Christy Lafferty, who is currently employed by IM partner organization AMOS Health and Hope in Nicaragua, has now been endorsed to serve as a global servant jointly with IM.

Inspired by her experiences in mission through her church youth group in middle school and high school, Christy felt called to begin a lifelong commitment to international and cross-cultural ministry. After she graduated from the College of Wooster (OH) with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, she was selected to serve for three years as a young adult missionary in Nicaragua and in the U.S. During that time, she was involved in training local leaders who were motivated by their Christian faith to serve their neighbors in the areas of community development, community health, and agricultural work. In 2012, in an answer to Christy’s prayers, IM Global Servants Drs. David and Laura Parajón at AMOS Health and Hope offered Christy the opportunity to serve with them.

AMOS Health and Hope seeks to follow Christ’s example of listening to and healing the most vulnerable, providing preventative and curative health services to remote communities where there are no doctors. Its empowering approach engages communities as full partners by training local Health Promoters.

It was through the Parajóns that Christy first learned of International Ministries. “They were incredible mentors to me at AMOS,” she says. “They encouraged me to consider serving as a global servant with IM.” During her process of discernment, Christy met with the IM staff members who support global servants around the world. “Christy allowed us to walk alongside her in the application process as she discerned God’s will for her life,” says IM Director of Mission Mobilization Rev. Dr. Rodney Ragwan. “During this time, it became very evident to her as well to us that God’s call was for her to serve cross-culturally in Nicaragua. We are excited to be part of God’s call upon her life.” IM’s Executive Director/CEO Rev. Sharon Koh adds, “Christy is a delight to be around, and it is with great joy that we’ve welcomed her into the IM family.”

In partnership with AMOS, Christy will facilitate short-term mission opportunities, engage with churches and individuals as partners in long-term ministry, and create multi-media content that helps share the stories of the people impacted by AMOS. She is also honored to participate in an initiative to expand access to theological education to lay leaders and pastors in Latin America with IM and Palmer Theological Seminary. “My prayer is that my gifts and experience can be used to keep serving God and my brothers and sisters in Christ here in Nicaragua,” she says. Christy wants to put into practice Matthew 22:37-40, a Bible passage with deep meaning for her personally, as well as for the ministry of AMOS: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Christy hopes to follow Christ in such a way that her love for God and love for her neighbor could never be separated from one another.

“I am impressed by Christy’s commitment to serve in any possible way,” says IM Area Director for Iberoamerica and the Caribbean Dr. Adalia Gutierrez Lee. “She is a great listener and a very respected leader at AMOS as she models what she preaches. I have no doubt Christy will continue to learn and receive as much as she teaches and gives.”

Christy currently lives in Managua, Nicaragua, with her husband, Abel Garache Zamora, and their six-year-old son, Abel Joseph (AJ). During the twelve years she has already served in Nicaragua, Christy says, “I have been inspired time and time again by the example of local community leaders who work so hard and sacrifice to serve their neighbors, share God’s love, and reduce grave health inequities. It has deepened my faith and pushed me to want to share about this important ministry with others. I love how the ministry of AMOS embodies Jesus’ example of going and doing ministry in difficult places and sharing God’s love with people who are vulnerable. As an IM global servant, I am excited to continue listening to my Nicaraguan co-workers and the people in the hard-to-reach communities that they serve to keep learning how we can do this work in the best way. I’m looking forward to connecting with churches and individuals who want to come alongside the work that is already going on, and to model what it means to be in true partnership with one another. I also feel honored to be part of the incredible community of people at IM who are committed to serving God and neighbor around the world.”

Christy is now working to build her Mission Partnership Team and to raise the funds needed for her ministry in Nicaragua. To find out more about Christy visit our page and to send her encouragement or support as she begins this new chapter of her work in Nicaragua, email clafferty@internationalministries.org.

International Ministries, also known as the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, works cross-culturally to invite people to become disciples of Jesus Christ and to proclaim, through both word and deed, God’s reign of justice, peace and abundant life for all creation