Placido and Toni Mercado
Bolivia
Over the last ten years, MRI has partnered with Orange Hill Baptist Church in sending teams to work with South America Missions (SAM) missionaries Placido and Toni Mercado. The focus of these trips has included men's ministries, women's ministries, vacation bible clubs, church construction, medical clinics, and more. To see photo albums of these trips have a look at the left sidebar on this page or choose "Go With MRI" from the menu.
Placido and Toni Mercado began working with the Ayore people in 1995 while still in medical school. Both graduated in 1998, and have continued work among the Ayore during these years. Placido is Bolivian and Toni is the child of missionaries to Brazil. Their call is to use their profession to touch people's physical needs and thus draw them to Christ. They have found that their medical training has opened previously closed doors. The Mercados run a free walk-in clinic for the indigent in Santa Cruz, hold day clinics in needy communities, practice friendship evangelism with their patients and promote micro and community wide development projects. They are presently focusing their efforts on the Ayore village of Poza Verde, although they continue to visit several other communities, including the squatters' camp on the outskirts of Santa Cruz. The motivation behind the effort in Poza Verde is to create in this village a magnet project to draw villagers out of the city- where alcoholism, prostitution and drugs are a problem- and back to a healthier environment. The Poza Verde project involves church strengthening, children's education, medical assistance and an agricultural project planned to provide work, income and food. They are also committed to helping establish tribal-wide spiritual leadership. They believe that their part in this effort is to help send couples from each Ayore village to a doctrinally sound, Native-oriented Bible school and to encourage and support tribal Believers and leadership. They are also involved in periodic trips to more remote areas of Bolivia where there are medical needs.