What's a verse?

This was the type of question we heard yesterday in our Group in the Women’s Prison, El Buen Pastor. We are starting a new group of Celebrate Recovery and have about 8-9 new women joining us at the moment. Our requirement is that after 1 month of attendance you receive a Bible with special devotions for Celebrate Recovery Groups.

   The real excitement came for us when we watched them open up their Bibles. It felt like Christmas morning! The ones who received them are not professing to be Christians but you would not have known that by their joy in receiving them. What’s a verse? How do you find the chapter number? New, old testament? Great questions!

            We were teaching on the meaning of hope using the letters of the word hope to illustrate that real hope comes in knowing Jesus as one’s Savior. As we looked up passages they were so excited to be finding them on their own! I know God is just starting His work here amongst them and I pray that He will have the victory in their lives as they seek truth. Keep praying with me!

Other exciting news is that Bob has been praying and seeking God for what’s next, thank you all for your prayers in this. He has been busy helping out with another missionary who is fixing/building a home for a family with 4 children in one of the slums here, Los Guido. He is also helping out in the mountains in Vara Blanca, where the earthquake happened about 2 ½ years ago, as they remodel a community center into a school.

We are also looking at getting involved with Christ for the City Missions. They are in need of help with their short term teams. We will be coming alongside the director, Carlos, helping him with two teams, one in March and the other in April. Thank you for continuing to pray for wisdom in knowing God’s will at this time. Here we are with Magali and Hugo, who work in the slum where we will be helping out with the short term teams. there is about 400 hundred families living here in these conditions, including many women with several children who are without husbands.

We have our first visitor form Maine coming today! Kathy, my sister, is coming down to serve with us and be an encouragement to us as well. We are so excited to have her here with us! She will be sharing on prayer with my Spanish Bible Study and with the missionary women who live here in the city. She will also join me in the prison next Wednesday to share her testimony with the women in our group. 

Transitions

                                            Bob, B Stephanie and Mary

TRANSITIONS

 January has been a time of transition for me (Bob).  In December I finished up working at Sojourn Academy.   So this past month I checked in with a bunch of ministries here in the valley and others as far away as Chile and Mexico to see where God would have me involved.  It has become a slow process and after a month there are options but nothing that is getting the green light at this point.  There is a lot of need, but I’m waiting on the Lord to help me not just jump at the first opportunity.  Waiting isn’t one of my fortes so being on the sidelines is testing me a lot.

 On the up side we are able to attend a great study on the book of Revelations given by a seminary professor.  He will be returning to the states in April and B asked if he would do a small class at his house before he leaves.  He agreed to it and what a great teacher he is.

Another transition is that the young lady that B had been discipling, Stephanie, has gone to her 10 month training in Mexico.  She left in mid-January and we won’t see her again until mid November.  There were multiple sendoffs, we had one, her family as well and her local church.  There are many teary eyes when someone close heads out far away.  For most here in Costa Rica it is rare to have or know someone that is off to a mission field out of country.  The airport goodbyes alone took about 1 ½ hours as 4 loaded vehicles made the trip.  We are very fortunate to be close to the family.

 We have a roommate living with us now.  Mary is one of the teachers at Sojourn and through circumstances she moved in with us over New Years.  (by the way Happy New Year to you!)  She will be with us until July when she will return to the Chicago area.  She just happens to be an acquaintance of Christa Thorpe as they were at Wheaton Graduate School together last year.  Small world isn’t it?         

B continues to be busy leading two different Bible Studies, one in English, The Gospel Centered Life and one in Spanish over the Gospel of John. The ministry at the Women’s prison had lost a few women over Christmas and the New Year has brought 4 new ones to the group. It is exciting for her to see God’s hand in bringing these women to an understanding of God’s love for them. She is also involved in a training given by EnTrust Ministries to missionary women to teach them how to help the women in their countries how to teach and disciple other women. It is a pilot program here in Costa Rica and she is very excited about the possibilities it holds.

We are happy to announce our first mid coast Maine visitor, Kathy Todd.  Kathy, B’s sister, will be visiting at the end of February.  We are thrilled and it just happens to coincide with my ¾ year birthday!  

We have a bed and an air mattress available should you happen to be in the area, we would love to see you!  We are not firm with our dates for a Maine visit, but expect to be there most of August.  My dad will be 90 this summer and we are looking forward to a family gathering to celebrate it.

Thanks for continuing to join us in Bob’s search for exactly where God wants him.