Important Update & Ministry Frustration!

Somedays it is just plain frustrating working with computers or actually not knowing how to work with my computer would be a more accurate statement! I have forever wanted to know how to put a video on here. Really, I would love to know how to make a video, first of all! Well, Katherine made one for her blog and our team of the two and a half weeks of ministry that we did at the Children's Home in Paraiso. She had Heather load it on her flash drive. We downloaded it to my laptop. I can play it on my computer and it is a really nice video. I just thought you would like to know that since I can't seem to get it loaded on here properly...frustrating! I have also been working on a newsletter in recent days. That has not come easy either. Ergh! The biggest frustration is that communication is "key" to missions work. I am a a communicator by nature. I don't like people to feel left in the dark. I certainly don't want my supporters to feel as though we take their support for granted! Please pray that I can get some things "figured out" this weekend on this computer so that I can better communicate with all of you who take the time to read our blog. Thank you for the really nice comments about the pictures, although, keep that in your prayers also. Our digital camera that we have had for three years broke. To replace it here will cost double the price since electronics are so costly here. Right now, as far as future ministry photos, we have to download them off Katherine's memory card.

For anyone reading the blog from the great state of North Carolina, in particular, the Charlotte area; your loved ones arrived here safely on Tuesday afternoon. They are all a hoot! Great senses of humor! Yesterday, they looked more like a demolition crew than construction workers, but they are progressing in their work. By this afternoon, I hope to be able to join them in painting since I was shooed off yesterday when we couldn't see each other due to "dust" and I am an asthmatic!

The Update: The main reason I wanted to post the video was to be able to show more pictures of the kids from the children's home. I thought it would be nice to hear the spanish music and see their pictures. Also the post would have been about the fact that when we left on Friday, Cynthia, the Educational Director told us that we "are welcome back to the children's home at any time and that the doors will always be open for us to serve there". I left with tears in my eyes. Like I have said so many, many times before, we step out in faith to serve and most of the time we return far more blessed! On Friday, not only did we serve the children, but before we left, we went to each individual home, and we laid hands on each mother and prayed for her, her home and the children that are placed in her care as a team. It was a special time! Please pray for a mother who really touched me. Her name is Carmen. We talked to her for just a few minutes after we prayed for her and before we went on to the next house. She has mainly preschoolers in her home that she cares for. She told us that it was such a blessing to be able to have some time apart from the kids when we came and took them from her home to minister to them in another area of the children's home. She is tired, but she is so gentle in her nature with the children and as I prayed for her, she lifted her hands to the Lord. Her deepest desire is to be a blessing to those little ones that the Lord has entrusted in her care!

How can you help minister to these 115 children and also the mothers? Begin to specifically pray for how you might take part in "Operation Orphan". We will be sending out a letter soon through Global Outreach Mission explaining a Christmas party that we will be hosting for the Children's Home at the camp. Our desire is to serve them through a day-long children's program, again pulling in the Youth Group from our church in order to lead them in serving their people!

Construction team preparations

We have been busy the last couple of days doing final preparations for a team that is coming down from none other than N.C. They are from the Charlotte area and will be doing some construction. Final preparations have included getting last minute items at the grocery store, (we did the bulk load of shopping on Saturday when we took the last summer missionary interim to the airport), construction supplies, a huge supply of clean, drinkable water and those kinds of things. I am a little tired tonight. They arrive at the airport around midday. Tomorrow we eat dinner with the team and then have an orientation meeting. They will be here for one week. They asked if there was anything that they could bring us. I can never think of anything when people ask and I never know what people might think is asking too much. It's kind of hard. So, what did I ask for? A bag of Bojangles biscuits! I can just about smell them! Course, Danielle had to tell us all the places she was going to "hit" when she got home after being down here for three weeks...Bojangles, Chick-fil-A, Cracker Barrel. Ken & I wouldn't give her the satisfaction. We just covered our ears and hummed and she went on and on. Hopefully tomorrow I can post some pictures of the children's home ministry that we did last Friday. I got to talk to my Mom & Dad tonight. I have only talked to them once since being here. Today is my Mom's birthday and I wanted to surprise her. I got to speak with my brother for just a few minutes too. They all sounded really good! Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you and Dad very much!

Serving Costa Rica as Missionary Kids

As we were preparing for some upcoming clinics with our summer missionary interims; on a couple of occasions the team would go out into the neighborhood to practice taking BP's, weights, temps and heights. You be amazed that by offering this "Free" service, it would open the doors for them to share their faith, pray for people, hand out tracts and cultivate relationships. They were also able to get the word out about the church meeting at the campground. This is Jordan with his backpack loaded down with tracts handing one to a young lady in the neighborhood and talking to her.

This is Kyle with Kat as his interpreter praying for a man in our neighborhood.

Heather...the "bead queen" taking a break from the triage area of a recent clinic to string some beads with the kids!

On one of the "walks" through the neighborhood Heather practiced taking blood pressures as Jordan looked on.

There are always "jobs" to be done at the camp. On this day, Heather helped us out with painting a cabin. She is proud of her new smile. Notice that she has had her teeth capped! Gone are the West Johnston High School Marching Band Color Guard trophies! This was done recently by a missionary dentist for free at one of the God Festivals. God is good!

Ephesians 2:10

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do".

Children's ministry, as many of you know, is my passion, a burden, a gift that God has given to me. Coming from very humble beginnings and being "dropped off" at social services for adoption has always been part of my personal testimony and my desire will always be to use those circumstances for His honor and His glory. Katherine, my teammate, is a preschool teacher and children's ministry runs in her veins too! I had been thinking and praying about what God would have us to do as far as children's ministry here in Costa Rica. While we have short-term teams come down and do children's ministry with us; I was praying for something that we could begin to do as a family and a team on a monthly basis, perhaps for a day or afternoon every two weeks. Katherine came up with the idea of trying to see if a children's home would consider opening their doors to us (Amy, our summer missionary interim is also a preschool teacher) so that we could minister to the children there. I knew of a youth home in Cartago, about a 45 minute drive from the camp that may be we could call. What Kat found out in her phone calling was that there was a children's home 20 minutes away from the camp in the town of Paraiso. Paraiso is where we receive our mail. It quite honestly seemed to be "too good to be true" to find out that there was a home so close to us! She made the phone call and for the last two weeks, Amy and Brittany (the other summer missionary interim who has now returned to the States) have been ministering in this children's home, sharing the gospel through Bible stories, doing crafts, singing, hugging and loving on these children. There are 115 young children at this home. There are several "houses" on the property which have a Mom and about nine kids living in them to make a "family". The Mom's are exhausted, some of the Mom's are young, but this is their "job".
Last Friday night, Danielle and Brad, Jeffrey (our church Youth Pastor) and 7 members of our Youth Group here at the church went to the children's home with our team (the boys and I had to stay home to provide enough seats in the van) and served a hot dog supper followed by a movie to the kids. This was Brittany's last time to serve with the children and it was a kind of party, an ending to the two weeks of ministry there. We provided microwave popcorn and it was interesting to hear how the kids would finish the popcorn and then rip open the bags and lick the butter on the inside wrapper of the bags. They enjoyed it so much!

Amy is leaving this Saturday to return to the States too. Tomorrow and Friday Kat, Amy and our entire family will be ministering in the children's home. We will work with the younger children in the mornings and the older children after lunch. This is a contact that we (Kat & I) have longed to have. This will enable us, when short-term children's ministry teams come down to Costa Rica from Canada and the States to take the team there to minister. It will also allow us to transport the kids to the camp for a team to minister there with the children. This is a beginning and right now we are in the "earn our trust" stages with this children's home, but the long-term implications of this partnership and the open doors it would provide for ongoing ministry are amazing!

We feel like this is, as the above verse says, something that God prepared in advance for us to do, since every phone call Kat made previously had a negative response. The Director knows that we are evangelical Christians and has given us permission to "share" our faith, as this is a privately owned children's home, not a government sponsored home, since their goal is to have each child make their own religious decisions!

Please continue to keep our team in your prayers as we pray about the direction that God would have us to continue in with this partnership. Pray for the youth of our church as we continue to pull them into joining us in reaching out to their people! Pray for us as we attempt to minister to the Mom's. The Director shut down our idea of having Danielle serve them by providing hair cuts last week, but we are praying about how we can directly minister to them. The hot dog dinner and movie was our Plan B and we thank the Lord for His provision to allow us to serve both the children and the Mom's in this way!

These children are not easy to work with, but in God's eyes I can only assume that neither am I!

Serving in the "Red Zone"

On August 9th we partnered with Festival con Dios (God Festival) and entered the "Red Zone" of the capital city, San Jose. Global Outreach Mission has been partnering with this ministry for the past couple of years. The "Red Zone" is considered to be the most dangerous part of the inner city. Here reside the drug addicts, prostitutes, alcoholics and homeless. God Festival has a roster of 90 volunteers who once a month, usually the last Saturday of each month, literally go into a designated area (they even cross the borders of neighboring countries such as, but not limited to Nicaragua, to serve) and "saturate" it for the Lord! The volunteers consist of Christian lawyers who donate their counsel, hair stylists, dentists, children's ministry workers, Pastors, evangelism teams, medical personnel and cooks. The initial wave of God Festival volunteers arrive in the designated area at 4 a.m. and set up the tents, stage, food areas and equipment. The rest of the volunteers arrive at around 7 a.m., finish setting up their own personal equipment and begin serving the people by approximately 8 a.m.

This is Danielle at the hairstylists station. Heather is acting as Danielle's interpreter to find out how the people would like their hair cut and the young lady in the black T-shirt is a Tica volunteer. She is Danielle's security guard should someone get a little crazy. To the left of Heather, but out of view of the picture are another eight hairstylists who are set up to work and to the right of Danielle, also out of view of the picture are two armed security guards. Danielle began cutting hair at 8 a.m. Sadly, every person she worked on had head lice.

Brad and our interim missionary served in a number of positions this day. They started out in children's ministry when there was shortage of workers early in the day, were pulled into the pharmacy to count pills for prescriptions when things got busy, and ended up working in evangelism, handing out tracks and praying for people. The evangelistic volunteer team literally spans out into the surrounding neighborhood of where the festival is taking place, going door-to-door handing out tracks and witnessing to whoever will listen.

These are children's ministry worker volunteers. The lady to the left is dressed as a clown and she is pointing to a beaded bracelet explaining the plan of salvation as represented by different colored beads which both the volunteers have made with these two children. She also has made a balloon animal for the girl.

I am working in the pharmacy and the licensed pharmacist has asked me to count pills before the doctors even begin seeing patients based on what she knows will be the most commonly prescribed medications for this area. I am working on preparing and labeling Amoxicillin (an antibiotic).

This is the triage area where they are beginning to consult with patients, take their vitals and get them in to see physicians. I sometimes work at this station since I went to school to be a Medical Assistant. This is actually set up in a nearby church building, what appeared to be their Sunday School rooms, and everything else is going on outside, set up in the central park of the city.

What you don't see are the food service volunteers who feed every single person who comes to the festival this day a good, hot meal.

After we left the airport on Saturday we drove three hours away, nearly to Limon, to work in a medical clinic in a very remote part of the country that our Pastor had set up in a church for us. We spent the night Saturday night and Sunday we saw 125 patients. I saw another Pastor lead a young lady to the Lord!

Well, this is just one aspect of our ministry here. Please continue to pray for our medical clinics that people would be relieved from health conditions and from "heart conditions" too.

Blessed!

We've been a little "teary-eyed" around here the last two days, but we were so blessed to be able to have three weeks with Danielle & Brad! Saying good-bye was even more difficult than in March when we left, but we deeply appreciate those of you who have emailed us yesterday and today to check in and to just let us know that you are praying for us! It means so much and has been such an encouragement!

God's timing is always amazing to us and after five months, the internet connection was installed in our home today! It is so nice to be able to email Danielle (maybe four times in an hour is a little "much" for her), but I can't tell you how comforting it is just to have this connection, not to mention with family and friends! Ah, to be able to sit down at the laptop and write longer emails to people without feeling rushed and to be able to share! You never know how much you miss something until you are required to go without it!

I hope to be able to post some pictures on here of some of our recent ministry projects and share in more detail what we have been up to in recent weeks. With using someone else's internet in their home before, I felt like I was just posting in "survival" mode.

Here's a quote that has been speaking to me as we serve here in Costa Rica! I really thought it was worth sharing.

"Do not expect God to do apart from prayer, what He has said He would do only if we pray"...Arnold Geswein

Surf's Up Dudes and Dudettes!!!

Here's a picture of Jordan on his 8th birthday on Wednesday! Ken decided that we should rent Jordie a surf board for the day. This picture is taken at Jaco Beach on the Pacific Ocean where they take beginner's to learn to surf. Needless to say, well, Jordie didn't get up on his feet, but he seemed to have a good time! Danielle, Brad, Kyle and even Ken all gave it a try. We are still waiting for "The Jordie" as in Foister to come and teach us all how to surf properly and quit paddling around! Happy Birthday, Jordan Taylor!

Volcan Arenal!

I'm so excited, nobody else is, but that's okay! I have finally seen the number one tourist attraction here in Costa Rica. I "off the cuff" made the comment on Saturday evening that we should leave "now", however, I forgot how adventurous and spontaneous Danielle can be and sure enough, two hours later, at around midnight when we had planned on leaving at around 7 am ish on Sunday morning, we were on our way to the Volcano. Okay, the keyboard is in Spanish and I can't remember how to decode it for the "icons" like space, the paragraph sign, so you will just have to bear with me...sorry! Needless to say, we arrived here at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, couldn't check into the hotel, had a hard time finding a restaurant open for breakfast and well, it's been fun. We got a glimmer of the volcano without any clouds around it when we arrived, but it has been shrouded since. They say it has been blowing some lava, but again, last night there were too many clouds to see it. I'm glad we had the few minutes to take it in because it was certainly worth it! This morning we are leaving for the other hot destination, the Pacific Ocean side of the country which is the only thing Brad really wanted to see while he was here, but I have to say, Ken is just as excited! He woke up this morning and said he wanted to leave. I said the word, "beach" to Danielle and in ten minutes she was packed and ready to go. I felt bad for poor Brad! No shower, no time for teeth brushing, just get to the hotel free breakfast table. I gave him a big hug as stumbled around his room. Danielle has been busy doing free haircuts and needs a break. So, I just thought I'd let eveyone know, we're on our way out of here and driving four to five hours to spend two days at the beach. Okay, the natives are ready as they stand around me! Until later....Sherri