Country Information
Living Information
What is CAM International?
What does CAM
stand for?
CAM International is an evangelical
non-profit, mission-sending agency currently serving in nine countries around
the world. The mission was founded in 1890 by Dr. C.I. Scofield. Originally
named Central American Mission, due to the focus on Central
America, the organization was, later named CAM
International, when its ministry extended beyond Central
America and into Mexico,
US, Canada,
Spain,
and South America.
CAM International is
devoted to making disciples among, with, and through Spanish-speakers
worldwide. We do that by sharing the gospel to Spanish-speaking people
throughout the world, and partnering with the Spanish-speaking church to train
and develop Latin leaders for service in global missions.
Do you
work with only certain denominations?
CAM is a non-denominational organization. We
will partner with many different evangelical denominations, depending on the
event and the type of ministry it is. There will be times when we will choose
not to partner with certain religious groups or denominations, because of
doctrinal differences. To read CAM’s
doctrinal statement, please click here.
Where is CAM’s Home
Office located?
CAM’s Headquarters is located at 8625 La Prada Drive, Dallas,
TX 75228.
It is just east of downtown Dallas
and off of I-30 (Take a look).
How long
has CAM
been in existence?
Over
115 years -- since 1890.
How does CAM help you?
Spiritually,
CAM
provides prayer support, appointee care, encouragement, and on-field pastoral
care and counseling.
Administratively, CAM
provides tech support, financial management/accountability/receipting, support
letter assistance, church partnership support, ministry oversight, and
community.
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How long
are you going for?
We
will be in Uruguay for 1 year of training in 2009-2010, and then we will head
to Spain in 2010. The Lord has called us to overseas missions, and we will
remain on the field until the Lord directs us elsewhere. What this means is
that we are moving to live overseas. Many people have asked us how long “our
trip” is. We want to encourage you that we are not simply taking a trip.
We do plan to invest our lives and ministry in the people of Uruguay and Spain
for at least 5-10 years but potentially as much as 30 or 40 years.
Don’t worry though, we will be able to visit the
United States frequently for holidays and to speak in churches that support us.
Who is going with
you?
The Southern Spain team
currently consists of Brad &
Lindsey Bridges, Kendra
Cervantes, and Rebecca
Zurbrick. We will be spending 2009 in training with the rest of the Uruguay team:
Jim and Cheryl Eberline (our team leaders and previous missionaries to Honduras, USA, and Mexico) and
Bill, Linda, and Matt Parker (previous missionaries to Honduras and Nicaragua).
Both the Eberlines and the Parkers have served on the mission field for over 20
years and will be a great asset to our training.
Our teams are not complete! We are anticipating many more
couples, singles, and families to join both the Uruguay and Spain teams.
We’re praying for more people to join our team…would you consider coming to
serve with us in this capacity? If so, fill out the Preliminary Questionnaire that
should only take you five minutes.
Why Uruguay?
Two-fold:
Mentoring and Training under the Eberlines (have
served as missionaries for over 30 years).
Although Uruguay has many differences from Spain, it does have many
similarities in worldview, religion, and culture. It is the perfect
“stepping-stone” to being prepared emotionally, spiritually, cross-culturally,
and practically in ministry as we launch out to Spain as new missionaries.
We hope to learn some distinctives of how to initiate
a new church overseas in Uruguay and then replicate this process in Spain.
What sort of ministry will you be doing?
Church planting and global mobilization. Church planting simply means starting new
churches. This includes everything from evangelism, ESL
classes, discipleship, university ministry, Bible studies, teaching cultural
classes, helping local ministries, sports camps, networking with Latin
Americans, starting a business, etc. We will begin our ministry by forming
relationships with the people and community, as we seek to show them the love
of Christ and bring them into a relationship with Him.
How many missionaries are with CAM in Uruguay? Spain?
When
we all arrive in Uruguay
there will be a total of 8 missionaries on our team (our organization will have
one of the largest totals of evangelical missionaries from one agency in all of
Uruguay!).
Currently, our team heading to Southern Spain has 4 missionaries (2 singles, 1
couple) but that will soon grow we believe. In all of Spain, however,
CAM
has about 16 missionaries who are mostly located in Northern, Central, and Eastern Spain.
Are
you starting your own church in Uruguay/Spain?
No.
We will be partnering with other evangelical churches and mission agencies to
learn and be trained by them. Together
we will seek to reach people for Jesus Christ!
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Why are
you raising support?
We
are raising support because we believe that it is Biblical to be supported by
the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:1-14, Philippians 4:10-18). Just as the apostle Paul was sent out
and local churches in the U.S.
financially support their pastor(s), we believe that it is our privilege to
offer you the opportunity to partner with us so that you may be “fellow workers
with the truth” (3 John 1:7).
What’s
your plan for raising your financial support?
Our
plan from the beginning has been to reduce or expenses and
focus on our ministry of partnership development full-time. That is why
we moved out of our home in July, we both resigned from our jobs, and began
living on the road as meet with churches, individuals, and foundations.
We have seen our monthly support pledges come in at around 8-12% a month which
means we could realistically depart for the field in early 2009. CAM wisely
will not allow us to depart for the field until we are fully supported because
our support includes: salary, rent, health insurance, ministry expenses,
support fees, and retirement. The ministry expenses are used to carry out the
specific ministries we are working on since we will not be serving in an
established church but rather initiating a new one.
Our monthly support will be composed of individuals, churches, and foundations
pledging monthly gifts in support of our ministry. We’d love to share more
about how you can financially partner with us in
ministry.
Are
donations tax-deductible?
Yes,
all donations are tax deductible and should be sent to CAM
International 8625 La Prada Dr.
Dallas, TX 75228. Make your checks out to “CAM International” which is the non-profit 501 (c)3 agency we are with and be sure to include our account #082025 in the memo line.
How will
you handle retirement? Do you have social security taken out?
Retirement
is something that we want to plan for.
Each month, CAM
requires that a portion of our monthly support go towards our retirement, so we
can be prepared for the future. Our salary takes out a portion of social
security and is reported to the IRS,
just as your W-4 form from your work would do.
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Where
is Uruguay?
Spain?
Uruguay
is in South America. It is located on the east
coast of the continent with Brazil
to the north and Argentina
to the South.
Spain
is in Europe – to the north of Africa, the south of France, and west of Italy.
Who are
you working with in Spain?
In
Spain,
we will be working with national believers and other missionaries to begin
ministries and church plants. Our ministry team will be working together to
initiate a new church in Southern Spain.
Isn’t Spain already
Christian?
Currently,
there are .4% evangelical, born-again Christians. This is the lowest among all
Spanish-speaking countries. While Spain is traditionally or
culturally Catholic, most are “nominally” Catholic – they don’t attend church
regularly, have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior, and many
are Catholic only in name, not in terms of their beliefs or practice.
What
language do they speak?
Uruguay speaks Spanish. And you would think that
Spanish is the only language spoken in Spain; however there are actually 5
different languages spoken – Castilian Spanish (what we would understand as
Spanish), Gallego (northern Spain),
Basque (northern Spain),
Catalán (Barcelona
area), and Valenciano (southeastern Spain). Castilian Spanish is the
official language for the country, and generally everyone can speak it.
What is
the time difference?
Uruguay
will be 2 hours ahead of US Central Standard Time (ie
12 noon in Dallas,
TX is 2pm in Montevideo,
Uruguay).
Spain is 7 hours ahead of US Central Standard
Time (ie 12 noon in Dallas, TX
is 7pm in Granada, Spain).
How long is the flight?
The
flight down to Montevideo, Uruguay is about 14-18 hours travel
time from Dallas, TX (including a connection). When going to Madrid, Spain,
it is about a 12-15 hours of travel time from Dallas, TX.
What’s the climate like?
Uruguay
is located in the southern hemisphere, so the seasons are switched from the US. When we
arrive in January, it will be warm since it will be summer; during June, it
will be a cold winter.
Spain is in the northern hemisphere, so the
seasons will follow that of the US.
In Southern Spain, the summers tend to get
very hot. The winters are somewhat mild, but in the Granada area you have the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains nearby which can make it more chilly but also provide some enjoyable winter sports.
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Where
will you be living?
When
we are in Uruguay,
we will be in a neighborhood called Pocitos
in the capital city – Montevideo.
Our first month there, we will move into a
extended-stay hotel, while we seek out a furnished apartment to live in during
our year of training.
Our
move to Spain
will be similar, where we will find a short-term place to stay until we can get
settled into the neighborhood and home/apartment that will suit our ministry
and personal needs best in Southern Spain.
Can we come visit?
PLEASE
DO! We would love to have visitors come stay with us! We plan on having teams
come serve with us, family/friends come visit us, stop and see us while you are
touring Europe, connect with us during a
college study abroad, etc. Please do not hesitate to invite yourselves over!
We’re especially looking for churches that would like to make a strategic and
lasting impact by partnering
with us to help initiate a church planting movement in Southern
Spain.
How is
health care?
The
health care that we will most likely opt to get will be private health care.
Both Uruguay
and Spain
have socialized health care, but as a foreigner we can use private health care,
physicians, etc, for our needs. There are also clinics that you can stop into
for minor infirmities (colds, strep throat, etc) to get medicines. One nice
advantage is the ability to purchase antibiotics (only when needed) over the
counter without having to visit a doctor.
What is the standard of living?
In Uruguay
and Spain,
we will be living in modern, developed cities. In Uruguay, we will be in the capital
city, so we will be in an urban setting with a high standard of living (about
35% higher than the US).
Spain
will be similar, although we will not be in the capital city.
Currently,
the currency exchange for both Uruguay
and Spain
leaves the dollar being significantly weak. The Euro to dollar exchange fluctuates
frequently between $1.20/1 Euro and $1.60/1 Euro, which means that for every
$1,200/$1,600 we have in US money, it will only be 1,000
Euros depending on the conversion rate. (Since we are paid in US dollars, this
is one reason for our increased monthly support needs)
Will you
be going to language school?
Yes,
we will be attending language school. Although, we have had language training in
2002-2003 in Seville, Spain, we will continue to go to
some language school to increase our knowledge base and expand our language
skills.
Will you
have a car?
In
Uruguay,
we will probably not have a car, as we will be in the capital city and can use public
transportation for our year-long stay. Once we are in Spain, we will
have a car, in conjunction with using public transportation. The public
transportation throughout Europe is completely
different than that of the US!
Will you need a drivers license?
We
will not need a Uruguayan license during our time there since we won’t have a
car. However, in Spain
we will need to go through an intensive driving school that a high percentage
of Spaniards fail the first time. Driving school in Spain is notoriously difficult,
expensive, and stressful for Spaniards and even more so for foreigners who
don’t know the language perfectly. We can expect to be asked questions about
most any aspect of a car including the required distance between the bumper and
the ground.
How safe
is it?
Both of the countries that we will be living in are safe –
just as safe as the US.
Actually, Montevideo, Uruguay was recently ranked as 115th
safest city on the planet, according to a Mercer study. Check out this article.
Since there are very strict restrictions on guns and other weapons in Spain,
very few people have them other than hunters and cops which means that the
murder rate in Spain (0.0122456 per 1000 people) is almost four times less than in
the U.S. (0.042802 per 1000 people) [see nationmaster.com].
Will you
have internet access? How can we get a hold of you?
Yes,
we will have internet access, cell phones, computers, etc. You can get a hold
of us very easily. We will be using SKYPE (a free computer to computer phone
service – http://www.skype.com/), cell
phones (which you can call with an international calling card), computers with
internet (so you can email us whenever you would like!), etc. Please do not let
distance keep you from staying in touch. The world is so small these days and
we can talk just as much as we do here in the US.
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Questions about
CAM