Monday, February 27, 2006
Work in Cebidilla
Cebidilla is a small village outside of Orotina, near the west coast of Costa Rica. Most of last week was spent working there with a volunteer team from St. Louis and a precious Costa Rican couple who have moved there to live and establish a church.
Let me tell you a little about them. Jaime and Carla have a beautiful little girl, Camila, who is three. Jaime is originally from Panama, but came to Costa Rica and was trained in a Baptist church. Carla is Costa Rican, a city girl. What a special couple they are. God put missions on their hearts and they moved to Cebidilla, which is a small village in a rural area. (You can see a picture of their small house under this post.) They both have part time jobs to support themselves, ever so humbly, and are working hard among these people to win souls to the Lord. Jaime has established relationships with most of the people by house to house visitation and by working with boys on a soccer team. Before last week he had visited virtually every family and brought about a dozen to Christ.
A week ago, they had the first worship service in the little shelter Jaime built, (a picture is below.) and there were about 40 local people in attendance. (Some gringos were there too, but they don't count.) Jaime and Carla had to teach them virtually everything...how to sing hymns and choruses, how to pray, how to use the Bible. What a blessing it was to see these people learning and to feel the excitement of Jaime and Carla as they led them.
During the week, the volunteer group went door to door praying and passing out copies of the Gospel of John. They also were able to show a DVD in three schools. The DVD's were what we call "value" movies. They don't overtly present the gospel, but teach a Christian value and Jaime did a good job of tying the value into a gospel presentation.
On Wednesday night another movie was shown in the "church building" and was attended by 146 people. Several were saved. This is an example of true mission work. This young couple have a heart to reach the unreached. They have gone there, lived among them and become a part of the community. Now a church is started. The interesting thing is that Jaime already has a young man that he is training to take over the church so that he and Carla can move on to another place. Their desire is to serve in a foreign country.
Pray that this dear family will have the means to just survive and that God will continue to use them and that the newly born church will become a strong fellowship reaching out to more and more people.
Let me tell you a little about them. Jaime and Carla have a beautiful little girl, Camila, who is three. Jaime is originally from Panama, but came to Costa Rica and was trained in a Baptist church. Carla is Costa Rican, a city girl. What a special couple they are. God put missions on their hearts and they moved to Cebidilla, which is a small village in a rural area. (You can see a picture of their small house under this post.) They both have part time jobs to support themselves, ever so humbly, and are working hard among these people to win souls to the Lord. Jaime has established relationships with most of the people by house to house visitation and by working with boys on a soccer team. Before last week he had visited virtually every family and brought about a dozen to Christ.
A week ago, they had the first worship service in the little shelter Jaime built, (a picture is below.) and there were about 40 local people in attendance. (Some gringos were there too, but they don't count.) Jaime and Carla had to teach them virtually everything...how to sing hymns and choruses, how to pray, how to use the Bible. What a blessing it was to see these people learning and to feel the excitement of Jaime and Carla as they led them.
During the week, the volunteer group went door to door praying and passing out copies of the Gospel of John. They also were able to show a DVD in three schools. The DVD's were what we call "value" movies. They don't overtly present the gospel, but teach a Christian value and Jaime did a good job of tying the value into a gospel presentation.
On Wednesday night another movie was shown in the "church building" and was attended by 146 people. Several were saved. This is an example of true mission work. This young couple have a heart to reach the unreached. They have gone there, lived among them and become a part of the community. Now a church is started. The interesting thing is that Jaime already has a young man that he is training to take over the church so that he and Carla can move on to another place. Their desire is to serve in a foreign country.
Pray that this dear family will have the means to just survive and that God will continue to use them and that the newly born church will become a strong fellowship reaching out to more and more people.
Catching up
How the time does fly. I fully intend to post to this blog every few days, but before I know it, a month (or more) has flown by. I won't try to relate all that has happened in the last month, but work continues in the Puriscal area. Puriscal itself is a small town that is surrounded by villages. Someone said 23 of them, but I haven't counted. We have worked in seven of them and have ongoing contacts in most of the seven. There are several Bible studies being held regularly, but as yet, God hasn't shown us who the future leaders will be.
The people are very friendly and welcome us warmly. It's not hard to spend a good deal of time just chatting. They always want to give us "cafecita"( a cup of coffee) and some sort of snack. These aren't things they have prepared beforehand, so it's not like they just open the frig and pull something out.
I am continuously impressed that these simple (in lifestyle) folks are so interested in world events. Sometimes they have interesting ideas about North Americans that they have learned from TV or have heard by word of mouth. It's always fun to correct misconceptions, but not so much fun to try and explain the negative things that are true.
One area in particular is so poor that it breaks your heart. Some of the poverty is self-inflicted because of alcohol abuse and other vices, but one wonders how much the overall hopelessness contributes to the abuse. How do we help these people? I don't know how to help them financially. Anything done just has to be repeated over and over. We can give them hope in Christ though, and this is what we try to do. A better relationship with God would help them have a better relationship with their families and neighbors. Perhaps that would give a better outlook of life and some of the ongoing problems could be curtailed.
Pray for Flora, Katia, Teresa, Anita, Eliezer, Marvin and Manuel. Also pray for Oscar, who claims to be a Christian but has no church and wants his children to study the Bible.
The people are very friendly and welcome us warmly. It's not hard to spend a good deal of time just chatting. They always want to give us "cafecita"( a cup of coffee) and some sort of snack. These aren't things they have prepared beforehand, so it's not like they just open the frig and pull something out.
I am continuously impressed that these simple (in lifestyle) folks are so interested in world events. Sometimes they have interesting ideas about North Americans that they have learned from TV or have heard by word of mouth. It's always fun to correct misconceptions, but not so much fun to try and explain the negative things that are true.
One area in particular is so poor that it breaks your heart. Some of the poverty is self-inflicted because of alcohol abuse and other vices, but one wonders how much the overall hopelessness contributes to the abuse. How do we help these people? I don't know how to help them financially. Anything done just has to be repeated over and over. We can give them hope in Christ though, and this is what we try to do. A better relationship with God would help them have a better relationship with their families and neighbors. Perhaps that would give a better outlook of life and some of the ongoing problems could be curtailed.
Pray for Flora, Katia, Teresa, Anita, Eliezer, Marvin and Manuel. Also pray for Oscar, who claims to be a Christian but has no church and wants his children to study the Bible.
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