-month programming class graduated 26 students
• Many students come from low-income neighborhoods with limited opportunities
• One graduate has already moved into a paid app development internship
• Several students have started attending church; four have been baptized
• Trip leader Seth Harper is preparing for his seventh visit and now coordinates two trips a year
