I'm almost persuaded........Wednesday

We have been following the same basic schedule each day.  Diane has been leading a wonderful ladies Bible class each morning.  Chase Turner is leading the men's class in the other room.  Both classes have been focused on family issues. (Marriage, Children, and roles in the church)  There has been awesome discussion in each class.

(Jose, our bus driver)

Tim Hines has our evening lesson each night & he is one awesome speaker.  Yesterday, Cristian had announced that he had faith that there would be a baptism.  He had so much faith that he had filled the baptistry.  Well, come to find out, one of the young Costa Rican member's mother has said she may get baptized.  It has been a couple of days and it still hasn't happened.  We need all of your prayers that it will!!  We have only one more day of the campaign.  The church has put so much work into the effort that it would be such a blessing if it happened.

Friday morning we will be leaving and going to the beautiful Bible camp we stayed at last year.  This is not your ordinary Bible camp, it's like Bible camp in heaven.  I'll take lots of pictures!!!  We have planned a retreat with classes for us as well as the Purral church members.

Fearfully & Wonderfully Made!!

Tuesday:

We are starting to run out of steam, but the Lord is giving us the strength to perserver!  There's several of us who have been on this trip since 6/20 and we are feeling it.  Not only that, this is a totally different kind of work.  This work is more spiritual than physical.  Sometimes that makes it harder!  Often it is easier to keep your body moving and working, than to open up your heart to people to help them with their spiritual needs.

We have been following the same basic schedule which means we arrive at the church around 8 am and leave the church around 8:00 pm! (sometimes later)  I'm loving the ladies' Bible class.  We are having lots of participation all the ladies regardless of their age or nationality.  We've already had two great lessons on marriage and raising your children up to be Christians.

Yesterday, they decided that it was too distracting being in the main room, so we had class in a tiny room.  We had about 25 ladies packed like sardines!  (Nearer my God to thee!!)

The ladies of the church (with some of us helping) having been graciously preparing lunch and dinner for us each day.  It seems they go out of their way to feed us and keep us happy!!

After lunch, we have 3 choices of work. (door knocking, VBS at the children's home, or painting at the children's home)  Today, I door knocked.  

In Costa Rica, (at least in the city) families are barricaded behind tall, locked gates.  I can't imagine living that way.  Some have very small yards with beautiful flowers and vegetation, but I can't imagine living that way.  Living like that, also makes door knocking hard.  You have to "knock" on the gate with something hard, the best thing is a colonas (the CR coin).  A lot of the CRs don't open their gate, but we leave a tract and an invitation.

(Young people practicing for the VBS skit.)

Tim Hines has been our evening speaker each night.  He is fluent in Spanish and he usually gives the sermon in Spanish & Chase Turner translates it in English for us.  They are quite the duo because Tim often reverts to English and then Chase has to translate into Spanish!!  He does it with ease never breaking a stride.

(One of the most wonderful thing about CR is there is little bakeries or panaderias around every corner with fresh bread.)

(Door knocking selfie, actually this is when we took a break for fresh bread.)

(Lincoln from Gulf Shores, one of our youngest door knockers.)

Tim is a dynamic speaker & I wished I had the time to`tell you about his message. Here's some of it in my own words.  God is a masterful creator, he knew us before we were born.  He created each of us uniquely with a specific purpose.  There is approximately 7 billion people in the world and each person has a unique fingerprint.  Does that not sound like an accident??  What was God's purpose for creating us???  See below.

Eph. 4:11 & following: And it is he who gifted some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, and still others to be pastors and teachers, 12 to equip[a] the saints, to do the work of ministry, and to build up the body of the Messiah[b] 13 until all of us are united in the faith and in the full knowledge of God’s Son, and until we attain mature adulthood and the full standard of development in the Messiah.[c]

Our purpose is to serve to build up the church and build up until we are unified and all of us (the world) comes to know God.  Are you living up to your purpose???

Monnday or lunes, A Day of Work & Study

Today's schedule was very similar to yesterday except one difference. While part of the group went door knocking, the rest of the group went to a local children's home.  There a large group did a VBS with the children and the rest starting painting some of the homes.  I was helping paint.  

(Breakfast is included at the Best Western.  This is a typical Costa Rican breakfast.  Costa Ricans love rice!!)

We had Manuel, a bilingual Costa Rican high school student, and the local preacher's father with us.  Cristian's father wasn't attending last year.  He has quite the sense of humor.  He spoke some English and I told him that I missed him last year.  He laughed and said he was out of the country.

(Chase Turner led us in a 6 am yoga class by the pool.  We were much more comfortable on the grass!)

We were told that these children had been taken out of homes for different reasons. (abuse, neglect, etc.)  We were not allowed to take any photos and we shouldn't be the first to hug or initiate physical contact.  (Also, when we were told we couldn't take any photos, it wasn't clear if we could take photos of the home, so I don't have any pictures.) Of course, we wouldn't turn away if a child gave us a hug.  The painting group didn't have much interaction with kids, but a few boys came over to watch us paint.  Some even helped us paint.  Young boys can't resist painting.

(Diane led an awesome ladies' Bible class about marriage.  We had lots of great comments and participation from all ladies from different generations and nationalities.

Here's some great borrowed  photos from Honduras:

(This is El Diamante.  There is only some much that my Iphone camera can do.  This picture does the beauty justice!!)

(I think this is the cancer ward.)

(Starting our missionaries young)

We headed back to the church around 3:30.  That meant more fellowship till dinner around 5 and then worship at 6.  Tim Hines had another awesome lesson.  This attendance was up and we expect it to keep growing!!

The Lord's Day in Costa Rica

We pretty much have hit the ground running.  I won't have much text and detail today because there isn't a lot of extra time.  We are staying in the Best Western Irazu, which is totally different than when we were in Honduras.  The mission focus is totally different too.  We are here to support and edify the church here.

Sunday's schedule:

7:00  Breakfast in the hotel

8:45  Arrived at church

9:30  Bible class (A wonderful lesson by Jeremy Myers from Ark.)

Fellowship

11:00-12:00 ish  Thad Butts from Gulf Shores, AL presented the sermon

12:00-1:00  Fellowship while the meal was being prepared  (I helped cut up cucumbers and tomatoes.)

I learned a fancy way to prepare the cukes.

1:00-2:00  Lunch

(Door knocking selfie)

2:00-3:30   Door knocking in the neighborhood

3:30-5:30  Fellowship

5:30-6:00  Dinner

6:30-7:30  Evening church  (A dynamic sermon by Tim Hines from Louisiania.)

Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I could say good night.....

(Diane and I with the busdriver, Norlan)

Yes, it is the 4th of July, we didn't forget.  Some of us showed our patriotism in our clothing.  Some of us loudly sang patriotic songs on the bus.  For us, it was about saying good-bye to the people and country we love.  This was the first trip for many and lots shed tears of sadness because they didn't want to leave.  To us who have been coming many years, we are sad to say good-bye to the sweet, loving Hondurans that we only see once a year.

We love you!!!  (Evelyn, Wendy, David, Jonni, Aldo, Oneyda, Marlon, Norlan, Katia, Pedro, Antonio, Manuel, Caesar, the staff at Villa Gracia, all of the children at the daycare, the community of El Diamante, and many more!!)  We pray that God may bless you and keep you safe!!!

We had two buses headed to the airport.  There was a group of about 12 of us who were heading on to Costa Rica.  The airport at Tegucigalpa is never a fun place.  It is very crowded, busy and there is only enough chairs to hold about 20% of the people there!!!  Our flight to CR was much later in the afternoon, so we couldn't even check in until 11:30 or so.

(Evelyn from the daycare made a point of coming to say good-bye to us at the airport

The airport was where we said good-bye to our fellow Torchers who were headed back to the US.  There were lots of hugs and "Proximo Anos!"  

(Some of the Mitchells)

We finally got in line to check into our flight.  We had heard the weight limit was 35 lbs, or 70 lbs. for two.  That caused many of us concern.  My bags were 35 lbs and 45.  That was after I had given some things away.  Pat went through first and he said he was in first class, so when I went up, I said, "First class?"  The gentleman said, "We'll see."  It ended up that Diane, Randi, Cassidy, and Pat and I got in first class.  Needless to say, It was nice.  

(Cassidy and I in first class)

(Some of our team eating dinner in CR.  You see Cristain Vargas, the CRican preacher and his family.)

(We met Chase last year in CR.  He is a great translator and man of God.)

We made it to CR which means it's time to shift gears.  This trip's focus will be completely 360 degrees different.  Hasta manana!!!