Seems the saga continues for Gilberth and Fanni Marin. We have been working with this family for about a year now...I've written about them from time to time. Precious family. They have 6 children at home, another lives with her grandmother. Satan has been after them ever since they got saved. I won't recount the series of problems they have had, but there have been plenty. Now another has arisen.
About the time we started going to have Bible study with them, they moved into a "house"...really a converted barn, that was adequate at best. Fanni made it a nice home. It's amazing how clean and neat a barn can be kept. Well, now the owner is going to sell the property (the same thing that happened to their last home) and they will have to move out. The barn/house will be torn down.
You may remember that they live in a small village on the mountain side. Gilberth owns and drives a taxi there and does fairly well, although he's had some setbacks lately due to a wreck one of his drivers had a couple of years ago. The other party had sued and the case was finally settled. He had to pay over $700...a huge sum for people on their income. Anyway...they just haven't been able to find a house of adequate size for their family.
Fanni's mother has some property that they could build a house on, but, of course they don't have money to do that. Gilberth says they could build a "shell" (I presume no plumbing or inside walls.) for around $1000 on that property. He could sell his taxi and use the money for the start of a house, but then...how does he make a living? Jobs are about as scarce as houses.
My plea to readers is that you pray for Gilberth and Fanni Marin. Pray that God will show His power and provide a solution for them...a house they can afford to rent or money to build, whatever He chooses...but they really need a boost in faith. They are struggling, relatively new Christians, and have tremendous potential for the Lord. The whole family is extremely bright and Gilberth is a gifted teacher of the Bible. I believe that if they just ever get stabilized, they could be an influence in the community and a group of believers would be raised up there.
Friday, July 29, 2005
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Plodding through Puriscal
Last week we worked with a group of guys (actually three) from Shadow Ridge Baptist Church in Sacramento, Calif. Great guys. The first day was spent in the central park of Puriscal, a small but bustling town in the mountains. We had to request permission to work in the park because I wanted to solicit some information from citizens in the form of a religious survey. We kind of sweated that out because a written request had to go before the town council. I'm not totally stupid so I had a native Spanish speaker who was experienced in such things to write the letter requesting such permission. He knew all the formal and flowery language to use. Evidently it worked (prayers helped), because they granted us the permission.
For most of the day we talked to people, passed out small bottles of water (free), packs of chewing gum and copies of the gospel of John. It was interesting. As you might expect, at first people were a little suspicious and basically avoided our table. But as the hours passed, the word got out that we had free water and passersby warmed up and even volunteered to fill out our questionnaire. We had some interesting conversations and made some new friends.
The volunteers really got into it. They too were a little hesitant at first, but before long they were walking all over the park talking and handing out gum and water. A couple of days later we went back to the park and people remembered us. (Of course they did. How can you forget a bunch of gringos doing crazy stuff like giving free water and gum?) Most were just friendly, and some asked if we had any water to give away. (We didn't.)
The other days were spent outside Puriscal in the rural areas...villages and settlements....going door to door talking to people and giving the gospel of John to each home. This area was fairly typical of rural areas in Costa Rica...very Catholic. Very interesting was a lady named Angelina. She has 11 children and 23 grandchildren, and, I think, 3 or 4 great grandchildren. Angelina seemed to know the Lord...talked of Jesus being Savior, but also was adamant about Mary being very important...not to the point of her being redemptress, but nevertheless, very much a part of her belief system..almost to the point of being a goddess. If the lady had just left out that part, she would have sounded like an evangelical Christian.
The fellows from California were really touched with some of the poverty we encountered. They bought food and made up sacks to give away to several homes. I appreciate their generous spirits. Sometimes I think we who live here become a little calloused to that, we see so much of it.
Pray that we will be able to follow up on the open doors we found and pray specifically for Oscar and his family, who expressed a desire that his children study the Bible.
For most of the day we talked to people, passed out small bottles of water (free), packs of chewing gum and copies of the gospel of John. It was interesting. As you might expect, at first people were a little suspicious and basically avoided our table. But as the hours passed, the word got out that we had free water and passersby warmed up and even volunteered to fill out our questionnaire. We had some interesting conversations and made some new friends.
The volunteers really got into it. They too were a little hesitant at first, but before long they were walking all over the park talking and handing out gum and water. A couple of days later we went back to the park and people remembered us. (Of course they did. How can you forget a bunch of gringos doing crazy stuff like giving free water and gum?) Most were just friendly, and some asked if we had any water to give away. (We didn't.)
The other days were spent outside Puriscal in the rural areas...villages and settlements....going door to door talking to people and giving the gospel of John to each home. This area was fairly typical of rural areas in Costa Rica...very Catholic. Very interesting was a lady named Angelina. She has 11 children and 23 grandchildren, and, I think, 3 or 4 great grandchildren. Angelina seemed to know the Lord...talked of Jesus being Savior, but also was adamant about Mary being very important...not to the point of her being redemptress, but nevertheless, very much a part of her belief system..almost to the point of being a goddess. If the lady had just left out that part, she would have sounded like an evangelical Christian.
The fellows from California were really touched with some of the poverty we encountered. They bought food and made up sacks to give away to several homes. I appreciate their generous spirits. Sometimes I think we who live here become a little calloused to that, we see so much of it.
Pray that we will be able to follow up on the open doors we found and pray specifically for Oscar and his family, who expressed a desire that his children study the Bible.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Prayer for Puriscal
Next week three men from California, plus two of us missionaries, will be working in the area of Puriscal. For the most part we will be doing a survey, gathering information about what the people believe about how a person may go to heaven...or in other words, how a person is saved. (Although they don't generally use the term "saved" in the same context as we think of it.) We will also ask if a person attends a church, and which one. (This will be predominately Catholic.) Much of this information we can predict, but it will be helpful to know how people think, religiously. Also included will be a question about whether they would like to study the Bible. This is an important question, because we will then follow up on positive answers and hopefully develop some study groups. A different twist to this project is that we will be setting up in the central park of Puriscal. (Most Latin America towns have a central park, usually right in front of the main Catholic church.) That is...if we get permission from the town council. And that is a matter of prayer. Our intent is to give people small bottles of water and the gospel of John when they fill out the survey. Pray that we will get the approval of the council and that we will find open doors for Bible study.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Prayer Needs and Praises
Not too long ago I referred to a man who was a lay pastor and is being very instrumental in reaching "Ticos" (Costa Ricans) for the Lord. As is often the case, Satan isn't happy about that and began to attack with a vengence. First Jose suffered a heart attack, but quickly recovered and continued to work hard going from place to place preaching and witnessing. Then family problems began. First, a son sadly confided to his parents that his novia (girlfriend) was pregnant. Then his brother revealed the same news about his novia, who just happened to be the sister of his brother's girlfriend. Well, you can imagine that this caused quite a family disturbance. The parents of the boys were very discouraged. ( I really don't know about the girls' parents, although I expect they weren't too happy either.) We were all saddened, and a little angry at the boys. They are boys who have shown signs of being dedicated Christian young men...should know better, and the surprising outcome of the story doesn't excuse their actions. However, as it turns out, the girls weren't pregnant at all, but both had made up the story...I suppose vying for marriage...who knows?
Anyway, please pray for Jose, Felicia and their boys...might want to pray for the girls too.
Also, pray for Gilberth and his family. He is struggling with an old problem of alcohol. Pray that they will find some fellow believers with whom to associate and have some support.
We just returned from a week in Guatemala for a regional meeting of missionaries. It was generally a good meeting, but one particular situation impressed and gave me cause to be thankful. During one time of praise and prayer, we were invited to just pray for a time, either alone or with someone else. I prayed for a while, then sat up and just looked around...not trying to be nosey, but just observing all the people praying. One particular thing I saw warmed my heart. A teen-age boy, 16 or so, turned to his friend, another young man, and asked him to pray with him. The two of them bowed in prayer for some time. They are missionary kids, so what do you expect? Well, it isn't always the case, but it made my heart glad to see these two big, strapping (both well over 6 ft) guys praying together. Pray that they will remain faithful to the Lord as they grow and won't ever be too "macho" to pray with a friend.
Pray also for a team that is coming from California to help do some research and scripture distribution in an unreached area in a couple of weeks. Pray that God will use us and allow us to see what we need to in order to plan strategy for reaching into that area.
Anyway, please pray for Jose, Felicia and their boys...might want to pray for the girls too.
Also, pray for Gilberth and his family. He is struggling with an old problem of alcohol. Pray that they will find some fellow believers with whom to associate and have some support.
We just returned from a week in Guatemala for a regional meeting of missionaries. It was generally a good meeting, but one particular situation impressed and gave me cause to be thankful. During one time of praise and prayer, we were invited to just pray for a time, either alone or with someone else. I prayed for a while, then sat up and just looked around...not trying to be nosey, but just observing all the people praying. One particular thing I saw warmed my heart. A teen-age boy, 16 or so, turned to his friend, another young man, and asked him to pray with him. The two of them bowed in prayer for some time. They are missionary kids, so what do you expect? Well, it isn't always the case, but it made my heart glad to see these two big, strapping (both well over 6 ft) guys praying together. Pray that they will remain faithful to the Lord as they grow and won't ever be too "macho" to pray with a friend.
Pray also for a team that is coming from California to help do some research and scripture distribution in an unreached area in a couple of weeks. Pray that God will use us and allow us to see what we need to in order to plan strategy for reaching into that area.
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