Rest In Peace

We received an email informing us that a friend had passed away in a car accident last week down in Costa Rica. Willy the Clown, and his father-in-law passed away. Willy's mother-in-law is in critical condition. His wife and his 4-year-old daughter are hospitalized. Please pray for this family! Willy partnered with us on more than one occasion at the campground with the homeless shelter ministry as well as with the orphan home ministry. The words in the picture say, "A great friend. A great blessing. You will be remembered always". A flame for evangelical ministry in Costa Rica has been blown out this past week.

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!

Visitors & Ministry

On Monday, Emil & Stacey arrived at the camp with their two daughters, Becca & Tate. They are prayerfully considering full-time missionary service with Global Outreach Mission and came from California to see the ministry in Costa Rica! Part of our ministry here is to share our lives with other potential missionaries by involving them in what we do on a day-to-day basis as well as having them joining us in ministry. This week has been awesome because it has felt like we have had a "mini" team here and we are always able to do so much more with a few people than just by ourselves! I really like their family and I wish that we could keep them here. Their girls are so special and Heather has enjoyed having "little sisters" around. It's hard for us to meet people for a short time, bond with them in some way and then have them leave. We don't know if Emil & Stacey will feel that God is calling them back to Costa Rica, but we know who does the calling! I do know that they would make great missionaries and so I ask that you add them to your prayer list for us; that God would give them very clear direction in the future. May God bless their family!

This picture is of Stacey at the orphan home introducing a craft with Heather translating for her.

As I mentioned before in a previous post, Candace is here from Arkansas for one week. She is an R.N. and has been ministering with Amy from a medical aspect in that her and Amy devised a plan to teach general hygiene while we were at the orphan home. Candace has been a hoot while she has been staying in our home. When I think about the scripture, "The joy of the Lord is my strength", I will always think of Candace in the future. She floods a room with "joy" in all circumstances and a love for the Lord that is contagious. She will be greatly missed when it is time for her to go as well.

Also as part of our ministry at the orphan home, we have always tried to minister to the mothers as well. I emailed Candace in advance of her coming and asked her if it would be possible for her to bring some small gifts for the mothers. When she arrived I was thrilled when she opened a suitcase of donations from her home church and friends of small bottles of lotion, candles, notepads, washcloths, etc. and when Ken was out one day he found these cute purse-like gift bags for us! Some were white with silver beaded handles and also red. At the end of the day of ministering on Tuesday to the orphan home kids, Stacy, Candace & Heather went to each home, prayed with each Mom and presented them with a special "ladies only" gift bag! Thank you so much, all of Candace's family and friends who made this possible for us to do. It was a tremendous blessing for the ladies to receive and I know that it encouraged each one of them!

In talking with Amy about what kind of thing we could do "new & different" in ministry at the orphan home, she came up with the brilliant idea one day as she was up to her arm pits in suitcases and sorting medical supplies, that with the extra that we had on hand, we could make miniature first aid kits for each orphan house. From that idea came another to have general hygiene kits for each child, and to set our "program" for the children around scriptural verses relating to God's temple (our bodies) and the care of our temple. Then, came the email to Emil & Stacey who were still preparing back in the States to let them know what we were doing and how they might be able to help us. Never did we expect that Emil & Stacey would take our ideas and prepare so much for us; what a blessing! When they arrived, they had two suitcases full of 60 prepared hygiene kits, each in an individual travel bag and complete with a washcloth, travel toothbrush, a regular toothbrush, soap, hair brush and shampoo.

On Tuesday, Stacey prepared a devotional that pulled everything that Amy & Candace had been teaching on hygiene together using one of the hygiene kits! The kids lined up to leave and go back to their homes after the ministry, and Becca & Tate, along with Stacey placed a kit in each child's hand. The kids were so excited! I saw one little boy, not even looking through his bag as most of the kids were, but clutching it close to his side as if to send the message that it "was his"!

Please pray, team arrival and last preparations

The team, 35 members strong, arrives this Saturday afternoon for two weeks of ministry. They are coming from the U.S. and Canada and their ministry will consist of Construction both at the camp and a remote, poor church; Medical Clinics; Children's Teacher Training; "The Pueblito" orphan home and Children's Ministry during the Medical Clinics. This morning I finished combining the Children's Teacher Training manuals (we are combining some CEF material with our previous manual), and now those are off to the copy center. Last year, we trained about 60 teachers with this training. This year we have had an even greater response and are planning on training 90 teachers. Last night we got the grocery shopping list back from Isa, our camp cook, after giving her the menu, and Ken is off doing the grocery shopping this morning. With the size of the team, plus our volunteers (doctors, interpreters, drivers) we will be housing 55 plus people at the camp; two or three people will actually have to stay in our home for everyone to have a bed. Today, I will be moving beds around in our house to make room. We will be traveling with this team to four different locations to minister. Mon. & Tues. half of the children's ministry team will be ministering at the orphan home. The entire construction team will be working at the camp on the Celebration Center building. The medical team will be at a poor church in Cartago along with the other half of the children's ministry team who will be ministering to the children during the clinic. On Wednesday, the 20th we will be traveling with the team to the Guapiles area and along the way having our "free day". On Thursday through Sunday we will be holding a medical clinic in this area along with simultaneous children's ministry. Thursday we will also be doing teacher's training. The construction team will be working on a building project serving a very poor and remote church. On Sunday afternoon we will begin our trip back to the camp. On Monday, the 25th will be another "free day" just to rest at the camp or walk over to Orosi. Tuesday, the 26th, we will be going to Tres Rios, right outside of San Jose. On Tuesday we will be doing teacher training again, the medical clinic will begin with simultaneous children's ministry, but the construction team will be back at the camp working on the Celebration Center building. We will continue ministering in Tres Rios through the 28th. On Friday, the 29th we will do a clinic and children's ministry for one day in Paraiso. On Saturday, the 30th we will be at the camp, cleaning up our mess, resorting ministry supplies and on Sunday, the 31st, the team returns to the U.S. and Canada.

How can you pray for us?
1. Pray for this team as they travel to Costa Rica on Saturday.
2. Pray for the clinics, that people might receive physical as well as spiritual healing.
3. Pray for the children who will be ministered to in children's ministry.
4. Pray for the teacher's training, that this would bless these remote, poor churches and that their teacher's would be encouraged and blessed!
5. Pray for the team members as they minister and our family as we minister (Ken as he heads up the construction projects back at the camp as well as in the remote church, Sherri as she teaches in the teacher's training and works in children's ministry, Heather as she translates in the Pharmacy, Kyle as he ministers in children's ministry and translates, Jordan as he helps in construction).
6. Pray for a harvest of souls, men, women and children.
7. Pray that all that we say and do would glorify God, not because He needs us, but because He allows us!

Wednesday's ministry with the Orphan Home, kids accept the Lord!

As with a lot of the things that we do at the camp, there are always "behind the scenes" activities that no one hears about or realizes go on. Here's a picture of Ken, the Grill Master, cooking hot dogs for all of the kids and the entire team of workers! This was a repeat performance from Saturday's ministry at the camp with the orphans, but I forgot to get a picture of him. I wanted to give credit where credit is due! Thank you to my husband, Ken, who cooks the "perfect" hot dog and for making sure all of us got fed on time!

Here is "Willy" the clown, a friend from "God Festival" one of our partnerships! I realized that I have never seen "Willy" without make-up until he came to the camp on Wednesday and I walked right by him not knowing who he was! How embarassing! He is a wonderful Christian with an awesome testimony. He drove over two hours to come and donate his time and bring with him some other volunteers to help us make this day very special for the kids! He played Christian music for the kids, made popcorn and cotton candy, made balloon animals, had a team who did face painting and did some comedy tricks with the kids. They absolutely loved him and he had their full attention!

These are two of the orphan home Mom's who are enjoying their day off. They accompanied the kids to the camp, but once they arrived, we took over their care and treated the Mom's to coffee, special breads and a day to walk around the camp together, talk and just relax. Here they are enjoying some cotton candy!

With 28 kids in all, we had to break them down into smaller, manageable groups to oversee them in the pool. Here are a small group of the younger kids who have swam and are now taking a break to make some foam sun visors!

Here's Heather and one of our Christian neighbor's, Ivan, taking a much needed rest, legs up after helping with ALL of the day's activities. Without Heather and Kyle and some good Christian neighbor's, we would not have been able to watch all these kids ourselves. They too, enjoyed "Willy's" whimsical balloon creations!

Well, I had to have some fun too!!!! The face painting techniques that are used here are really different than at home. I took this picture for my brother, Peter, since I thought it might interest him, my favorite artist! Their face paint is much more of a powder make-up that is applied with sponges and then the actual painting is only done of the lines of detail. Up close when finished the face has a very soft, powder, more like make-up foundation look to it. Of course, here, you can't see the glitter that they have added. This sweet lady was my face painter!

At the close of Wednesday's activities, Lynae sang and shared her testimony with the kids. Ken wrapped it all up with an explanation of the plan of salvation and an invitation to accept the Lord. We had three Youth, (the kids who attended were from ages 4-18), accept the Lord today!

Please continue to pray for them and for us as we follow up with them through our continued ministry at the Orphan Home!

The Orphans at the camp and a prayer request!!

After almost a year of working in a partnership with Pueblito de Costa Rica (the orphan home); some of the kids were allowed to come and use the camp for the day on Saturday. And, as usual, God had even better plans than ours! While we had the entire day planned with activities, one of the churches in our denominition here in Costa Rica had a group of Americans visiting and serving with them, yet their ministry plans for Saturday fell through and they were looking for another place in which to serve. We got a phone call, "could we help you? We have clowns, puppets, mime, etc." and so, the group of 18 Americans showed up in the afternoon for about two hours to help serve alongside us! This first picture is the group of 30 orphans who came to us on Saturday. Heather in the green T-shirt in the middle leading the "Octopus" game.

Katherine practicing her facepainting "skills" on Jordan first!

Just three of the clowns performing an act. They are part of the Christian Youth Group that volunteered to help us! They were awesome and their message was clear!

The Youth Group's puppet ministry in action!

This was when they first arrived and Heather began the festivities with an entire group game, though here Katherine is helping one little lady who is very shy and kind of lost about how to play, but that's okay!

**PLEASE PRAY**: With the extension of the kids vacation to include next week, the Director of the Orphan Home has asked if we would be willing to host another group of 30 children from the orphanage on Wednesday. The orphanage houses a total of about 123 children. We said that we would be more than happy too! Please pray as we have invited five youth from the Youth Group to join with us in this ministry on Wednesday. Our desire here is to lead by example, and in asking them to help us, we pray that it will develop servant hearts within them. We have another partnership which we have formed with "God Festival" and they will be sending us "Willy" their clown and a few of their professional face painter's for Wednesday as well. They also already sent down an industrial popcorn machine to use and their cotton candy machine. Please pray for their safety as they travel through San Jose on Wednesday morning to come to the camp! Pray for the children and for us as we attempt to bring them Jesus, in how we live and through what we teach!

**PRAISE**: A week and a half ago we had the Youth Group at the camp from Michigan (see previous posts and pictures) rental. We found out today that two Costa Rican kids were saved during their ministry at the camp! PTL!!!

Quick post - Ministry Update

A "fly-by" post as it's been a busy week. I've got some pictures to post of a group that came in Wednesday from the States through another missionary agency to use the camp for ministry. We got the last group out on Monday, cleaned and the decoration team for this group arrived on Tuesday. The rest of the group arrived on Wednesday and they also invited four area churches to participate in children/youth ministry with them as the last group from the States did. So around 65 people leave today at 2 p.m., and then we go in and begin preparations for a Fun Day we have planned for 30 kids from the orphanage who are coming to the camp tomorrow!

I will post pictures over the weekend!

Ministering to the Orphans and a full day!

This is Kimberly. I found out quickly today that she LOVES to work with beads! It was interesting to see her gently touch the beads and look them over as she carefully "chose" which ones she might use. Very politely, she asked if she could make another bracelet today. She doesn't like to have her picture taken and it is hard to get her to smile. I talked with Kimberly today about not knowing my biological mother and being dropped off at social services and my adoption. That's when this smile crossed her face. Today, I got a big hug when she left and I feel like we made a connection.

This is Onry. After our Bible lesson today he asked if I had anything to color. I happened to bring some Bible story coloring books with me as gifts for our music students today. He was so content to sit alone with me since none of the other music students had arrived yet for their lessons; to color and not have to share the crayons of have anyone to pull his book away from him. He is the sweetest boy.

This is our intern, Lynae. She is teaching Steven to "count" out measures by clapping his hands for "notes" and to stop clapping for "rests". Steven was so embarrassed that I was taking his picture. He beams when he gets to the hold the guitar and strum away.

Here is Luis practicing finger placement with Lynae. Today, they worked on "A" and "D" note finger placements. Music seems to come pretty easily to Luis and he really settles down to enjoy his lesson. We sometimes have a difficult time with him since he is kind of rough around the edges...aren't we all?

This is Daniela. Hmmm...I wonder why I might like her name! She is in the morning classes since she is younger. She's a bit shy, but has a huge, beaming smile. She is a graceful young lady and is new to the orphan home just over the past couple of months. She is just one of those kids that when you see her in a place like this you wonder, "why"? But God knows and in Daniela, I believe He has big plans!

We worked with the children today from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. I had made a commitment to be back at the campground at 3:30 and was late in getting back because we took the bus back. Once there, I helped set up and cook dinner for around 50 Youth Group kids. The American group is still here and today through Saturday morning they are hosting four other local, national, church Youth Groups at the camp. They are all spending the next two nights with the American Youth Group. Heather and Kyle have been at the camp since 9 a.m. working with the small groups as interpreters. They seemed to be having a good time with all the other Youth. They were invited to spend the night at the campground too! It's been a busy day today, but a lot of fun! Days like these I just go to bed at night exhausted, but thankful for the really fun and enjoyable ministry that we often get to be a part of with children and Youth! It makes me so happy!

Orphan Home Ministry-Prayer Requests

Yesterday, and yes, I forgot the camera again (sorry); we went to the Orphan Home to do an all day ministry. I mentioned before about a new intern we received last week. Her name is Lynae. Lynae is a professional music teacher when she is back in Canada. Yesterday, she taught four hours of guitar lessons at the Orphan Home. In the morning, she did two hours of classes, a half hour each to four students. The Orphan Home was gracious enough to serve us lunch and we spent about an hour eating and chatting with the Orphan Home staff. Then, in the afternoon she did another two hours of lessons, a half hour again to four more students. During the time that she was teaching, Heather and I had the children in a "holding" room awaiting their class time. We did children's ministry with those students; a Bible story, crafts, games and memory verses. This time with the kids in children's ministry has been awesome. Usually when we are there at the Orphan Home ministering we are working with the "masses", large groups of children of all ages. The way that their Educational Director set up the lessons is that in the morning we have a group of younger children and in the afternoons we have older children, more youth group-aged.

PRAYER NEEDS:
Please pray for us as we have made a commitment to minister at the Orphan Home every Tuesday and Thursday for the next five weeks. Pray for Lynae as she teaches music; guitar and piano lessons. Pray for Heather & I as we teach to these small groups of children, but at a much more intensive level than we have ever had the opportunity to before. Pray for discernment as we are already working on next week's lessons. Pray for the children's hearts to be open and receptive. Pray for good behavior, it can be kind of rough!

I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow as we minister and post them on the blog before the end of the week.