It all started with...

THIS! In nine days of clinics a total of 1,043 people were seen; 815 in the medical clinics and 228 in the dental clinics running simultaneously with children's ministry. The flyer above was prepared for the first 3-day site in the town of Cachi at the High School. From there more flyers were prepared for another set of 3-day clinics at a church in Tuccirrique. With the first six straight days of clinics behind us, on Sunday we stayed at the camp and worshipped as well as prepared for the orphan home/mother's ministry on Monday and a free day on Tuesday. We finished the last three days in a church in Cartago.

Saturday, the team took medicine inventory, the children's ministry team cleaned the closet and placed things back in their rightful places. The team left at 2:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. We cleaned the Celebration Center on Sunday morning for an evening church service with Puente de Esperanza welcoming back their Youth from a Youth Retreat! Today, we grocery shopped for our family as well as took a couple with us who are staying on for four more weeks to do odd jobs around the camp. This afternoon Ken worked on the new cabin "mudding" one of the bathrooms and we hope to paint in the next day or two to finish the cabin for the weekend rentals!

Pictures and more details of the last two week team from the U.S. and Canada to follow as soon as I get some rest!

Hickory Grove Children's Ministry - Part II

This past Wednesday was the culmination of our working with the Hickory Grove Children's Ministry. The four weeks before we talked about what a missionary is, what the "message" is of a missionary. We talked specifically about the ministry that we do in Costa Rica with the campground and then we talked about the outreach ministries that we also do: the Orphan Home ministry, the two Children's homes, the Homeless Shelter, the Women's Ministry. We showed slides of all of the above, enjoyed some Costa Rican snacks, discussed the Wordless Book and finally finished our Wordless Book bracelets! Last Sunday, this group of kids stood up and sang in Spanish a four verse worship song we taught them over the four weeks. Okay, if ever there is a time that the Lord allows us to be "proud" - I was so proud of each of them! They sang that song like Spanish was their first language and we taught them what each verse meant in English. So, we finished our four weeks up sadly, but then found out that this past Wednesday night, the kids were planning on coming to our house to do a little service project for our family. A dear supporter and friend had been working on tidying up the landscape around the front of our house. Not having much a green thumb myself, he spent a week with me and the boys (Kyle & Jordan) educating us on the care of our shrubbery, trimming things back, killing weeds, and preparing the beds for winter. He brought fiberglass mesh, soil conditioner and he delivered three loads of mulch to the house the days prior to the kids arrival. Below are some pictures of the kids service project.

The first picture is looking down my porch stairs at one big pile of mulch!


With the fiberglass paper laid down and just a few landscape nails securing it, the kids finished placing and pushing in the nails, and then started to load up plastic beach buckets with the soil conditioner.

They were excited and ready to go from the time they got off the church van with their teachers in tow!

It was so hot that early evening and the kids only had about 20 minutes to work since they were being treated to McDonald's ice-cream cones just down the road from our house and on the way back to the church. The next day, Jordan helped place and cut the fiberglass mesh around the trees in our front yard.

I got to working on the mulch piles!


But, before the kids left they wanted us to know how much they loved us and they told us so as a united group. Holding back tears, I reminded them how much our family loved each one of them. No service at this age is complete without a cookie (or at least I thought so), and even though they were going down the road to get an ice-cream cone, I baked up some M&M cookies and put some juice boxes on ice just in case the heat might overtake anyone ;)

Thank You Hickory Grove Wednesday Night Children's Ministry for the gift of a beautifully tidied up front yard. Most of all, thank you for the gift of your smiles, laughter, love and encouragement. We love you all!

Children's Ministry at Hickory Grove

Last week was our first Wednesday night of sharing to the children of our home church over the next four weeks. Our evening began with me speaking in Spanish and Heather interpreting my Spanish into English for the kids to understand. It was heart-warming to have some of the kids so eagerly share how they could count to 10 in Spanish. In preparing for our first meeting, the Lord made it clear to me not to show slides or talk about Costa Rica at all, but rather to focus on talking about what a Missionary is and what Message they share with people. I also shared the shell of the Wordless Book presentation, adding in some other verses and thoughts as well. I shared about the elements of growth in our relationship with God and about telling others that we have a relationship with him! Three kids raised their hands at the end of the salvation prayer that they had accepted Jesus, though at least two of them I was pretty sure already had. I found out later that one of those kids raised their hand because they had accepted Jesus before, but learned that he was supposed to tell someone else, and previous to that night, never had. Praise the Lord!

We began learning the first verse and chorus of a Spanish worship song and when asked after we sang how many kids in the room could speak Spanish, they all had big smiles when I informed them that they all could (because they all sang)! While we had a craft prepared, we ran short of time with it being the first night, so we'll plan on beginning our Wordless Book bracelets next week. And of course, we had to have a snack...so Ken & Kyle cooked the kids some tortilla chips and made salsa rosada (a mayonnaise and ketchup dip) for the kids. ALL of the older kids enjoyed that and some of the younger kids too.

Below are some pictures; us being introduced, speaking to the kids, sharing a snack and answering some questions.

Back in N.C. and preparing for ministry, how you can pray!

We arrived home safely to North Carolina yesterday morning at 4 a.m. after spending two weeks in New York visiting our family and friends. This visit was especially enjoyable and it seemed as though God multiplied our time there as the two weeks felt more like four. We got to see everyone we wanted too and didn't feel rushed in our visitations. The last two times that we have been up to New York have been because of one of our parent's funerals. This time, there were more smiles, jokes and laughing. I had a wonderful time at a long anticipated family reunion getting to see my Aunt's and Uncle's, and cousins. When we moved to North Carolina in 1997 the family always happened to schedule the reunion in August when school was starting for our kids in N.C., and we were never able to make the trip up North. I saw family members that I hadn't seen in 14 years! We also had reunions on Ken's side of the family in that Aunt's and Uncle's came to meet us for meals on the road as we traveled through States; so much fun! ALL six of us kids got to be together in NY again as well. I did get to win one Parchessi game, but of course, with no mercy being shown, I lost more than I won! Perhaps, I will have a better round of games in October when we return!


We have been invited to minister to children over the next four weeks at Hickory Grove Church during their Wednesday night program. We will be discussing Missions and it's Message, teaching the kids a Worship Song in Spanish, doing crafts, discussing and showing pictures of our ministries in Costa Rica, and introducing them to Costa Rican foods and snacks! Your prayers are much appreciated and needed...Thank You!

The day after....Christmas!

Our next team arrived! They were here at the camp for a week and a half. They came as a children's ministry team with two "handymen husbands". I think that you will see from the pictures below that we strive not to be your "cookie cutter" ministry; always seeking to do things in ministry that will stretch those who God has sent to serve alongside us as well as our family!

The children's ministry team wanted to do something with the orphan home kids, but we have found that having them at the camp and working with them there is much easier on us as far as transporting the team and supplies to and from the orphan home, and we usually have much better behavior from the kids when they are at the camp because they realize that it is a privilege to be down at the camp.

The theme that the team had decided upon using was two-fold; CEF's Wordless Book and it's colors, and an overall theme that "I'm Special to God"!

My job was to take their "ideas" for programming and help them make it into a program that would work best with these kids. Much like VBS programs are run at home, I decided on a rotation of stations after an opening with songs, and the Bible story message. At this station, the ladies are coloring fingernails in the colors of the Wordless Book to reiterate that message.

With every team before you can even begin working on ironing out the team's ministry while they are here; you have to do sorting of the supplies which they bring with them. In an email I was asked what I felt that this group could focus on bringing down. I asked them to concentrate on getting donations to make hygiene kits for the ongoing homeless shelter ministry that we have, and if they felt that they could, small gifts that could be used in gift bags to minister to the Mom's at the orphanage. Here is one of the completed hygiene kits for the homeless shelter.

One of the ministries that is near and dear to my heart is the homeless shelter ministry and in our initial conversations, I asked the team leader if she thought that her group might be interested in preparing a meal at the camp to take with us to a homeless shelter and feed the men there. She was more than sure that the group would want to do that! Having our partnership with Promundo Fundacion means that we call them when we are setting up the logistics for a team with a date of when we would like to serve a homeless shelter. They then call around in their network of homeless shelters and find out which homeless shelter needs a meal on that date (the homeless shelters survive solely on donations and many shelters frequently go without the ability to feed those being housed there) and they call us back and tell us which one to go to and how many we can expect to cook for. When the team commits to doing this, we do the grocery shopping of all the supplies that they will need to carry this out; drink, plastic cups, plates, silverware, napkins, spaghetti, sauce, bread and butter. Here's two of the ladies beginning to prepare the sauce. In addition to serving the men, someone shares a testimony and other teams have done dramas.


Because this team was smaller in number, we asked a friend of ours who also ministers through Promundo Fundacion to come and help us with this group. Roberto and his wife, Patricia are Costa Rican missionaries in their own right. They live on the support of others and the focus of their ministry is children, but they also work with homeless shelters like us. Ken and I have heard Roberto's testimony and he was as a child an orphan. Who better than to lead the games and music with the orphan home children than Roberto & Patricia? Being given up by my biological mother for adoption at 2-1/2 yrs. old I understand that there is a need to have "trust" restored in the minds and hearts of these children. Here, Roberto's activity is building trust within the orphan home, by having the girls do this activity girl-to-girl as well as the boys doing it boy-to-boy. Some of the other activities that we did with the children divided them off by each individual home and we all were witnesses to God moving them toward restoration. By the end of week of VBS, 66 children from the orphan home made first-time commitments to the Lord!

After church one morning, a Costa Rican friend came to me and said, "do you know why I keep asking you if I can buy one of the bunkbeds at the camp from you"? (Of course, we need all the beds at the camp to house teams and rental groups) My reply was "no". She then told me that she had a neighbor who had five children and that they had mattresses, but not all of the children had beds, in fact, two of them had to sleep on their mattresses on the floor. I told her I could not promise her anything, but I knew with the January team that there would be construction workers coming and maybe we could help out in some way. She was happy enough that I would try to help out her neighbor-friends. At the time of this conversation with her, I didn't know that two of the husbands accompanying their wives were handymen on the team! When they got here, I told them the story, and they were more than thrilled to be asked to make them. Other jobs that they did included replacing roofs on the two cabins and the other missionary house. The family that needed the bunkbeds lives in Palomo where the church that was meeting in the camp has moved too. Below is their picture. We invited Pastor Mario to meet us there at their home to pray for them when we surprised them with the bunkbed delivery.

When the beds were complete I called my friend and found out that the day we were delivering them was the little girl's birthday! It's amazing to us how God opens doors for His work to get done!

Children's Ministry Team

The Team from Threshold Church based out of Charlotte, N.C. arrived in the beginning of December for three days of children's ministry (VBS) at the camp. We, of course, did the normal pre-team preparations of lining up their transportation, grocery shopping, snack shopping for the children, etc. This is a team that has come down every January for a week since we've been here and even actually before we were here. They are like stellic VBS pro's and really don't need too much of our help once they get here. Heather and Kyle usually help with some of the translation and program. This year, they served about 126 kids and this is the closing program. 23 children came to know the Lord in those three days...Praise the Lord!

Amy's First-Aid kits

When Candace first arrived we took her on a tour of the Carpio Clinic where she is ministering each day this week, with the exception of Tuesday, when it is closed; and then we went shopping for first-aid containers. Candace and Amy put together 18 of these kits for each home with Heather & Javier's help, and while there is a nurse on staff at the orphan home, I know that it will go a long way in helping the mothers to clean scrapes and cuts in their homes, keeping germs at bay until the nurse can get around to check things out!

Ministering at the Orphan Home

We ministered at the orphan home for two days; last Friday and also this past Tuesday. These pictures are from last Friday while the previous post was from this week on Tuesday.

Since the kids in the orphan home go to school for a half day it gave us the opportunity to fit a lunch break into our schedule. We thought that Candace might enjoy having lunch at the Mirador in Orosi (the look-out) to give her the opportunity to take some photo's and also to just enjoy the beauty of the valley in which we are allowed to minister.

This photo is taken from one side of the Mirador, a cleared field overlooking some of the opposite mountains and valleys.

This photo is overlooking Cachi, a town past Orosi. This is the same river that flows behind the campground.

On both Friday and Tuesday we packed a picnic lunch, kind of a "make-your-own" sub-type lunch with baguettes, lunch meat and toppings as well as chips, soda and cookies. Everyone seemed to enjoy this and the team fellowship as well! This is taken from the Orosi Mirador and on Tuesday we went to the Ujarras Mirador, across the valley on another mountain.

And the parachute, a gift from Global Outreach Mission, is still a big hit in children's ministry!

One of the really fun things that Amy & Alex prepared in the hygiene teaching was a video entitled, "The Batman". Amy had found it online and it demonstrates the proper way to protect a sneeze from spreading germs. Of course, Amy didn't have too much problem finding a volunteer on the team to demonstrate "The Batman" following the video, live to the kids! Here's our Batman, Jordan!

Thank the Lord for Heather, always willing to lead music and with Becca & Tate's help, we were well prepared to minister through music with beautifully decorated posterboards!

Keep us in your prayers as tonight we go to minister at the homeless shelter. Candace and Emil & his family will be joining us in that as we prepare in the campground kitchen this afternoon a spaghetti dinner for 90 people. Tomorrow, sadly Emil and his family will begin their trip back home in the late afternoon, so please keep them in your prayers for traveling mercies. Candace will leave on Saturday as well and would appreciate the same prayers. It will be kind of lonely around here, that's for sure!

Scipio Center, NY

One of the churches that we were invited to while we were home in the States was the Scipio Center Community Church located in Scipio, NY (Central NY). They asked us to be their guest speakers for their week-long VBS program. The theme of their VBS was the Rain Forest! We came armed with all the fascinating photos for their kids that we could find on our cameras; you know, the tarantulas, iguanas, bananas on the trees, the monkeys, all things Rain Forest and Costa Rica! We had a great time sharing with them on a number of different levels; what it means to be a missionary, what a missionary does in a foreign country, what our family does in Costa Rica for work and for fun, etc.

This first picture is of Jo Beth and Heather leading the music. Jo Beth has actually been to Costa Rica and served alongside of us on a children's ministry team. Heather and Jo Beth hit it off and since this is my sister, Wendy's, home church; whenever we get to visit her and her husband, Gary, Jo Beth and Heather get to see each other. They make a GREAT team, along with Jo Beth's sister.

This is just a few of the preschool kids. They are so much fun! Many had a lot of questions about missions and living in a foreign country. You never know what seed God might have planted in the heart of one of these small children.

I found a Dr. Seuss book entitled, "If I Ran the Rain Forest" and while it didn't have any Biblical basis, the book itself, had lots of whimsical drawings of rain forest animals and the four floors of the rain forest. This was an educational tool and I read it to the younger groups of kids while I was there one day. They all had lots of questions about the rain forest which this book helped to answer. Though, the rhymes in true Dr. Seuss style were real tongue twisters!

Five days of being in front of the kids, while only for five to ten minutes, by the last day, I was hoarse! I shared a couple of different illustrations, tye-dying a coffee filter with different colored food colorings each representing a "difference" that we saw in the Costa Ricans when we first arrived to Costa Rica, but explaining they too are made in God's image, and that God sees them as equal to us. When I held the folded coffee filter up and began to unfold it, the kids began to squeal at the beauty in the tye-dyed filter and I explained that "differences" make us all unique and beautiful before God.

One day, Heather, Kyle & Jordan joined me up front, and we just sat casually and answered all the questions they could think of to ask; what do we eat in Costa Rica for food? What is our favorite foods in Costa Rica? What do we miss eating while we are in the States that we can only get in Costa Rica? Did Heather or Kyle have a boyfriend or girlfriend in Costa Rica? What do we do for fun as a family when we are not working?

On the last day, as I was wrapping up all that we had talked about, I had one of the Youth Group help me out on an illustration using a remote controlled car as I did an invitation. I used scripture from Romans and had the Youth represent "me" and demonstrate how without Jesus, and me controlling the remote car, I tend to steer my car in different and sometimes wrong directions. But, when I accepted Jesus, He took control of my life, and the car was on a much better, direct path. Praise the Lord that 7 children accepted Jesus at the end of the week! Thank you, Scipio Community Church, for investing in the children of your church and community. Truly, they are the future of your church. And, thank you for allowing us to participate in your VBS. You were a blessing to our family and we enjoyed feeling like part of your family!

I forgot

Would you believe that I brought my camera to take some pictures last night in the Celebration Center and I totally forgot to take any pictures! Ergh! Last night we had low numbers, 10 women and 5 children. In the June meeting we had 26 women, but I found out that the church in Orosi was having a major fundraising project and that almost the entire town was attending that. I believe that God had attend exactly who He wanted to get there. Amy's testimony was amazing and I saw some teary eyes. The children had a really good time too. One really neat thing I noticed was that the women stayed around a lot longer this time to eat snacks and just to talk. That really is a cultural difference that I have noticed. They kind of eat and leave here real quickly where we live; whether you've invited someone for dinner or its a ministry activity. That was a really, really nice change last night and I am grateful for it. Today, I've been cleaning up my kitchen after making the brownies and cookies (did I mention they were high heeled shoes?). So stinkin cute!

Pray for seeds that were planted last night!

As always, thank you for taking the time to read...

Women's Ministry Tonight - Praying?

I hope if you are a regular follower of this blog that you remembered a previous post about the Women's Ministry Outreach being held tonight at the camp. This ministry is now a regular Outreach into the community of women and is being held every three months under the name, "Noche de Chicas" or "Chick Night"! The Lord placed this ministry on my heart back in late winter and I formed a Steering Committee of two other very fine Tica Christian ladies to help me launch our first Women's Outreach back in June. At that time, missionary intern, Tamara Maycroft was here and she was the guest speaker. There is more of a "need" for this ministry than I even understood back in June, and as of the last couple of weeks, my two Tica friends on the Steering Committee have been virtually "hounded" about the next meeting, when it was going to be, etc. Today, I have been working on the last of the preparations and I will take more photos tonight, but here are the brownie bites on a stick. Then they are dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut, macadamia nuts or just fun confetti sprinkles. As a rule, my Tica friends informed me that "chocolate is necessary" at a Women's gathering, so I am prayerful that this will fit the bill! Tonight, Amy Givens, our new ministry partner here at the camp is sharing her testimony and what the Lord has taught her especially about Biblical "finances". Our next meeting is scheduled for December 4 and will be a Mother-Daughter Christmas Tea theme.

Please pray for our outreach tonight as Amy shares from the Word about this very specific topic, but a much needed one with regard to women here in the Valley! Also, at the same time that the women are having their meeting, we will be having a simultaneous children's ministry, so that no women has to be left out of attending tonight's activities!

Sharing about Costa Rica

One of the first presentations we did was to this group of kids during our second week at home in N.C. These pictures were taken at Kids Faith Camp outside of Smithfield, N.C. We were invited to share about our missionary lives and our ministry in Costa Rica. The kids were really inquisitive and asked some great questions! Of course, we came armed with the "cream of the crop" photos for kids that they all want to see; the tarantulas we have photographed at the camp, monkeys at the beach, the Macaw's, etc. Heather, Kyle and Jordan are dressed in "sort of" the national costume (the boys should have been wearing white long-sleeved shirts rolled up, but we needed to get back home to purchase those, and hadn't yet at the time of this presentation, but red is a national color). They performed a typical Costa Rican dance that you would see here at a parade particularly on Independence Day! And of course, we talked about "spiritual" things too. I explained that we don't have to really go far to be a "missionary" if we open are eyes wide enough! Seems even in the States there are plenty of people in need. You never know, maybe one day, one of these kids will be a missionary, if not at home, than another country. Thank you Kids Faith for the opportunity and the blessing of being asked to share with your kids!

It's July???

We've been busy here with a three-week team; this being their first full week here in Costa Rica. It is a children's ministry team and we've been working on the VBS program that we will be doing at the campground for the orphan home kids. Tonight, in between smelling bags of popcorn popping in my microwave, I happened to flip the calendar over (having already missed the first two days of July) with working with the team. That means in 9 days, I will be traveling home to the States with Heather, Kyle & Jordan on July 11th to wait for the arrival of our first grandson, Mr. Liam Scott Towle, provided he cannot wait to meet his Mom & Dad before then! Let me just say right out that "no...I have nothing done towards getting ready to leave Costa Rica for five and a half weeks", but with all that is going on here I am trusting God to carve out some time for me!

First week in review: Team arrived last Saturday afternoon, beginning of the week was spent working on details of the VBS program, learning music in Spanish, tracing and cutting out crafts. Wednesday was the free day (Britt Coffee Tour) and souvenir shopping. The rest of the week was much the same with the exception of Thursday afternoon when we cooked a spaghetti dinner for 95 men at the homeless shelter and took that to San Jose to serve. Three team members gave their testimonies, Kyle & Heather did an awesome job interpreting! The team also performed a drama. I think they were really humbled by the experience and many of the team members said they were taken out of their comfort zones.

Tonight, the small group that Heather heads up of Youth is meeting in our garage and the team has joined in with that meeting tonight. Tomorrow, we will polish the program for next week, and the team will attend the Youth Group meeting in Orosi to perform their drama.

Kind of an update of sorts. Post pictures hopefully over the weekend. Please continue to pray as the Lord opens up doors for this team to minister and for the VBS Program that will run out of the campground for the next two weeks; pray for the orphan kids to hear the word of God, for safety in all the activities, for team members to be stretched and strengthened as we serve Him! Thanks! See some of you soon....in the USA!!! :)

Finally...some picture updates!

I don't know why I've had so much trouble lately uploading pictures, but finally, I got these to get through! These are ministry pictures from our week with Team PBA here in Costa Rica.

This is Kyle's best Costa Rican friend and our neighbor, Osvaldo, or as we call him, "Osvi". He can often be found in our home hanging out with Heather & Kyle, or at work in town at the local grocery store, but on this day, his day off, he asked if he could join with us in ministry. He is working with the kids in Children's Ministry.

This year, for the first time on a team, we had a dentist and dental hygienist, Dr. & Mrs. Hesser. In between patients, Mrs. Hesser was reviewing with one of the students, Amira, the "correct" flossing technique! Just another educational moment for PBA!

Dr. Hesser averaged about 37 patients a day in the dental chair; examining adults as well as children; making recommendations on problem teeth treatments, and pulling decayed teeth. He was unable to do actual teeth cleaning due to the expense of purchasing as well as transporting a generator for cleaning.

As always, we try to invite our Pastor and Youth Pastor to join us in ministry whenever we have a medical or outreach event. This time, Jeffrey Prieto, our Youth Pastor represented our church and partnered with the church where we held the clinic in evangelism.

On the second night the team was there we had a "man snack" for the guys that were on the team; but of course, there was enough for everyone! Chicken Wings that tasted like home, made by a U.S. Expat who owns a restaurant right in nearby Cartago!

Wherever we go the kids squeal when we bring out the parachute!

Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try, there is always a waiting line to see the doctor!

Before the clinics even started, we had a team who counted the most used supplies and placed them in small bags; vitamins, Tylenol, children's vitamins, prenatal vitamins, etc.

Along with the Maycroft Family who are three month missionary interns, came their family friend and babysitter, Miss Sarah Ax. Here's a picture of Sarah with some new friends that she made while doing children's ministry.

This is a picture of patient's waiting outside of Triage to get their vital signs taken before seeing the physicians.

On one of the days in the early morning headed out toward the clinics we got a rare, clear glimpse of the Turrialba volcano! Because the clouds usually cover this volcano early in the morning, we pulled the bus to the side of the road and all got out to snap some pictures....even me, since it had been weeks since we had seen its progress due to the start of rainy season. She still continues to smoke steadily! You too can follow her progress at http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/videoturri.html where I often have to take a look at the live web cam located 600 meters on the side wall of the crater to see what's going on when the clouds obscure our view from the valley!

Team PBA is in the house...umm...

I mean they are in the camp! They arrived safely today with ALL their luggage and ALL of their medications made it through Customs - Praise the Lord! Dr. Hesser and his wife also came in on time and were able to hook up with the team. Dr. Hesser is a dentist! We are excited about them working with us for the first time and we know that this will be a real blessing to the people of Costa Rica to receive "free" dental care! We have internet in our home, but the internet is still not working at the camp. Tomorrow, is our preparation day with sorting and preparing the medications for the first clinics scheduled for Wednesday, and Thursday. We hope that we can finish this task before dinner and if the internet is not restored at that time, we will walk the team over to Orosi to the internet cafe to make contact with their families. Tonight after a light supper, we had an ice cream social and while it is early here, it is two hours later in the States, and the team as already retired for the evening after their day of traveling. Please continue to keep the entire team, interpreters and other support staff in your prayers as we minister through the medical clinic, dental clinic, evangelism, music, children's minister, and ask the Lord to allow us to be ministers of His hands and feet!

Thank You Hickory Grove Church/Grandma & Grandpa Dundon are here!

Grandma & Grandpa Dundon arrived safely on last Friday around noon.

We were more than overwhelmed with the ministry supplies that our home church (Hickory Grove Advent Christian Church, in Four Oaks, N.C.) sent down for a very needy church here. There was so much that we gave some of the items to our home church here, and they were so grateful to receive items that they cannot even buy here! We even still had enough to restock our children's ministry closet, that is after Grandma and Heather spent two days reorganizing it so there was enough space for items to be put away!

On last Sunday evening, we drove about an hour from here to go to the church that we knew needed the supplies for their evening service. I presented the Pastor with the supplies before the church service began. I imagine she wondered why I was hauling around a suitcase! To Hickory Grove she said toward the end of the service in front of her congregation, "Thank you so much to this church in the United States who cared so much about our church. We have been praying for a long time about our children's church program and the lack of supplies that we have. Tonight, through your church, our prayers were answered".

Now that's what it's all about! Thank you Hickory Grove. What you sent helped two churches and the campground ministry!

While Grandma & Grandpa have been here the kids have enjoyed showing them around the campground, introducing them to favorite fruits and foods to eat. The boys have been sleeping at the white house on the campground with them which reminds them of when we used to live in the States and they would get to spend the night at the Grandparents! I've already heard Kyle and Jordan comment to them that "time is going too fast" and "how they wish they could stay here with us". That's the kind of "low" side of being a missionary and having to watch your kids go through those growing pains of not having enough family around. We keep reminding them that in just about three months we will be home in N.C. again with so many people who are waiting to see them! By the way, while we are home in July, if you would like to have us come to your church, or you're an individual who would like to host a small group in your home to hear what we've been doing in Costa Rica and have your questions answered, we would love to hear from you at: sherri.dundon@yahoo.com. We would love to set up a date to do a missionary presentation in your church or home.

We've been enjoying the last couple of weekends off as Global Outreach recommended taht we close the camp from rental groups in the entire month of April. More details will come in another post about how you can be specifically praying for us! We have a lot of work coming in the next few months and are in need of your prayers!

Global Outreach Mission - January 2010 Team/Part 3

Here is a "glimpse" of only part of the work that got done during the two weeks that the team was here. There were 5 simultaneous ministries taking place through this team; children's ministry teacher training, orphan home ministry, children's ministry during the medical clinics, construction at the camp and construction at a church. I will try and get some pictures of the new ceiling that got put up at the camp in another post as well as some orphan home pictures.

Here's one patient no one expected to have to see! Ken unfortunately hurt himself when his thumb got smashed between two blocks at the church while he was working there. He had a huge blood blister form and then pop. Gary, a Paramedic, on the team is making sure it is cleaned and bandaged well before Ken can return to work!

A picture of some of the new walls at the church.

In this picture, to the left is the Triage area where a patient is seen to have their vital signs taken before seeing a physician. To the right is the waiting area to be seen by a physician.

This is only part of our construction team this year. Half of them stayed back at the camp to install the new ceiling in the Celebration Center. This small team did a lot of work under very hot conditions. We know it blessed the church in a BIG way!

8 days of medical clinics with simultaneous children's ministry!

In the Triage area Adrianna was one of the nurses who took the patients History & Physical before seeing the physicians.