October blessings

How great it is to greet you in the great and marvelous Name of Jesús Christ.  Our family thanks you for your prayers.  God, as always, is good and He continues to bless and to help us.  Here are some of the highlights of the ministry trips that God has permitted David to be a part of over the last four or five weeks.

In the last half of September, David was able to travel with the evangelism coordinator of the Costa Rica North district in order to meet with pastors of four different zones.  In their four days of travels, they were encouraged to see the hearts of these pastors respond to the challenge of working together to plant a new work together in each zone.  Our hope is in two years, that we will see four new organized churches in this district that currently has 15 churches.

new church in Alto Palmera

10 baptisms in the Zent River

The first week of October, David traveled with three pastors of San José to the indigenous area of Bajo Chirripo.  They worked with church planter Brother Elber and David was able to help with the baptism of 10 new believers as well as visiting the new church that they are building.  They visited another new village called Serenache where Pastor Elber is beginning to work.  God blessed a Jesús Film presentation that evening and one of the new believers is the wife of the community leader.  We look forward to see what will happen there as God continues to open doors to enter this community. 

Jesus Film showing in Serenache

After returning home from the indigenous zone, David visited works in Sarapiqui and a very new work of Loma Larga that is in the province of Cartago.  Loma Larga is in a beautiful location in the mountains and we rejoiced to spend time with more than 20 people from different households in this community. We rejoice that God is opening works in all parts of Costa Rica.

Loma Larga

The following week, David visited Pastor Armando of David, Panamá.  Pastor Armando is one of the church planters with whom David works.  One of the highlights of this trip was to worship with the believers in a church in the community of Los Abanicos that was officially organized in September after being started with a Jesús Film presentation in February of this year.  It is so exciting to see this work grow in a community where there is so many needs, both spiritual and material. 

Los Abanicos

David made another trip to Panamá the following week for evangelism meetings where evangelism coordinators from Guatemala, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Panama shared about what God was doing in their countries. 

The last week of September David was able to attend a very special event.  Fourteen different denominations are working together to evangelize all of Costa Rica.  On September 26, pastors from all over the country of Costa Rica met to pray and to commit to a plan to distribute copies of the Jesús Film all through the country. Some churches are beginning special times of prayer for the evangelism of Costa Rica. 

 

We feel very privileged to serve the Lord here in Costa Rica and Panamá and ask that you please continue to pray that God will continue to raise up workers for the harvest.  He is able!  

Much love in Christ, David, Shelley, Joshua and Kayley

"What's the best part of your work as a missionary?"

Sometimes missionaries get asked questions something like these:

“What’s the best part of your work?  What do you do that you most enjoy?

I enjoy all the different aspects of my work including translating documents, administrating a Spanish language school, writing publications for SENDAS, and updating webpages and Facebook pages, but here is the best, most lasting part of my work as a missionary…

I get to be part of helping people discover God’s call on their lives.  I say “part of” since this is completely God’s thing, but I’ve got to say, I love watching God lead and guide people in their calling whether it be to serve as a missionary, a pastor, a teacher or a  ____________ (fill in the blank). 

My work with the CALL language school is key in this.  Volunteer missionaries, newly contracted missionaries, and other professionals come to CALL to learn the Spanish language, but it’s really a lot more than that.  Students learn to live in a new culture (How do I get to…? What is that?  Why do they do that?  What does it mean when…?), they discover their strengths and weaknesses, and through a time consuming process (sometimes up to year or more) they begin to see how God would have them serve, whether on the mission field or elsewhere.  Witnessing this process is super fulfilling, sometimes exasperating and always wonderful.

Recently, our Regional Director, Dr. Carlos Saenz, asked me a question I could not answer.  “How many people have studied with CALL?”   I could only answer, “Muchas.”  I really didn’t have any idea, so the next week I began to research by viewing all the monthly reports since CALL started in fall of 2009.  I was amazed to learn that 70 students have studied with CALL during that time.  Wow.

Here is the part that really gets me excited.  Some of these folks have felt a call to continue serving as missionaries.  Here are few of them that are serving as missionaries today:

Lora Wooster, serving with Partnerships for the Mesoamerica Region

Stephen and Anne Sickel, Work and Witness, Costa Rica and Panama

Bub and Rickie Honea, Work and Witness, CA4 Area

Dan and Janet Reinhart, serving with the Eurasia Region

Darin and Tonya Kucey, serving in Haiti

Others are in the process now, taking classes and serving as they study.

Patrick and Kim LeGrand, serving with Work and Witness, Costa Rica and Panama

Luke and Liz Gentry, serving with SENDAS

Gary and Naomi Faucett, currently taking online courses and will arrive in January to continue studying with CALL.

Of course that's not all of the CALL students with a call to missionary service, and there are many others who serve in other ways:  pastoring, teaching, serving children, administrating, etc.  Each of these people used their CALL and Costa Rica experience to build language skills to serve others.  One of our former CALL students now teaches Spanish in an elementary school in Washington D.C. and she does not have a Spanish major, but improved her skills through CALL. Now that’s an awesome ministry!

One last thing…I’ve learned I cannot predict who God will choose for missionary work or how He will have them serve.  Sometimes I think it’s obvious how someone should (or should not) serve.  These four years of CALL experience have shown me that God’s will in a person’s life does not always make human sense.  Actually, it usually doesn’t make sense.  Watching God mold and shape us (that includes me!) into who He wants us to be is an amazing process. 

I ask you, “What could be better than that?”