It has been a very fruitful season since our last full update and I wanted to let you know how everything is going. For starters, Revae and I celebrated 15 years of marriage in January!! We are so thankful for God’s faithfulness towards us and our family! As missionaries, our primary focus is on making disciples. For this reason, we love to invest in other people’s lives and ministries.
Investing In The Lives Of Children
Annual Christmas Outreach
In Mid-December our church, Calvary Chapel Jaco, hosted it’s annual Christmas Outreach. As part of the disciple making process we encourage believers to step out in faith and serve God in their neighborhoods.
Some of the women in our church have been reaching out to their little “barrio” (neighborhood) and asked if we could partner with them via the Christmas Outreach. They did all the planning with some guidance from us. It was a great learning experience! Despite some bumps in the road it turned out great! Over 100 kids attended and received gifts, food, and heard the gospel of Jesus!
Giving Them School Supplies
Next up was our annual School Supply Outreach. This year we focused primarily on the kids in our church. We have about 30 kids attending our church from poorer barrios and it was a huge blessing to bless them. Each received all the supplies they need for the entire school year: pencils, pens, notebooks, pencil sharpeners, scissors, crayons, etc.
Teaching Them About Jesus
Speaking of kids, they just finished a 3 month study in the Sermon on the Mount. They each made a passport and “traveled around the world” in each class. They studied each country and the missionaries who exemplified the life of Jesus there.
Investing In The Lives Of Other Missionaries
In December we hosted the Hazelwood family from Calvary Chapel Bible College in Hungary! Daniel, Heather, Abigail and Grace visited us for 6 weeks.
They feel like God is calling them to Costa Rica to start a church and they wanted to see what we do and how we do it. It was great getting to know them and letting them see and participate in our daily lives and ministry. We focused on helping them clarify their calling and teaching them everything we possibly could to prepare them for their move. They are now back in Hungary finishing up bible college and plan to move to C.R. within a year, so please pray for them!
Investing In Marriages
One of the couples who attend our church annually have been involved in marriage ministry for 25 years. This year we worked with them to put on a one day marriage seminar. It was attended by couples, singles (hoping to be married) and other pastors. We learned God’s design for marriage, heard testimony of healed marriages and looked at ways to protect and maintain healthy marriages.
Investing In The Church By Making Disciples
We continue to make disciples through intentional relationships and focused bible study. This is one of the main focuses of our ministry and it is bearing fruit slowly but surely. Sometimes we are tempted to fast track the discipleship process, but we are learning that growth takes time and the fruit it yields is healthy!
One of the young men I have been discipling is living in C.R. from Spain. Over the course of 6 months God spoke to His heart and He feels led to help us full-time. His name is Efren and he will be joining us in May. Please pray for us all during this new adventure!
Psst…
We also wanted to ask you to please be praying for a new ministry project coming up. We have been praying and working towards it. Our goal is to launch it in June of this year. It is called “The Tekoa Project” and I will be writing a full post on it when it launches.
As we invest in others, God works in their lives beautifully! This ministry would not be possible without you, our partners! Thank you so much for all you do!
Leave a Reply