"Share Him" Meetings Come to An End

Wow, what an amazing and transformational two weeks we have had so far. Words don't seem adequate to describe the heartfelt connections and life changing experiences that I have had while in Costa Rica.

Our Share Him meetings came to end on Saturday night. What a fun, loving and exciting night it was. There was lots of singing. Ramsy told his final children's story. (More on Ramsy a bit later). Mom gave her final health talk, getting everyone involved in reviewing the information on being happy and healthy. She was so excited in questioning the audience about what they had learned the past nights, that she went way ahead of the translator. "Oopps, let me say that again!" she laughted as she recounted her last few points.

We has a new translator, Pastor Shepherd on Saturday night. He was pretty good. had a very smooth style and compassionate tone. I really liked the way he translated. But our main translator, Loyda, who has been working so dilligently and consistantly night after night for not only the 18 sermons that Dad preached, but she also translated all the childrens' stories and health talks and welcomes, whew! It was a lot and she was amazing. --very committed and passionate.

I feel like we are family. The whole church was like one big family. While interpreting sometime a word or phrase would come up that she didn't know or wasn't familiar with. A person or two in the audience would call up the word and she would then repeat it for the whole church. This "group effort" translation happened every night, ensuring the Word of God got out to the people.

Let me tell you about Ramsy. Night after night I have been telling wonderful and exciting stories from the Bible to the children, each one with a special lesson or message. I really wanted the children to get to know Jesus as their friend, as someone they could talk to and as their savior. I also wanted to them to know about God's book, the Bible and to be excited about it. The underlying theme, in every story was God's love for each one of them.

During the second week, after I has established a repoire with the kids and felt comfortable working with our translator, I introduced them to Ramsy, a quirky, cute, fat little hand puppet sheep that loves Jesus. "BAAAA!"

Oh, the kids loved him. They got so excited and interacted so freely and openly with this lovable character. Ramsy was just as much of a missionary as the rest of us. :-) At the end of every story, he gave out hugs to each child and reminded each of them that God loved him or so sooooo much, BAAAA! The little kids would open their arms wide and reach for Ramsy as he came to them. They were so precious. (some adults wanted to hug Ramsy too)



On the last night, Dad gave a short sermonette on wonders of Heaven and invited everyone to be there. "There will be no more sickness, or sadness or death," Dad explained. "I'll have my own mansion and you will too."

Mom, Ruby, and I were invited to come up and join him and share our thoughts on heaven. "I'm looking forward to seeing Jesus!" I said. And I really am.



But for me, the culmanation of the night was when my dear friends Kimberly, Jensy, and Lydia were baptized. It was beautiful and precious moment.






The night ended with fellowship, gift giving, lots of hugs and well wishes. We have made some lasting friendships. We all look forward to seeing each other again!

Let the sun shine! Let the sun shine in! Today we actually had some sun. It's been raining non stop for the past 11 days. Not regular light rain and it goes away. Rain, non-stop for days on end. Heavy, pouring, drenching rain as well as the light stuff. We have been going to sleep to the beautiful and mezmorizing sounds of rain pouring down on our galvanize roof. We have been waking up the the fresh rain that keeps everything here so lush and green. During the day we have been reminded of the outpouring of the Spirit with the constant rain. But I must admit, I have been missing the sun.

So when it came out briefly yesterday and then for a few hours todday, I rejoiced. The sun was really hot, but it was out and it was reflected in our attendance tonight.

We are working in the Costa Rican rainforest. I didn't realize that meant so much rain! I also didn't realize that we were in a part of the rainforest. With the many surrounding rivers, there are literally hundreds in Costa Rica, flooding is a real issue for the locals.



This one of the main rivers in our area. And it often floods. Can you see the house on the banks? I'm not sure how they survive. One of the church members told us that the houses on the banks often get washed away and the families (if they survive) have to rebuild.

Our attendance had been low for a few nights and the pastor said it was because of the rain. Folk stay home (very understandably why) when it rains. Not all the families live so close to the river. But all are affected by the rain.

Dad actually stood up during the beginnging of the week and asked the church to pray for the rain to stop. Pretty bold, huh? Yeah, Dad is doing it-- stepping out in faith. I have learned that Faith is one of his gifts. He has been demonstrating that in several ways since we've been here.

Another faith experience was when we got separated from the group during a tour in the rainforest and didn't know the way back! We made it, thank God. Dad kept going forward leading Mom and I on an unknown path. He was being lead by faith and not by sight.



This was Cherish and I before, Mom, Dad and I got separated from the group. As you can see, I was very happy at this time. I was not as happy when we were lost. But we kept our cool :-). It was a great adventure. Here are some pics.

Opening Night

We kicked off our Bible meeting on Friday night and had a really good turn out, about 15 members and 17 visitors. Being that the church is so small, this turn out was nice to see.





We had a rousing song service conducted by Brother Peace,one of the members. Everyone sang loudly, not perfectly in tune, but with so much heart.














Sister Dorla, another member, shared with the group that they would recived a gift if they were able to answer her bible questions correctly. Her questions were pretty tough. I think she wanted to inspire folks to start studying their Bibles.













Ruby gave a great welcome, and warmed up the group with her sincerity and passion.


I told a rousing children’s story about Daniel in the lion's den complete with sound effects including lion growls. (The sound effects were also translated into Spanish making it quite humerous!) The kids loved it! The lesson was that Jesus wants to be your friend and Savior. You can call on Him anytime.



Mom shared a beautiful health message about the benefits of sunshine. I saw the folks nodding in agreement. "God wants you to be healthy and happy" she reminded them.














Dad spoke a message of Love. I was so proud of Him. He preached on Christ's desire to be in a relationship with each individual and the Good News of the Gospel. He really wanted folks to know that God's love for them is real.
We got home tired but lifted up.

A Closer Look At the Spider Monkey

The little spider monkey was adopted by one of the hotel workers after its mother died. The monkey really believes it's human. Or maybe it believes humans are monkeys! :-) Either way, it loves human touch, likes to be carried around by hanging on a person's back and cries it you leave it alone. It was so adorable. I am tempted to bring one home. What do you think, Babe?

Our First Few Days

This is our nightly transportation.

On Thursday night we went to our site for the first time which is in the small town of Pacurito. This little town is only a few miles from our hotel. It is the first time (from any of the mission trips) that we only have to travel a few miles (less than 10) to get to our site. On our other campaigns, we had to travel at least an hour’s drive each way. It is very nice to travel only 15 minutes each way each night. I found that we are not as tired and worn out from long daily trips. This is a great blessing. We found out today that we were originally scheduled to be at a mountain top village several miles away, but they were unable to find transportation to get us there every night. So they switched us to this small town. I’m sure God has a reason and a plan for everything.



The town of Pacurito is small neighborhood type village. Because it is one of the poorest areas in Costa Rica, there is a lot of crime. There are gates and bars on everything even around the church. The houses are small one or two bedroom Caribbean type homes, cement block or wood structures with galvanize roofs. They are built close together. There are various fruit trees and exotic plants and bushes growing ramdomly everywhere with chickens and dogs roaming about.






The people of Pacurito who we have met are very genuine and down to earth. They love to smile. Some were a bit shy speaking with us, probably since they don’t know much English, and well, we don’t know much Spanish. The members of the Pacurito church were very happy to meet us and are excited that we are here sharing with them. The Pacurito church is the very first church in Costa Rica and was started in 1903. They have about 20 members.

Here I am with some of my new friends.




This was Sabbath School Service.