(1) What country has the largest pool in the world?

(2) What country has the highest city in the world?

(3) What subcontinent is home to at least 3,000 miles of the Pan-American Highway?

(4) What country, when viewed from the air, resembles a crocodile or alligator and therefore is often referred to in Spanish as “El Cocodrilo” or “El Caimá”?

(5) Cotahuasi Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world (deeper than the Grand Canyon) is in what country?

(6) Torogoz is the national bird of which country?

(7) What country is bordered by 10 other countries?

(8) When did a church group in South America become an official RPCNA mission work?

(9) What is RPM&M?

(10) What is CASA, and how can you support it?

How did you do? You can check your answers by reading this article about the RPCNA’s Central and South America Committee (CASA). Look for the superscript question numbers placed throughout the article.

CASA Background

In 2014, the RPCNA established the Central and South America Committee. The committee was formed to:

• Investigate new opportunities to serve our brethren in Central and South America;

• Encourage interchurch relations where that is wise;

• Invite representatives from developing relationships with Central and South American churches to observe our meetings (and attend theirs when invited);

• Provide instruction where we can be of help to our Central and South American brethren, by way of conferences and other types of training.

How CASA Is Supported

The work of CASA is supported primarily through funds given to the Reformed Presbyterian Missions and Ministry⁹ (RPM&M) fund. RPM&M funds are managed by the RPCNA Trustees of Synod.

The Work of CASA

Over the past six years, the CASA Committee has had contacts with brethren in the following Central³ and South American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, and Venezuela. (Though Mexico is technically a North American country, it is often thought of as a Central American country. The isthmus that connects North America to South America begins at Tehuantepec, Mexico. Therefore, a small portion of Mexico is also in Central America.)

Now, get out your map, gather the family around, and we will take a virtual tour of the CASA Committee mission labors and journeys, starting with Mexico, El Salvador, and Cuba. Don’t forget to look for the question numbers!

Mexico/El Salvador⁶: In the recent past, CASA Committee member Edgar Ibarra (a licentiate at the time) preached in Spanish for worship services via the internet for a family in Mexico and for saints in El Salvador. Edgar was licensed to receive a call in June 2020 as an RPCNA minister. Deacon Drew McKelvy, of Trinity (Burtonsville, Md.) RPC, precented the psalms in Spanish for these online worship services.

Cuba⁴: Over the past several years, the CASA Committee has been in communication with believers in Cuba who have an interest in the Reformed faith. A more recent contact with a pastor in Cuba who desires to start a mission church was encouraging. However, because of the ongoing uncertain political relationship between Cuba and the United States, the CASA Committee’s efforts to visit in person have had to be indefinitely postponed. Please pray for these believers in Cuba who have shown interest in the Reformed faith.

Peru⁵: A few years ago, the CASA Committee made a contact with a pastor in Peru who is interested in getting to know the RPCNA.

Brazil⁷: The CASA Committee is in communication with brethren in Brazil who yearn for a “more solidly Reformed denomination in their land.” The committee is looking at plans to visit the brethren in Brazil to determine how to move forward.

Bolivia²: Three ministers in Bolivia who came to believe the doctrines and distinctives of the Reformed Presbyterian Church recently formed a presbytery. In 2017, CASA Committee members traveled to Bolivia to La Paz, El Alto—the highest city of the world (13,615 feet above sea level)—to give lectures, preach, and offer counsel regarding moving forward in the presbytery. The CASA Committee members also participated in the radio broadcasting of the gospel, the Reformed faith, and in fielding questions from callers.

In 2018, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation was celebrated with our brethren in Bolivia through a conference conducted by three members of the CASA Committee. Later that year, RPM&M funds allocated to CASA were used to fund travel to the U.S. for two pastors of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Bolivia so they could attend and participate in the RPCNA Synod. In 2019, the CASA Committee continued developing relationships with the Bolivian believers, providing encouragement to church leadership. Delegates from the RPC of Bolivia were sent to the 2019 Synod, and the CASA Committee continues to provide counsel and encouragement to the church leadership.

We are thankful for the opportunity to minister to our brethren in Bolivia who have often been under the threat of losing religious freedom. Most recently, Evo Morales (president from 2006–2019) ordered all churches, no matter the denomination, to install witch doctors (women witches) in their congregations. Morales also attempted to prohibit open-air preaching and evangelism. Fervent prayer from a multitude of saints both in Latin America and in the United States, including the RPCNA, were graciously heard and answered by our Lord. The edicts were retracted, and the president left the country after being denied an unconstitutional fourth term.

Chile¹: In 2013, Rev. Jerry O’Neill (then president of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary) and Pastor David Reese spoke at a conference in Chile, with Edgar Ibarra translating. At this conference, these CASA members met Pastor Marcelo Sanchez. Pastor Sanchez, who had been a member of a Presbyterian church all his life, was a pastor in the National Presbyterian Church of Chile. Through the material presented at the 2013 conference, and through his own prayer and study, Pastor Sanchez became convinced of Reformed doctrine and RPCNA distinctives. Soon, Pastor Sanchez initiated contact with the CASA Committee.

The committee gladly responded to Pastor Sanchez, and a blessed relationship between Pastor Sanchez and the CASA Committee grew over the years. In 2017, Pastor Sanchez met with the Presbytery of the Alleghenies Credentials Committee. He was examined, sustained, and received as a gospel minister of the RPCNA. This brother in Christ then became a blessing to the RPCNA by serving on the CASA Committee. As a member of the committee, and out of great love for the gospel, Pastor Sanchez faithfully serves the Lord in Chile through church planting, currently ministering to a church group in Batuco, and through laboring in translation work, including translating the RPCNA Testimony into Spanish. In 2017, Pastor Sanchez also joined other CASA Committee members who traveled to Bolivia to speak at the conference commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Sanchez is also the pastor of the Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada in Santiago, Chile. Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada became an official RPCNA mission work on Feb. 22, 2020⁸, through the assistance of RPCNA pastor and CASA Committee member Mark England. On that same day, Pastor Sanchez was formally installed as the pastor of the Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada, and examination for membership was done by the CASA Committee members in person and online. Membership vows were taken by several families as well as by singles. The next day—Sunday, Feb. 23—the newly formed mission church was blessed by witnessing their first infant baptism and by participating in the Lord’s supper. You can view a video of this blessed day on the Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada en Chile Facebook page.

The brethren in both the Batuco and the Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada congregations have been learning and singing the Psalms in worship. They are thankful for the metered psalms set to Genevan tunes. Pastor Sanchez says that the congregations are “happy for the benefit” of psalm singing in worship.

Carlos, a young man who is a member of Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada, has a strong call to be a minister. Carlos greatly desires to attend the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in the U.S. For now, he is planning on taking online classes until he can afford to attend in person. Pastor Sanchez hopes that RP brothers and sisters might be moved to help in covering Carlos’s expenses.

Besides his labors in his own congregation and in the church group in Batuco and in his responsibilities as a CASA committee member, Pastor Sanchez faithfully cares for his family. He and his wife, Barbara, have one daughter who is four years old, and one child on the way.

Please pray for the newly established work in Santiago, Chile, as well as the work in Batuco, Chile. I found it helpful in researching this article to watch the above-mentioned Facebook video so that I could see my brethren in Chile as they experienced their first worship service as a mission church. I hope you find the video helpful as well, as you are led to pray for our brothers and sisters in South America.

Special CASA Milestone

In 2019, the CASA Committee finished translating all the RPCNA standards into Spanish. Please contact the committee for more information.

Prayer and Praise

Fervent prayer avails much. Please pray that God will be glorified, and that our brethren in Central and South America will be blessed by the efforts of CASA.

CASA Praise and Prayer Needs

Praise for the newly formed work in Chile

Praise for the finished translation work

Praise for the many brethren in Central and South America who are seeking to learn about and grow in the Reformed faith

Wisdom and discernment for CASA in prioritizing contacts and in making the best use of allotted resources

Spiritual and numerical growth for the church in Chile

Wisdom in encouraging the reformation of the church in Central and South America

The raising up of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking men within the RPCNA to further the work

A scholarship fund for those in Central and South America who desire to study for the pastorate at RPTS

Pray for CASA Committee Members

Steve Bradley, chair (bygracealone@verizon.net); Mark England, David Reese; Marcelo Sanchez (RPCNA minister in Chile, marcelosanchez81@live.com); Edgar Ibarra, consultative member.

How to Financially Support CASA¹⁰

Please consider giving to RPM&M to support the labors in Central and South America. You can give to RPM&M at rpcna.org/rpmm, or you may send a check, written out to RPM&M, to Trustees of Synod, Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, 7408 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15208.

Mary Brown lives in Nunn, Colo., with her husband, Clyde, and their four children, Charity, Timothy, Hope, and David. She is a member of Laramie, Wyo., RPC, where her husband serves as an elder.