Goodbyes and Hellos

Hello World,

September was the month of the goodbyes.  No one likes goodbyes, but we have to admit, we have grown accustomed to it.  As a family, we were trying to count all the people who had come and gone from Costa Rica in the last 7.5 years and the number was HUGE.  We could think of 25 families in just a few minutes time, including both missionaries and CALL students who have lived on campus with us for an extended period of time. 

This month we said goodbye to three families:  the Jimenez’, the Gentrys and the Faucett.  We had a time to celebrate their lives and all they have accomplished while at SENDAS/CALL a few days before saying the final goodbyes.

Gentrys (back left), Faucetts (back right), CALL professors Nuria, Zeidy and Gaby (front).

The SENDAS staff and faculty at the Farewell party.

We are thankful that God gives us Hellos to balance out the goodbyes.  We are pleased to have the Honea family (Bub and Rickie) with us once again.  They studied Spanish with CALL a few years ago and have since taken on the huge job of Work and Witness Coordinators for CA-4 (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua).    

Independence day in Costa Rica is Sept. 15th and we enjoyed watching the schools receive and run with the torch.  This torch starts in Guatemala and continues through Central America until it reaches Costa Rica.  Then each school meets up with a torch (apparently lit from the main torch) and runs with it a number of km to their local school.  It is a neat tradition throughout Central America to celebrate their Independence.  

David has been preaching at various churches on Sundays, most recently at Poas.  We are so pleased to see not only that the gymnasium gets bigger and bigger (thanks to the Work and Witness teams who have come to help) but also that the sanctuary is packed out for services. 

Poas Church of the Nazarene, attendance of approximately 350 on Sundays.

Bub Honea was a huge help to us (Shelley and Kayley) one morning when a Mot-Mot bird flew into our back patio area.  We remembered he rescued a parrot when he lived here before, so we instantly called him and once again, he came to the rescue.  These are beautiful birds with bright colors of blue, green and yellow.  I doubt that Mot-Mot will make that mistake again for awhile.

We are excited that in November, two new churches will be organized in the North district.  One is located near Liberia and is in the community of Quebrada Grande and the other is in the area of San Jorge called Tres y Tres (Three and Three).  These both have been mission churches for a few years but have grown substantially and are ready to be organized officially.  YEAH!

Yesterday (Sunday) was Cultural Day in Costa Rica.  This is a national holiday and the local church celebrated with an international food festival after the service.  Kayley made chocolate chip cookie bars.  Most of the folks in the church are either from Costa Rica or Nicaragua, so the food was mainly from those two countries.  Yummy!

 

This month, we would like to include a number of prayer requests for various needs. 

Please pray with us for these pastors and churches.

1.  Pray for Leyla Ramirez, a pastor on the Central district whose husband Jorge unexpectedly died in September.  She is the mother of four, and three of the four kids live at home.

Leyla is in the center with Pastor Arcelio (left) and David (right).

2.  Pray for the two new churches to be organized in November.  Tres y Tres does not have a full time pastor and this is a great need.  Quebrada Grande is the other new church in the North.

Tres y Tres

3.  Pray for Miramar.  This town is the home of the first mission type church in the Puntarenas area.  We had a Jesus Film team come from Washington State to help with the work there and the four days of ministry were very successful, but the mission has not grown as we had hoped.  Pray for Pastor Jorge who is reaching out to his community there. 

Pastor Jorge and his family.

4.  Pray for the church in Limon and Pastor Edwin.  Limon is the main port city on the Atlantic side and is known for drug trafficking.  It is not an easy place to minister.  This church is beginning to find its identity in the Church of the Nazarene, and we want to be more attentive to this church in the coming months.

5.  Pray for the Indigenous area of Costa Rica and the Cabecar people.  The district currently is working in three main locations within the area, and we are praying for a strong leader to emerge from one of these areas who can help to develop the work there.  

David with some of the leaders from the Indigenous area.

6.  Pray for the SENDAS assembly on October 24^th.  This is the yearly meeting where leaders from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and South America come to serve as an advisory board. 

7.  Pray for the soon to arrive Work and Witness team from Tampa, FL who will work at Poas.  David is leading this team who are from our LINKS district.

8.  Pray for the Third Wave Conference that will take place in January on the SENDAS campus.  There will be approximately 280 youth leaders from all around the world.  Pray especially for the Evangelism Outreach day when the participants will work at four sites doing evangelism and compassionate ministries. The four sites include Orosi, San Ramon, San Pedro and Heredia.  Pray for the leaders who are preparing the communities for this special day.

9.  As always we would appreciate prayers for our family.  Joshua is having a good semester at MVNU in Ohio, Kayley has just completed the first quarter of her 11th grade year, and David and Shelley continue to be busy with ministry.  

Many blessings to you all.  Until next month,

Shelley, David, Joshua and Kayley