Celebration Baptist in Costa Rica

Today was a wonderful and different experience from the rest of our trip. We spent the morning playing with children at one of the orphanages for little ones aged 0-12. And yes, everyone picked out the kid they wanted to bring home. We'll be checking bags before leaving in the morning to ensure no new children have joined our team as "translators".  This evening we went to a feeding station to help serve food and play with the kids of an impoverished neighborhood. They had a ball with our goody bags and balloon animals. And we had a ball watching them play.

Todd and Bobby finished the kitchen cabinets in the house. They look fantastic! Their hard work has certainly paid off.  

Please pray our ride is on time (2:30 am) and we have a safe drive to San Jose. Please also pray for the driver as he returns to Turrialba by himself. And please pray for the flights home.

Celebration Baptist in Costa Rica

Today was a very busy day for all. We ate an early breakfast so we could get back to our projects and put in a full day. Bill and Rodolfo went back to working on the house with Timothy. They made great progress on some of the upstairs flooring. The remaining group went to plant trees and continued to dig the septic tank. At the end of the day, about 200 of the trees were planted and the septic tank hole is now around 4 1/2 feet deep (5x5). Our fingernails may be permanently dyed red from working in the clay. You could say we'll be bringing a bit of Costa Rica back to our everyday life.

Celebration Baptist in Costa Rica

Today was a busy day for us. Rodolfo and Bill helped work on constructing a house. Melinda taught Abby and John their school work so that Timothy and Katie could focus on going to town or getting other things done. The rest of the group began digging a hole for a septic tank. They broke down trees and roots, shoveling away. Sticks and stones didn't break any of our bones! In fact, other than a few minor scratches we are all still healthy. Definitely an answer to prayer. Timothy was very encouraging. He made sure we understood that what we do is a huge help to them. It enables them to get things done and focus on ministry.

Tomorrow we will continue work on the septic tank and the house. We will also begin planting 400 Cypress trees. Please pray for no rain and continued safety for all.

Celebration Baptist in Costa Rica

Today has been a wonderful Sunday. We were able to participate in the services at Mensajeros de Esperanza. Katrina shared a testimony about how the birth of Marshall had brought her back to Christ and Audrey shared about how the experiences with her grandmother's cancer years ago. The Lord used that experience and her mother's testimony to better show her what it means to be a child of God. Our group enjoyed a great time of worship with the congregation. At the end of the service our group gave the church a Proclaimer. A Proclaimer is an audio Bible that can be charged by cranking a handle, plugging it into an electric outlet or by solar power. The Proclaimer allows a group to select the book, chapter and verse so that everyone can study together. This is a resource that will allow the church to have a Bible Study or Church service anywhere.

Prayer Request

Please be in prayer for our soldier as he is serving in a tough area currently.

Nicaragua Construction Needs

A feeding shack is badly needed at a new feeding site. As you can see the photo above, when it rains they have a hard time cooking for the children.  They are in severe need of a new church building. The one they have is made out of cardboard. They have over 300 children at this site and there is a great need. We need $500.00 dollars for a good cooking shack and $9,000.00 dollars to build a new church. This includes space for the pastor’s house and his family in the back of the church.

In the photos of the dump area different families need homes. They currently live in cardboards and plastic homes that are not safe for the children. You can see a model concrete house we raised the funds to build the pastors house for $4,000 dollars we could help a family with a nice concrete house safe for the children with a concrete floor we can help make the difference and will give us the opportunity wide open to share Christ love with over 200 hundred families. These people have been in this condition for over 11 years and no government or anybody has ever helped them in any way. They believe in us because of the feeding program. We help make the difference and point them up to Jesus.

Nicaragua Soccar Camp - 25 Saved

      

We just did a one week indoor soccer tournament where we had 36 local teams playing. The gospel was shared with street kids and youth during the tournament. We shared refreshments with the players and even sandwich at the final games at the end of the week. The winning teams had to come to a youth church service at our church to receive their trophies where a plan of salvation was presented and 25 street kids prayed to receive Christ. We have found out tournaments are very effective for the kingdom. The reason we didn't have more teams was because we limited the number that could register. We could have had a lot more teams. This is something the Lord is laying on my heart to do at least every three months in different areas. I'm telling you it's so easy to get them to play soccer and then share the gospel, but we need the resources to buy trophies, indoor soccer balls, pay referees, buy refreshments etc. This would be something great to do when we have a team here to do missions.