Why we got started:
We are Charlie, Angela and Anna Elena Strong. I, Charlie, am originally from Victoria, Texas, and Angela is originally from Nueva Guinea, Nicaragua, although she has lived in Costa Rica almost all of her life. Anna Elena was born in Costa Rica in March of 2009. I earned a Bachelor of Social Work degree from Southwest Texas State University and a Master of Divinity degree from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. I worked in vocational ministry in the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church for almost 10 years, including youth, campus, and local church ministry. I am a registered Individual Volunteer with United Methodist Volunteers in Mission, and although the work done here is ecumenical, all Strong Mission projects are also listed with UMVIM. God instilled within me a heart for work with missions while I was in my early twenties, and with time I have come to realize God has given me gifts and graces to make a real impact in the lives of the world’s lower income. The Gospel speaks very clearly to me of Christ's call to be in ministry to the poor. I therefore believe that through faith in God in Christ and a heart for God's people, along with my years of training and experience and our numerous contacts in Costa Rica and the U.S., we can offer a well-organized and cost-effective trip in which lives will be touched, both on the part of the participants as well as those receiving the assistance.
Through Angela's life here and my travels and work within Costa Rica and Nicaragua, as well as the U.S., Mexico, Europe, Africa, and Russia, we have become acutely aware of a multitude of suffering children needing basic opportunities and resources not available to them due to their economic status. In order to identify, raise money for, and make a difference in the lives of numerous deserving children and their families, much time must be spent in Costa Rica and the U.S. I therefore took my greatest leap of faith to this point, sold and gave away almost all my material possessions in 2003 and the beginning of 2004, and created Strong Missions in order to help provide for costs necessary to lend assistance to such children and their families as well as other deserving people facing struggles due to lower economic status.
Our guarantee to you is that if you join us in this work you will be part of one of the most well-planned mission experiences of your life and you will be able to make a real and lasting impression in the lives of the economically oppressed. In addition, you will complete your trip with a good feel for the Costa Rican culture as well as a renewed heart for the mission of the Church to the poor.
- Charlie, Angela and Anna Strong
Specializing in Short Term Mission Trips to assist the children of Costa Rica
