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!