HELP WANTED:
COUNTRY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

PROLADES currently has a working relationship with numerous fellow researchers and organizations in many countries of the Americas, but due to the demands of our new Religion-In-The-Americas (RITA) website we are attempting to expand our coverage of the various regions by seeking to recruit persons interested in helping with the process of updating and adding to our existing listings and documents.  See the special forms that we have created for UPDATES and NEW DATA for the various databases.

Below is a list of all the countries for which we now have some information, as well as a list of people and organizations that have been helpful in supplying, compiling and/or updating information for our databases for each country or region.  The countries with no contact person represent those for which we need assistance at this time to verify and update our existing information and databases.  

For most countries, we are hoping to establish a working relationship with someone (or an organization) who currently lives in a particular country, and who agrees to assist us in obtaining the most complete and reliable information possible for that country. 

Hopefully, this request will provide fellow researchers, scholars, and key religious leaders with a "window of opportunity" to share their knowledge and experience about their country (or a neighboring country) with the larger world via the Internet, as well as motivate them to do further research and gather more accurate information from other sources about all religious groups that exist in their universe.  The same would apply to graduate students who are interested in doing fieldwork, or who are currently engaged in this activity, in one or more of the countries included in the RITA Database Project.

If YOU (or your organization) are interested in participating in this collaborative venture, we would like to offer you the option of becoming a "Country Research Associate."  See the document, GUIDELINES for Country Research Associates (CRA), and if you would like to become a CRA please send me an e-mail at racsa.co.cr and indicate the country of your interest and other pertinent information about yourself. 

The following people and organizations have provided assistance to PROLADES (some since the 1980s) in the development of the RITA Database, along with information from countless Internet sites since 1997.

NORTH AMERICA

• USA-Canada:  Dr. J. Gordon Melton (headquarters addresses), Alan Young (Hispanic USA database), Latin America Mission (Scott Nyborg, Miami database), Luis Palau Ministries (Chicago database), HABBM (Luis Madrigal, Hispanic USA database), Korean Frontier Mission (Mary Park, Korean database) and members of the GLAMA Research Network (Greater Los Angeles Metro Area database--five counties with more than 12,500 local religious groups).

• Mexico:  Galo Vasquez and the VELA Team in Mexico City (Mexico City database), Dr. Peter Larson (Lomas Verdes Baptist Seminary, various denominational databases for the whole county), Andy Toth (ARPC, Northeastern Mexico database), Gordon Richards and Eric Brockhoff (Baja California database), Eliseo Lopez Cortes (Universidad Autonima Metropolitana de Iztapalapa), Gilberto Gimenez (Universidad Autonima de Mexico), Rodolfo Casillas R. (Office of Religious Affairs, Government of Mexico).

CENTRAL AMERICA

• Guatemala:  SEPAL Team in Guatemala City (Galo Vasquez, Roy Wingerd, Kory Eller, Ross Rhode, Tim Halls among others), Roger Grossman (Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board), Dr. Virgilio Zapata (Instituto Evangelico America Latina), Gigi Norris Holland (international consultant).

• Belize:  YWAM in Belize City (Roldan Rios Trigozo).

• Honduras:  World Vision field office in Tegucigalpa, Marlo Rene Lopez (Baptist Seminary), Daniel Medina (formerly with CEDEN), Winston Simpson (Seventh-day Adventist Church) and the Honduran Bible Society staff.

• El Salvador:  Adonai Leiva (CONESAL), the Salvadoran Bible Society staff and several independent researchers.

• Nicaragua:  the CIEETS Team (Benjamín Cortes) and faculty members of the Martin Luther King Evangelical University in Managua; the INDEF team (Myra Alguera Palma) and the CEPAD Team (Gilberto Aguirre), Peter Simpson (Seventh-day Adventist Church).

• Costa Rica:  the IDES Team (Institute for Socio-Religious Studies of the Evangelical University of the Americas, UNELA), the Costa Rican Evangelical Alliance (Reynaldo Salazar and staff), and the staff of PROLADES (especially Melvin Murillo, coordinator of the national research team), Dr. Charles Denton (president of CID-Gallup of Central America).

• Panama:  Osman Soto (Campus Crusade), Richard Tracy (YWAM), Glenn Nicholson (Southern Baptist) and the AEPAD Team (Alcibiades Lopez, Roberto Bruneau and Gabriel Perez, among others).

CARIBBEAN & MID-ATLANTIC  

• Anguilla

• Antigua & Barbuda

• Aruba

• Bahamas

• Barbados:  Gerry Seale (Evangelical Association of the Caribbean, EAC) and the staff of the Caribbean Council of Churches (CCC) for information about the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean.

• Bermuda

• Cayman Islands

• Cuba:  Jose Millet (Casa del Caribe) in Santiago and Marcos Antonio Ramos in Miami, plus several people who have traveled to Cuba in recent years:  Daryl Platt, Enrique Guang, Tom Soerens, Peter Simpson, John Stam.

• Dominica

• Dominican Republic:  Steve Brauning (Christian Reformed Church), Israel Brito (COMPAS) and Daryl Platt.

• Grenada

• Guadeloupe

• Haiti:  Jean Paul Larochelle (Church of God, Cleveland, TN), the World Vision field office (Reginald Kamara and others), Claude Noel and J. Lemec Thomas (Council of Evangelical Churches). 

• Jamaica:  the Jamaican School of Theology and Union Theological Seminary staff for information about the English-speaking and French-speaking Caribbean.

• Martinique

• Montserrat

• Netherlands Antilles:  Jean B. A. Kessler.

• Puerto Rico:  Dr. Samuel Pagan (Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico), John Wagenveld (Christian Reformed Church), and Samuel Silva Gotay (University of Puerto Rico), Gigi Norris Holland (International Consultant).

• St. Kitts-Nevis

• St. Lucia

• St. Vincent & the Grenadines

• Trindad & Tobago

• Turks & Caicos

• Virgin Islands-Great Britain

• Virgin Islands-USA:  Richard Holland (Colibri Adventures) and Gigi Norris Holland (international consultant).

SOUTH AMERICA

• Argentina:  Norberto Saracco (AFLET), Norberto Lareu (Amanecer), Jorge Soneira (CEIL-PIETTE), Hilario Wynarczyk (sociologist) and Raul Amado (historian at Universidad Nacional de Lujan-UBA) in Buenos Aires; and Dr. J. Gordon Melton (Santa Barbara, CA), among others.

• Bolivia:  Eldon Porter (Andes Evangelical Mission, Cochabamba), Harold Thomas (Evangelical University in Santa Cruz), Douglas Smith (Institute for Latin American Studies, USCWM), Tito Montero (World Vision staff).

• Brazil:  Larry Kraft (SEPAL Team), Alan Myatt (Southern Baptist), Gigi Norris Holland (international consultant).

• Chile:  Jose Oses and the World Vision staff.

• Colombia:  Steve Armet (Latin America Mission) and Jairo Guierrez (CEDECOL-Colombia Hoy y Mañana) in Bogota, the Christ For the City Team (major cities), Prof. Carlos Arboleda in Medellin, Gigi Norris Holland (international consultant), Daryl Platt and Ruperto Velez (SEPAL), Oscar Vega (Christ For The City, LAM), Juana Buchanan (historian), Paul Pretiz (LAM).

• Ecuador:  Freddy Guerrero (AFLET) and students in the UNELA Extension Program in Quito, faculty members of SEMISUD, Dr. Alberto Guang (Nazarene Seminary) and Cesar Parra (Compassion International).

• Falkland (Malvinas) Islands

• French Guiana

• Guyana

• Paraguay:  Francisco Veron (Bible Society) and Rodolfo Plett (FLET).

• Peru:  Tito Paredes (PROMIES) and H. Fernando Bullon (FTL), Guillermo Chirinos and Francisco Beltran (Amanecer-Peru).

• Surinam

• Uruguay:  Roberto Mairena

• Venezuela:  Tomas Moreno (DAWN Ministries-Amanecer America Latina), Paul Pretiz (LAM).

IBERIAN PENINSULA

• Spain:  Daryl Platt (SEPAL), Jose Cardona  Gregori (FEREDE), Center For Reformation Studies in Madrid (Dr. Gabino Fernandez Campos and Dennis Swick).

• Portugal:  Roberto Fife (COMIBAM).

GENERAL ASSISTANCE

• Dr. J. Gordon Melton, Institute for the Study of American Religions, Santa Barbara, CA

• Patrick Johnstone, editor of Operation World (WEF), Bulstrode, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, UK

• Dr. Daryl Platt, SEPAL International Team, Spain

• Dr. Ulrich Fanger, Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, Freiburg, Germany

• Dr. Jean-Pierre Bastian, University of Strasburg, France

• Dr. Peter Brierley, Christian Research, London, England.

• Dr. Everett Wilson, Pentecostal Historian with the Assemblies of God.

• Dr. Edward Cleary, Political Science-Latin American Studies, Province College

• Dr. Grace Roberts-Dyrness, School of Religion, University of Southern California

• Dr. Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas

• Dr. Manfred Grellert, World Vision-Latin American Regional Office, San Jose, Costa Rica

• Dr. Tim Steigenga, Department of Sociology, Florida Atlantic University

• Dr. Duane Anderson, Christ for the City International, Omaha, Nebraska

• Dr. David Stoll, Anthropology Department, Middlebury College, Vermont

• Dr. Charles Van Engen, School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA

• Dr. Pablo Alberto Deiros, School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA

• Tomas Moreno, DAWN Ministries, Caracas, Venezuela

• Richard Holland, Colibri Adventures, Fairfax, CA

• Gigi Norris Holland, international consultant, Fairfax, CA

• Dr. Charles Denton, president of CID-Gallup of Central America; San Jose, Costa Rica

• Galo Vasquez, president of VELA (Latin American Evangelistic Vision) and CONELA (Latin American Confraternity of Evangelicals); Mexico City, Mexico

Clifton L. Holland, Director of PROLADES

Last updated on September 6, 2007