go.fmwm.org | www.fmwm.org | www.childcareministries.org | www.fmworldmarket.org July – September 2010 | Free Methodist World Mission People 9 Allison Coventry, VISA missionary, Latin America My first glimpses of a city often happen by taxi, cruising from the airport to wherever I am staying. The ride is marked with the usual Latin American city-driving threills that make for white knuckles and an increased heart rate. Taxistas, the drivers of these cabs, are great for conversation and an inside look at history, culture, the city and its people. The conversation can start simply, “Where are you from?” Based on my unofficial poll of drivers in Lima, Peru, I wonder if there are any taxi drivers whose origins from that city; at the least, the majority have relocated from another part of the country. The FMC goal is to reach the continent for Christ, but really, how can this be done? After a few taxi rides and several days in Lima, Peru, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, my perspective on the possibility of reaching a continent for Christ has become clearer. As one taxi driver said, “The city is where all the young people are moving. This is where they get an education and find work. This is where they find hope for the future.” Consider the numbers: Mexico City, 19 million people; Buenos Aires, 13 million; Lima, 9 million; Bogotá, 8 million. Perhaps reaching a continent for Christ means having a focused vision to reach key Latin American cities for Christ – cities where taxi drivers, students, people from all over the world live. And yet, it is more. A vision from God also needs the faithful obedience of people to carry it out, to make it tangible, give it flesh and bones. I celebrate the caliber of leaders I have come to know in Lima and Buenos Aires – the people with their feet on the ground we have had opportunity to encourage and partner with in reaching Latin America for Christ. View from a Taxi

View from a Taxi

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go.fmwm.org | www.fmwm.org | www.childcareministries.org | www.fmworldmarket.org July – September 2010 | Free Methodist World Mission People 9

Allison Coventry, VISA missionary, Latin America

My first glimpses of a city often happen by taxi, cruising from the airport to wherever I am staying. The ride is marked with the usual Latin American city-driving threills that make for white knuckles and an increased heart rate.

Taxistas, the drivers of these cabs, are great for conversation and an inside look at history, culture, the city and its people. The conversation can start simply, “Where are you from?” Based on my unofficial poll of drivers in Lima, Peru, I wonder if there are any taxi drivers whose origins from that city; at the least, the majority have relocated from another part of the country.

The FMC goal is to reach the continent for Christ, but really, how can this be done? After a few taxi rides and several days in Lima, Peru, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, my perspective on the possibility

of reaching a continent for Christ has become clearer.

As one taxi driver said, “The city is where all the young people are moving. This is where they get an education and find work. This is where they find hope for the future.”

Consider the numbers: Mexico City, 19 million people; Buenos Aires, 13 million; Lima, 9 million; Bogotá, 8 million. Perhaps reaching a continent for Christ means having a focused vision to reach key Latin American cities for Christ – cities where taxi drivers, students, people from all over the world live.

And yet, it is more. A vision from God also needs the faithful obedience of people to carry it out, to make it tangible, give it flesh and bones. I celebrate the caliber of leaders I have come to know in Lima and Buenos Aires – the people with their feet on the ground we have had opportunity to encourage and partner with in reaching Latin America for Christ.

View from a Taxi