14 May It’s Becoming a Dangerous World

At the Cristo Rey UB church in Costa Rica.

Before Charlene and I went to Spain as missionaries, we spent a year attending language school in Costa Rica. When I visited San Jose in January to see our churches in that city, I discovered some major changes.

The city is much more violent. I used to walk all around the city with no sense of danger. Now, I was told, even the locals don’t go out walking on the streets.

Probably the biggest crime now is extortion–not only in Costa Rica, but all through Central America. Someone calls you on a cell phone and says that if you don’t leave a certain amount of money at a certain place tomorrow, they’ll kill you, or your wife, or your children. They don’t even bother to kidnap you. They just threaten you over the phone.

Anyone who appears to have any money is at risk. You don’t need to be rich; a middle class person will do. The police don’t know what to do about it, because how do you prove anything from a phone call? And people don’t go to the police, because they have no idea who called them. Maybe it was a policeman.

In Honduras, one day I walked from the Bethel School, where we held the conference, back to my hotel. I heard about it. They said I shouldn’t put myself at risk like that.

The same is true in many places around the world. In the Philippines, Sierra Leone, and other places where United Brethren churches operate, you just don’t go walking around. Even locals get mugged, have their pockets picked, have cell phones taken off their belt. If they’re hitting the nationals, sooner or later, if you visit regularly, you’ll get victimized if you don’t take reasonable precautions.