“A tool to accomplish a part of God’s purpose for Costa Rica.” This description might not immediately bring to mind a private school in Latin America. However, God uses La Palabra de Vida Christian Bilingual School, situated in Costa Rica’s central valley, as a tool to draw students and their families into relationship with Him.
It all started over forty years ago in Puerto Rico. Clarence and Elnora Befus, descendents of German immigrants and raised as Packer-backer “cheese heads” in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, followed God’s call to the island of Puerto Rico. There they fell in love with the Latin American culture and ministry to Latinos. By the time they returned to the Midwest from their missionary experience, their seven children had been molded by the sacrificial lifestyle of their parents and God’s work through their ministry.
It started all over again twenty-five years ago when Clarence and Elnora retired from a comfortable suburban life in Grand Rapids, Michigan and moved with their eighth child to Costa Rica. Memories of their ministry years in Puerto Rico, along with faith that God would open doors for meaningful Christian service, drew them back to Latin America. Local church involvement, organizing a travelling choir, home Bible studies, and individual discipleship led to the planting of a church on the piece of land where they lived. They soon started a vocational Bible institute as their next stage of ministry. Clarence and Elnora built a gym with classrooms and a two-story classroom/administration building for the Bible institute, which graduated three classes.
Soon after the Bible institute closed in 1994, planning began for a Christian high school. It retained the name “La Palabra de Vida” or “Word of Life,” taken from Philippians 2:16 where the apostle Paul encourages his readers to strive to “…become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life…”. This continues to be our prayer for LPDV students.
The school officially opened in February 1996 with one 7th grade in a facility much bigger than needed. However, the school rapidly outgrew its facilities. In 1998, the same year that son Matt and his family joined the ministry, a preschool and first grade were added to the high school that had grown to three levels (7th, 8th, and 9th grade). LPDV celebrated its first high school graduation in 2000, and three years later the elementary school finally reached its first sixth grade graduation.
Construction tools have been a constant sight at LPDV school for over ten years now. With a student population of 350 projected to rise to 550 in the next few years, LPDV will continue to see construction. Men’s International Missions (MIM) has blessed the La Palabra de Vida Ministry for the past seven years. New classrooms, office spaces, library, bathrooms, hallways, student desks, cabinets, and thousands of square feet of freshly painted walls have been provided by the hard work of MIM teams, along with those who financially sponsor their efforts. La Palabra de Vida Christian School would not be what it is today without the sacrificial efforts of MIM to serve God and the LPDV ministry.
What is next? The 2009 project is to finish the early-education building that was started by two MIM teams in January 2008. Pictured below, this building will provide four classrooms for preschool and kindergarten. The small house (former horses’ stable) currently contains only 2 groups and does not meet the Ministry of Education’s building standards for accreditation as the rest of LPDV facilities do.
Thank you for your interest in making the LPDV ministry a more effective tool in God’s toolbox. Matt Befus
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