THE ARISTA FAMILY

Greetings! I'm Pastor Christopher and this is my wife Rachel. God has blessed us with 4 children born here in Costa Rica: Jaime, Jesse, Luna, and Rosy. Together, we are the Arista Family — Reaching The Hungry's missionary partner in San Isidro, Costa Rica.

 

I was born in Los Angeles, California, and moved to Tijuana, Mexico when my parents were called there as missionaries. I grew up in church, on the mission field, and have been involved in full-time ministry in some capacity since I was 12 years old. I even met Pastor Carlos & Lisa as a kid growing up in Mexico. Rachel grew up in Whittier, California, and moved to Mexico when she was 18 to serve at an orphanage and later assist in planting two churches: Calvary Chapel Las Palmas in Tecate, and Calvary Chapel Acapulco in Guerrero.

 

God led both of us to Calvary Chapel Bible College Mexico at the same time where we met and married shortly after graduating. God soon called us both to Costa Rica in 2015 to direct Calvary Chapel Bible College Costa Rica and then called me to pastor Palabra Viva Church in 2017. Rachel & I have a heart for church planting, a passion for seeing people grow in the Lord, and a love for the people of Costa Rica.

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MISSION STATEMENT

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Our mission is to establish gospel-centered churches across Costa Rica, Central America, and then all of Latin America by training people to serve God and the world as pastors, church planters, and missionaries.

 

OUR MINISTRIES

 

Palabra Viva Church: This is our main ministry and the focus is equipping the saints for the work of the ministry through discipleship. Besides our weekend services, we have Men's, Women’s, and Children's Ministries to disciple the believers in a more intimate group like Jesus did with His disciples.

 

Life Groups: We have weekly home fellowships all throughout our city that gather to study and discuss the Word of God. This ministry has grown beyond our church and now includes many people that don’t attend our church turning this into a form of discipleship evangelism. Each person is committed to watching our weekend service online (if they don’t attend in person) and then gathering during the week to discuss the prepared group questions after sharing a meal together.

 

Bible Institute: Since sound doctrine is so scarce in Central America, we are committed to providing biblical education for all who want to grow in their knowledge of the Word of God.

 

Church Planting School: Rachel and I have always known that God has called us to plant churches, so we started a church planting school to equip those called to be pastors for the work of church planting. We have a group of men studying in this school who feel the Lord leading them to plant a church. God has placed on our hearts to plant 10 churches in 10 years! We believe in Spiritual Multiplication; that Believers should produce Believers, Disciples should produce Disciples, and Churches should produce Churches.

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• Our Weekend Services produce Learners

• Our Life Groups produce Disciples

• Our Bible Institute produces Leaders

• Our Church Planting School produces Pastors