Trip to Venado

View of the Ocean from the beach near Venado.

Hello Everyone!

It has been another good week here in Costa Rica. The weather has been beautiful with the rainy season just getting underway. It has only rained once every few days and it is refreshing when it does. Here is what has happened this week.

David and Shelley took a long one day trip to visit a site for an upcoming church plant in August. The pueblo that has been chosen by the local leadership is called Venado. It is a small village located only 2km from the Pacific Ocean.

Already the pastor in Liberia has been working in this area to raise up a cell group and some leaders as there is no church of any kind in the area and the people are hungry to hear more about God.

We left at 4:30am, picked up the Costa Rican Central District Superintendent and his wife (Johnny and Mauren) and headed northwest. We arrived at 10:30 and began by visiting the local elementary school which is the only building in the town. After a short visit with the school director we were encouraged that there are some needs at the school and we received permission to return in August with more people to do some construction work and to spend time with the children.

The cell group of around 30 people is now meeting in a “building” of sorts but they have plans to build a more formal building.

The structure the people of Vendado are currently using for their sanctuary.

David is standing and Johnny, the District Superintendent and Alvaro, the Pastor in Liberia are sitting.

Five ladies of the community have already started laying some block for the front of the structure.

Johnny and Mauren Calvo in front of the new construction.

God blessed our trip and we learned a lot about the local community and there needs so we will be better prepared when the team from Carlsbad, CA arrives in early August.

A family home a few yards from the current church.

After a bit of car trouble we finally arrived home at 9pm. It was a long day, but well worth every minute. Our car is now in the shop. We need the radiator fixed (apparently on the rock roads we put a hole in it!) as well are other maintenance. We are thankful for a good sturdy vehicle for our travel needs in all 3 countries.

On Sunday we had a special service for all the churches in the Costa Rica Central District. There were about 400 people there and it was a celebration of what has happened and what will happen in this year.

Shelley sang with the worship team for this event and enjoyed singing once again. She has just started singing in the local church and has found that as long as the words (in Spanish) are in front of her, she can still find a harmonious note.

The school year will end next week and the kids are very excited! But for now, the studying must continue to be prepared for finals exams next week. Joshua’s BB season has also come to an end.

It was fun to watch him play. He was a star of the junior high team with his height and ability.

We are excited that our good friends Pastor Casey and Rhonda will be here tomorrow with their team from West Virginia. It will be a blessing to have them here. We’ll have more news about that next week.

We wanted to share that the phone numbers have changed here. Our number is 506 (country code) 2285-5005. Give us a ring if you have a cheap international rate. Otherwise download SKYPE and we can talk computer to computer for free!

That’s all for now! God bless your week!

David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley