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!