Back In Costa Rica Again Pt 1

THIS IS AN UPDATE FROM APRIL/MAY 2024 THAT WAS ORIGINALLY SENT OUT AS A PDF

Blessings in the name of the Lord Jesus!

We are on our May mission trip in Costa Rica! I mentioned this May trip in the

previous newsletter and boy did it come quickly! I actually got excited when I saw the town of Turrialba (it’s not very exciting normally). I still feel like Costa Rica is my home as much as the US. But the truth is, the only real home we have as believers is our heavenly home with Jesus.

It was a fight to get here. The bad weather turned a 5 hour trip from Corpus to Costa Rica, into a 2 day trip. Our Costa Rican SUV has held usback for a week and a half. It

was fine up until a week before we got here. (Hmm what a coincidence) Marlon has spent

a lot of time trying to get it fixed. Yesterday was a victory because it passed inspection!!!

We have spent a good amount of time with our church and Marlon’s mother.

On Monday we leave for the

Caribbean to meet some pastors in Puerto Viejo and Tuesday we will meet pastors in the tough city of Limon. Marlon’s father Carlos lived there for 23 years. He would say, “Welcome to Limon where they kill 5 people a day.” We lived there for a month and survived.

HELP NEEDED FOR MEDIA MINISTRY

I wrote in My last newsletter about

Jocelyn being so wonderful keeping up

with the church’s media platforms. She

films and carefully edits every preaching.

A few minutes ago she just picked her

phone up and it stopped working. She is very sad and they are all worried about

what to do. I would like to be able to fix everything but we are just living one day

at a time waiting on the Lord.

I am definitely no expert when it comes to social media and working with the Wix website editor. But we are really excited to share the site with you all. Being

realistic it might not be ready until we get back to the States, I got an email the other day that said it might take a week to connect the domain name.

APRIL 2024

About a month ago my beautiful grandmother, Marian Lalli went to be with Jesus. We were in Oklahoma a few weeks before our trip to Costa Rica to celebrate her life

OUR CHURCH, EKKLESIA INTL.

There is really nothing like worshipping for 2-3 hours on top of this mountain. We love them all so much. The church is also full of surprises. They contructed the church extension that had been in the works for 6 years. Now they are raising money for the details. Another surprise is the growing children! I just love my Costa Rican children of all ages. This young lady I have known since she was a baby.

UPDATE ON THE VIOLENCE IN

COSTA RICA

We have been watching the Costa Rican news and a wave of homicides

and violent crime has been sweeping through the country. It is higher than

it’s ever been. It is mainly executions between rival gangs, people who didn't pay, and traitors to the gang. What we have always seen in the Caribbean and in San Jose has finally hit Turrialba.

Bodies of young men were found in a local coffee field

near Turrialba. In March Leo found a young man that had been beaten almost to death lying a few hundred meters down the road from our church. Someone had decided to just drop his body there. We personally know three people that were brutally murdered since December! Two of them had been to cell churches at different times in our ministry.

( For Safety reasons,the rest of this story can only be sent directly to your email)

When we were looking at statistics in the States, we saw that El Salvador has become safer than Costa Rica! That is just crazy!

Leo caught us up on things more on the drive home from the airport. There were some amazing testimonies that I will share when we get back. He mentioned several murders that happened in this area about 3 weeks ago. In Las Colonias, where we have done VBS, there was a brief shoot out. In Azul, there was a shoot out between gangs 2 weeks ago. Marlon went there yesterday to pick up a washing machine for his mother.

All the crime and violence in the world now makes it even more urgent to equip believers to share and live out the Gospel of Jesus. The world needs to see Jesus manifesting in His body here on earth. Intellectual concepts, ungodly behavior, prosperity Gospel, and timid preachings that don’t focus on Christ, are keeping young people away from the Church. It seems that the youth of all nations have a deep interest in the supernatural, a quest for truth, for love, and a desire for justice. Jesus is the one they are looking for. Unfortunately, in the search, they end up getting wrong directions and getting further from the truth.

PRAY FOR THE MESSAGE OF JESUS CHRIST TO REACH MORE PEOPLE DAILY AROUND THE WORLD

PRAY FOR THE PROTECTION AND HEALTH OF OUR LITTLE MISSION TEAM OF 3.

PRAY FOR MORE PEOPLE TO COME ALONGSIDE OUR MINISTRY IN PRAYER AND SPONSORSHIP

PRAY THAT OUR CAR WILL GIVE US NO MORE PROBLEMS.

WE PRAY AND THANK JESUS THAT HE IS GOING TO SUPPLY ALL THE MONETARY NEEDS FOR THIS MISSION TRIP FROM WHO OR WHERE DOESN’T MATTER. ONLY HE KNOWS HOW MUCH IT WILL COST IN THE END.

WE CAME ON THIS TRIP THE WAY THE LORD HAS US DO LOT’S OF THINGS. BY FAITH IN HIS PROVISION. WE ARE NOT BRAGGING ABOUT OUR FAITH BECAUSE HONESTLY IT CAN BE VERY DIFFICULT TO NOT WORRY AND OVERTHINK THINGS. IN THE END WHAT HE WANTS IS FOR US “TO TRUST AND OBEY