He is risen indeed

Greetings from Costa Rica.  As I, David, write this the day before Easter (or, as it is in Central America, the Day of Resurrection), we rejoice in what our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for us about 2,000 years ago, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). 

While we celebrate the forgiveness we receive through Christ's death for us on the cross and are humbled by His sacrifice, we also recognize that the story did not end in the grave. There was a resurrection and, when we put our faith and trust in Christ, we receive this resurrection life too...Wow!! Paul wrote in Romans 8:11, If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.  Praise God for His love, forgiveness and freedom that He longs us to know and experience so that every day might be the Day of Resurrection for all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our prayer is that all who read this will know and experience this abundant life found only in Jesus (John 10:10).

The past couple of weeks have flown by.  Here is brief update.

On March 17, Nazarene youth from across Costa Rica came together for a special time together of games, workshops and promotion for the Mesoamerica Region Nazarene Youth Congress that will take place in Panama in July (please pray for this youth event as it only happens once every 4 years). This event was exciting as the youth in both districts of Costa Rica have not had a united event of this scale for over 10 years. It has been very encouraging to see the leaders from throughout the country getting to get better acquainted and to see how they are eager to learn from each other.  This was a special day for me as Joshua was also able to participate.

I also met with two new potential missional zone church planters.  Please pray as we look to start aggressive church planting in Alajuela (the second biggest city of Costa Rica) and another part of the indigenous zone of Tjai Cabecar.  Here is a photo of Brother Anderson, who is ready to be a new missional zone planter in Tjai Cabecar.

Shelley and I had a great time with the New Hope Community Church of the Nazarene and Pastor Ken Morrison and his wife Carol in Denville, NJ as we spoke at Faith Promise services there.  We thank the Lord for their friendship and partnership in the gospel.  Unfortunately we do not have pictures as they were in Shelley's computer which died last week (that is another story).  Thanks New Hope Community for a wonderful time!  The international food potluck on Saturday night was incredible as always and the fellowship a great blessing.  

I spent three days in Panama for regional evangelism meetings with evangelism coordinators from the Mesoamerica Region.  Here is a picture of the group in the new regional office in Panama City with Bernie Slingerland (far left) who is the Evangelism Coordinator for the region.  This was a very encouraging time as we all were able to share and hear what the Lord is doing throughout the region as well as receive trainings that we can share with the leaders on each of our fields. 

This past Tuesday was an exciting day for me as one of our local Nazarene churches in San José has felt a prompting from the Lord to be more involved in one of our missional zones in an area called Sarapiqui.  We have not had any works in this area as of two years ago, but that has been changing.  The church planter there, Brother Franklin, has planted over 15 cell groups and missions over the last 2 years and while I have been working with him in trainings and discipleship material, we have been longing to see the district partnership to grow with the work there.  I accompanied the Church of Coronado of San José with their Pastor Rolan and 5 other lay people from his church to spend the day in workshops, knowing the area, and praying and dreaming with the brothers and sisters of Sarapiqui as to how God can use their partnership to continue to train and raise up leaders for the new works in Sarapiqui.  One of the workshops had the people of this new mission do a presentation of what their dreams are for the church.  Here is a picture of one of the children groups showing their collage.  It is exciting to see the work grow and multiply (the harvest is ready!) as well as to see how the Holy Spirit is moving and a growing passion is beginning in the Central District of Costa Rica.  Here a group photo of leaders from the Coronado church and leaders that are working in the missional zone of Sarapiqui. 

In the midst of all this, Shelley has been very busy in her work at the seminary and with the CALL Spanish language learning program that she administrates.  We are leaving for the airport in an hour to pick up 3 students from MidAmerica that will be here to do study Spanish here with the CALL program as well as to do student teaching where our kids attend high school.   She continues to work with other students in the Spanish program and is excited to see the program grow as well.

Please pray for these new arrivals.  Please also pray for special missional zone church planter training that will take place April 16 and 17 here in San José.  This training will have church planters from across Costa Rica and Panama.

Again may God bless you in this time as we remember the Day of Resurrection and, better yet, our resurrected Lord who alone provides salvation for this hurting world....He is risen indeed!!