Happy Thanksgiving!

 

As I sit here taking a break from our Thanksgiving preparations, I am so much more aware this year, not of the work it takes to prepare this wonderful meal, but of the true thankfulness in my heart that we can even buy the food this year to have this celebration. I am not sure that this reality really hit home for me before as it has down here. The constant begger at your door and large populated  areas of the city where the people live in tin shacks with no floors or windows with little to eat really brings it closer to heart. Not only am I thankful for the food we will share with a mix group of Ticos and Gringos tomorrow but I am also reflecting on the wonderful friends and family who are part of our team here in Costa Rica. We are truly blessed to be here serving our Lord and Savior.

We got to share some time with our pastoral couple from CTEN, our mission sending agency last week. The picture is of us with Dick and Birdie, our pastoral couple,in front of the oldest standing church in Costa Rica.

They came down to observe and encourage us here in our ministry. Dick spent some time with Bob at school and Birdie came to the prison to meet the women that I work with there.  I jokingly told the gals in the prison that they had to behave while Birdie was there. They quickly told me that it was I who needed to behave! We enjoyed getting to know them better. They come down every two years to see our work. If any of you are interested in coming down to see us as well, we would be so blessed to have you! We may even put you to work!

Please hold the women in the prison in your prayers, this time of year is doubly hard and I have noticed a real sadness in some of their eyes as they suffer being away from family and friends. We are planning a Christmas celebration for them and asked what they would like to do  and their first responce was to have a worship service in English! We are excitingly putting this together for them as well as a few other surprises.

I would also ask you to pray for the women as I will be presenting the message of the Gospel to them as part of our Celebrate Recovery Program. Pray that God will open their hearts to receive the truth and that the Holy Spirit will draw them. I am so excited to have the privilege to share God's  great love and plan of salvation with them!

We finally got to bring our camera into our place of meeting at the jail. So after 2 years of working with these wonderful ladies I now have a few photos to treasure of them. Look for their picture in our Christmas newsletter which you should receive soon! I also have an opportunity to go to a conference on Biblical Counseling which would really help my ministry here in Costa Rica. The cost is out of our ability to cover and would be around $900.00 including air fare. If God puts it on your heart to help with this training you can  send the money directly to CTEN by going on their web site and clicking on our name.

Thank you and may God richly bless your time over the holidays with family and friends. Oh, by the way, down here you have to make your own onion rings from scratch. There are none in the can! ....and they came out pretty good!

Teaching Opportunities Abound

                                                                       Missionary Woman's Bible Study

Teaching opportunities have abounded this fall! God has blessed me with a chance to share inductive study methods with a group of missionary women who live in the area. I did a overview of how to study the Bible inductively and then we headed into a course called Sweeter than Chocolate, that gave us a chance to practice it.We had a wonderful 9 weeks looking at Psalm 119. We got to see how the Psalmist found God to not only be his refuge but his reviver as well! We looked at how he turned to God in even the most difficult moments of his life and remembered how faithful God had been to him!
The verse that really summed up his attitude to me was 68 when he states, "You are good and everything you do is good. Teach me your statutes". All through the Psalm you see his passion for God's law, and this is one of the places you get to see why he had that passion. He so knew his God and His goodness that it gave him the desire to serve and obey Him! Oh, to know our God as the psalmist did! What an awesome God we serve!

Another area of service opened up at Sojourn, the school where Bob is the director. The missionary that was teaching the Bible to the High Schoolers had to go back to the states. It is a two day a week position that allows me to keep up with all the other areas I serve in. It has been a real learning experience for me, as this is the first time that I have taught this age group! I don't know who is learning more, me or them! They are a great group of teens and I have really enjoyed working with them! What a blessing to impact the next generation of missionaries going out!

I am still disciplining two wonderful and patient ladies in Spanish, one from Costa Rica and the other from Nicaragua. They have been so gracious to me as I keep plugging ahead in the area of language learning.

The work at the jail is going great. I am so blessed to be able to serve these women who are displaced from their countries and families. They are really responding to the Celebrate Recovery program. We are hoping to get a picture of them soon, but things at the jail don't always go as planned!

Thanks for all your prayers! The driving here is very dangerous and we have had some very near misses! People and motorcycles are every where. We would love to hear from you and miss seeing you all!

Back Into the Swing

Director Bob with the Basket Ball Team

Well, we hit the ground with our feet running, as the old expression goes! After a very short but enjoyable time at home for two weeks in August we were very rapidly back into the swing of things. Honestly, it usually takes me a couple of weeks to get my heart back into the right place after enjoying being home with family and friends, but that was not available this time! Bob's new position as interim director of Sojourn, the preschool through grade 12 school that is attached to the Language institute, was in full swing just 7 hours after getting back to our house here in Costa Rica. The first week was teacher orientation and classroom preparation time. I was there every day as well helping serve homemade lunches for the teachers as Bob led them into a new year with a vision for unity among the faculty and students. The teachers are finding out that Bob is a quick thinker and also enjoys a good laugh. He has put them on "alert" to be looking for practical jokes at any turn in their day! Later in the week after a teachers luncheon for the girls only, I was sworn to secrecy as the teachers started planning how to deliver a little surprise attack on their new boss! The first two weeks were filled with long hours and a few almost sleepless nights as there are many bases to cover. Opening day brought 200 students to the campus, about one third of them Costa Rican children who want a better education than the local public school has to offer. Bob is enjoying every minute of this fast paced position and being able to share God's gift of grace with them.

Bob with Missionary Students

My work at the prison has taken on a new look this fall. I will be involved in offering a new program called Celebrate Recovery. This is a twelve step program based on the beatitudes. It has had great success in the United States and now is starting to gain popularity in other counties. Through many connections, including Waldoboro Baptist Church's donation of the money to purchase the books and North Woolwich's donation to the prison ministry last winter, God has opened a door to get this ministry started. The connections God has put together has truly amazed me, almost providing answers before the need arrived! He provided not only finances but also the people. I am now working with two wonderful women who will co-lead the program with me. One of them has led Celebrate Recovery before and is training me and the other woman in the program. Even with all these connections being made outside the prison I know that without God's hand of grace and mercy we would not get into the prison. So, right before coming home in August I made my first appointment with the director of education and asked for a place in his schedule. God would have to go before us to help us gain access. Praise be to God! He opened a time slot, but we were told that we would have to wait for a new room to be made into a classroom, which was now being used for storage and was full. After asking if we could help get the room ready he told us that would really speed up the process. We just finished our first full day of transforming our new space last week!
Bob was able to take a day off from his position at school to come over and help clean out and put up a wall to close off the space. The day was a typical one in that we left the house at 7:15 to go buy materials and after lots of paper work and purchasing of materials we were on our way. Half of our day was spent cleaning out the space and restocking the old storage shelves. Every once and a while a prisoner would come by wanting to know what the place was going to be used for. Upon finding out that it was to be for the specific class, starting with the women who are English speakers from other countries. there was great concern that a class in Spanish would be added soon for the greater population to be able to participate. 
Our second day of working in the space the English speaking prisoners were able to join us to paint the walls and ceiling. I am excited to see God bring this all together and to see what He has in mind for the future. Please join us in praying that God will  continue to provide the rest of the supplies needed, including the Celebrate Recovery Bibles. 
When I am not at the prison I am busy teaching in several locations God's Word. I have started a teacher's Bible study at our home with some of Bob's staff, a Bible study in our church and a one on one discipleship with a woman from our church. I am also co-teaching a class with another missionary doing an Inductive Bible Study for the local missionary women.Life has gotten very busy, but what a blessing to be involved in sharing the power of the Gospel with these groups through the study of His Word!

Welcome Leah!

We would like to have you join us in welcoming Leah Cook from Union, Maine to Costa Rica! As you can see from the picture below she fits right in! Leah arrived last Tuesday and has started working for Food for the Hungry which is located in Los Guido, one of the largest slums in the city of San Jose. She accompanied us when we did short term missions to Mexico with Extreme Mission several years ago. She has just finished high school and her desire now is to do the 5 month YWAM, Youth with a Mission, DTS (discipleship training school) program in the near future. Her specialty is performing arts. She will be with us here in Costa Rica until August, when we return home. We are really enjoying having her, especially B, who loves the girl-talk!

Sunday afternoon we took her out of the city to see the beautiful countryside of Costa Rica. She was especially impressed with the ferns and the volcanic crater at 11,500 feet .
Bob has been busy getting the school ready for the fall opening. He is really enjoying the challenge and he is using all the gifts God has given him! He received word yesterday that Costa Rica was closing down all schools for a week because of the climb in Swine Flu cases here. The summer children's program will close next week. This will make it hard for the parents who will continue to study at the adult school, as they will need to find places for their children. Please pray for God's mercy and healing from this flu, not only in Costa Rica but world wide.
We are excited to be coming back to Maine for two weeks in August. We had hoped to be home for more time but because of Bob's new position of service we will return to Costa Rica mid-August. We would love to see as many of you as possible, please get in touch so we can begin to make plans! Our available dates are August 16 to the 22. We will be sharing at our home church, North Woolwich Methodist, on August 16. We would love to have you join us then! It will be a special service with Spanish Missions as a theme.

We'd like to share an opportunity to help a couple of local families that are sending their children to Sojourn. We have at least 3 students that need $20 per month for 10 months to be able to continue their studies this year. If you or someone you know would like to help in this matter please get in touch, it is a "dream come true" in the making for these families. Thank you for asking around or considering. Even $5 or $10 a month from multiple sources would make a significant difference.

Earthquake relief completed

The spring here has kept us really busy! We want to note a special thank you to North Woolwich Methodist Church. They were moved to take a special offering for assisting families affected by the earthquake last January. This last week we were able to appropriate those funds to help two families. The first was a mom and her daughter that needed some funds to get necessary paperwork to remain in country and get assistance.
The other family, Odir and Magali, we were able to help fund the beginnings of an outdoor bathroom, an improved electrical system in the house and shutters for the window openings. They are a precious family of five and their new house, 10'x30', is almost complete. They moved in a month ago and have been sharing a toilet and a shower with 3 other families that live nearby. They are so excited to see their own bathroom taking shape. It also is outside and will be shared with others nearby.




While I was building with the men, B took the ladies and children down to the river where they all collected a special rock. Each one then had to tell the group why their rock was special and then we related that uniqueness to how God has made each one of us special and unique! They all seemed able to understand the message and when they got back to the house it was retold to those working on the construction.

Magali, his wife, tends house with their three children and is beginning to integrate into the new community. Odir was the youth leader in the church in the mountains before the quake. His hardest adaptation is living and working 6000' lower on the other side of the mountain, with temperatures 15-20 degrees warmer and very high humidity.As you can see form the picture the dining room consists of a very long log in the front yard!

March News

We would like to first of all thank all who prayed for Bob while he was sick with pneumonia. I am happy to report that he is all better and back to normal. It was a long haul of about 2 months. He is very happy to have his energy back!
The first picture is of a baptism at our sister church, The Grand Commission Church. We have been attending this church plant since we came back in September. We meet in a house but are currently looking for a place to rent as we are out growing the house! Our sister church is in the area of Limon, which is one of the hottest regions of Costa Rica.They day we joined them they were having a picnic and two baptisms in the small outlet.
We recently had the opportunity to host Marsha, the tallest one in the picture,who came to Costa Rica to investigate possible future plans in missions. She was in Costa Rica once before at age 1 1/2 while her parents were attending the same language school as we did and where Bob now works! Marsha and her family were missionaries in Argentina for abut 10 years before returning to the states. Her father is a writer and while she was here she meet a pastor who had read several of his books! What a small world! The picture was taken at our church meeting.

Speaking of small worlds,I would like to introduce you to MariJose and some of her family! MariJose and I meet at the bus stop in San Jose center about three months ago. We got to chatting and discovered that she lived within 5 minutes walk from my house. We kept in contact and are now attending a work out class together three times a week. It has been fun to get to know her and just this last week we celebrated her birthday at our home and then on Saturday she attended church with us. MariJose is from Nicaragua. It has been hard for her to meet friends here in Costa Rica although she has lived here several years. We have fun laughing at each others lack of agility in exercise class. I am thankful to God for putting her in my life.
I also meet another woman in this exercise class who just had surgery on her hand and I told her that I would pray for her so she asked me to also pray for her son who had been out of work for some time. It has been two weeks since we started praying and he now has two part time jobs! We are praising God for His faithfulness in her life and that of her son.
The last two pictures are of a dear friend and who just turned 85 last week. We celebrated her birthday with her by bring food over to cook at her house while Bob started the construction of a chicken coop for her. It is hard to believe that we live in the city! Everyone takes advantage of their back yards to either grow fruit and flowers or in this case for laying eggs! Her name is Doña Vicky and she has a sweet heart for God. Her family has taken in many missionaries over the years. One of the things I love about Doña Vicky is her love for the Lord and her radiant smile! She likes to call me 'Barbie'! Her husband has suffered from diabetes for many years now and in these last years lost his leg to it. But amidst all the suffering they always have a heart warming story to share of how God has provided for them! They are a wonderful example to us of God's faithfulness.
Lastly, the news from the jail has been encouraging. I have started up the pen pal program again and all 7 of the girls have a pen pal. This is a wonderful encouragement to them. We are going to start a new study called, Lesson's I learned in the Dark,by Jennifer Rothschild. It is a Bible Study about how at age 15 Jennifer turned blind and how God has lead her and taught her about faith. She has a beautiful testimony, if you like to read she also has written a book sharing her story.
Over the last two months our group in the prison has lost two of our women who have gone back to their home countries. This past week God opened the door for two new women to join us. One was a little shy but when I invited her to join us she reluctantly agreed. We just happened to be studying the 4 types of love expressed by the Greeks. She became very interested in the subject and was so thankful to be part of our group that day. God moved in our midst and everyone was so encouraged!Please pray that these women will remain faithful to read and study the Bible during the week.
Thank you again for your loving support and partnership here in Costa Rica. We are so excited to be perhaps days away from becoming grandparents and treasure your prayers for Peter and Bethany as they prepare their hearts for their first born!

Tejarcillos VBS

WELL, God is shaking up my world!!! In more ways than one!!!
Bob and I woke up at 1:10am with the house shaking again! There was another quake of lesser magnitude, 4.3, but it hit in the same area and the houses that were still standing or had anything left no longer do. Also, there where several other smaller ones through the evening before the 1:00am one hit! Everyone is a little on edge. At times it feels like the world is moving like being on a boat! Our church is planning a meeting tonight to discuss what we as a church can do to demonstrate God's love to the ones who have lost all. please pray for wisdom, as it still is very dangerous in the zone and the main bridge is cracking a bit more every day and without it, it will be very difficult to enter the area.
The last two days I have gone to Tejarcillos, a slum community, to help out with a Vacation Bible School. The children are so precious. They have these big round eyes, which sometimes look so sad and empty. Many do not have any parent around during the day as the moms have to work and there often is no dad in the picture.When this happens an older child of 8-12 years is in charge of a younger one for the day. It is wonderful to just hold them and hug up on them. We worked there for two days and the first day had about 100 children and then today we had about 200.

We do simple crafts and teach them about the love of God for them! What a blessing to be able to tell them how much they are loved, as some have never heard those words before!