Wednesday, April 16, 2014

What do you celebrate?

Good afternoon from Costa Rica!
This has been a great week so far, we have had visitors off and on all week! Monday Afternoon Vilma and her son Carlos and his friend Christian came to spend the night. We have been friends with Vilma and her husband for sometime now and she is one of the leaders in our church.  Her husband Eleizer still hasn't made that commitment to GOD, we are praying for his salvation! pray with us for this family!


Vilma started coming to our church with her son to Bible School then to Sunday School. She asked JESUS in her heart and was baptized 4 years ago. She has been faithful to GOD and the church and is wanting to learn more about the Bible! That was one of the first things she said when she came, "I want to read the Bible together while I am there at your house!"


So while the boys played Legos here on the porch, Franklin Vilma and I read Romans 8 together and it answered some questions she had about predestination. We are predestined be children of GOD and to worship GOD, and HE has made room for all of us in Heaven, it is our choice whether or not we follow JESUS and go to Heaven. GOD has done everything HE can, and HE won't force us to choose HIM, GOD has given us a free will.
So this weekend as we celebrate our risen Saviour JESUS CHRIST, let's remember it isn't about you & me; it's about HIM! JESUS gave HIS life on the cross for our sins so we can be clean and come before our great and TRUE GOD, clean and ready to receive our inheritance along with our big brother JESUS! What a privilege to be a part of the family of GOD!
JESUS BLESS YOU! Franklin Evelyn Mary & James

Monday, April 7, 2014

International church!

Our pastor has said on many occasions that he doesn't have a problem with English, he doesn't understand a word! :)
Yesterday we were more international than usual! There were people from Nicaragua, the US, and Venezuela praising the LORD together at Arbol de Vida church in Tabarcia!!
What a wonderful GOD we serve, knowing HE leads us even when we don't recognize that HE is in control!
Our pastor Olger started pastoring here at Arbol de Vida about 13 years ago. When he came on at our church it was made up of about 20 members, many very hurt and hardened by things that had happened in past years.


So he came on, took the church and started to work for the first year and a half without salary as the offerings were almost non existent. Olger also started praying for help, GOD to send him someone who could work alongside him and Guiselle his wife and be a help to the church. 3 years later we came tot he church for the first time. GOD sent our pastor someone who at the time couldn't understand half of what he said! But through the years Franklin and our Pastor have had a wonderful working relationship, working together, praising he LORD together and standing firm when needed!


So yesterday was no exception!
We got a call from Olger Saturday morning about a lady from Venezuela, Patricia and her daughter Tiffany. They are refugees here from the atrocities their own country is suffering right now. Patricia's boss in December left to go back to Venezuela, leaving her without a job, she was administrator for his business! So they were used to a high end house, all the commodities of life.
Thursday the lady she was renting from, locked her out and wouldn't even let her in to get their clothes, because she owes them 2 months rent!
So she went to the authorities and they made the lady give Patricia her things, but she doesn't have all of their things, some important papers etc. that she had in her apartment, Tiffany's only toys she brought with her in their escape to Costa Rica, and personal items!
So she was brought to our church Friday, and asking for help!
Our pastor and his wife met with them and prayed for them, and Patricia has accepted JESUS as her Savior! Praise the LORD!


Yesterday afternoon our team of leaders from church met to see what we could do. Vilma and I went and looked at apartments with her, the first one we looked at was a dingy place, and as Patricia looked in the bathroom, she burst out in tears! As we left there she said; "animals shouldn't even live in those conditions, and he has renters paying him for that!"
By this time it was 2pm and it was getting ready to rain!
We went to look at another place farther up the mountain, but it was unfurnished and dirty, would need some work, and she needs to move in today! And as we were arriving there to look it started raining and the apartment is on the second floor. The steps going up to the apartment are now a rushing river! No this one won't work either!


Thankfully the very next place we looked at was a wonderful little apartment that a friend of ours has, we will rent it for her for a month or 2 till she gets a job and gets on her feet! It is furnished and even has a fridge and washer!
We helped pay the rent and Vilma gave her groceries, and the church helped give her pillows, towels and things for the kitchen!


Pray for Tiffany she is going back to High School to class this morning, and her biggest fear is changing high schools, because when they came here from Venezuela, she was in 5th grade and although they speak Spanish they pronounce words differently, and she suffered at the hands of the kids. So she is worried that she'll have to change schools and go through that again! They are coming up on Easter week so they will have off most of that week and this week they only have class 3 days, so that will help her a lot to get acclimated!


Thank you for your support and prayers, because of your support we are able to help out Patricia and Tiffany and be there in their lowest times, standing with them in prayer and also giving of what you have given us paying the rent and helping while they are getting settled in!




JESUS BLESS YOU! Franklin Evelyn Mary & James

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Injustice?

Yesterday James finished his school work around 11 and we helped Franklin in the shop getting doors ready to hang in Cabin Hope. Our hopes are high and it's like we are sitting right on the edge of a great divide, ready for GOD to lay that bridge down so we can open Camp Taller del Maestro for the campers to come running to JESUS!
So at 12:30 James and I left to go to his dentist appointment. He has had braces now for 6 months and the dentist told us he is doing great, his teeth have been moving and they are all in a nice straight line already! "Needs a little more brushing though", he told James!
Then we traveled on to Tabarcia for James drum lessons. He is doing well on drums and they hope to have the presentation soon at a church service!
So while James was at drum lessons I went to our hair dresser to get a haircut. She and I were the only ones in the shop and we talk about a variety of things from our kids to people in general. She told me of an experience that she still was almost in tears over a day or so before. A couple came in to the shop to have their 2 sons hair cut, the boys were around 8 & 13 or so. The boys were not happy about hair cuts and the parents threatening, and the hair dresser in the middle! The oldest went first and he had no say in how his hair was to be cut, so then it was the younger ones turn. He looks at Marlen and says, I'm not going back to school! She tries to make light of it and says, honey, who's been mean to you at school? He said, no, it's nothing at school, I hate the way she wants my hair cut!


The parents by this time are mad and the tension in the room is unbearable, when the dad gets up and jerks the boy by the ear till she said with tears in her eyes says, "I thought he'd jerk it out!" The boy is crying and she is still trying to finish the haircut so they can go on, and she tells the dad, you know you could do harm to his ear, I know as parents we must correct our children but with care, so the dad comes back with, "I will jerk the other ear to match it", more directed to the boy than to Marlen. She said, "I was never so glad when someone left the shop as when they walked out", then went in the other room and cried!" thankfully no one else just her daughter was there at the time, so she was able to recuperate before she had to cut someone else's hair.


I didn't ask if they were Christians, you see as we visit I share Christ with Marlen, as of yet she hasn't confessed JESUS as her Saviour, but the sad thing is many if these things she sees is from parents who go to church, profess Christianity, but leave a different impression on those "In the world around them" What testimony do we have to show JESUS to those around us?


As I thought about this conversation this morning, I asked GOD, why? Why so much injustice, why do you let children suffer, it's not their fault, it's not that they are bad!
BUT, GODS grace and love is sufficient! Let us be peacemakers, loving each other and those less fortunate, teachers who guide out of a heart of love, helping these who are doing wrong, as well as those who wrong has been done to, helping, healing, the LORD showed me my words should be like a healing balm, medicine for the hurting. So today as we go out, if we see injustice, let's don't just turn and look away, the least we can do is say a prayer for them, and if we can give a word of peace and love! It may change the situation and GOD will be glorified!


JESUS BLESS YOU! Franklin Evelyn Mary & James

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

with Love from Costa Rica!

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ Philippians 1:3-8


Just read this scripture and praying and thinking about each of you who have stood with us, as we minister, thank you! GOD is good all the time!
We have been busy about the work here trying to be diligent, because we know the day will come when we can no longer work!
Yesterday James finished school around noon and went to help Franklin a few hours. then we went to town to pay our taxes and check on the insurance. While we were in the municipality building to pay our taxes, I asked the lady where you sign in if the engineer for road work Mr Jorge Pedalta was in. She said no she didn't think he was but that I should sign in and maybe I could wait for him. So


Franklin and I sign in, and about that time mr Jorge walks in! WOW! GOD is good! So we followed him to his office, and sat down to talk to him and he called his assistant  to also join us. We visited and told him we had left a letter back in December for help on the main road coming from Puriscal down here close to the last houses on Bajo Cerdas road. How was that going did they consider helping us this year, what could be done, would they work on the road? He remembered us coming in before and said yes they want to help. So the assistant got out the calendar and wrote down an appointment for April 8 to meet out here at the point we talked about and see what we can do about it and work together to help fix the road for the good of the whole community.


So GOD set up that appointment, it is hard to get an audience with Mr Pedalta because he has a lot of roads to see about the whole county, and this is a small community! BUT GOD has much grace on us and gave us the appointment right there! PRAY for this! Now our road, interior that we had prayed about, it is open and we are able to use it instead of having to ford that he hill! But this a part farther out that needs attention soon! Pray that they will put this as an urgent need, so we won't lose the road that connects us to Pozos and also to be able to go out to Puriscal.
Thank you for your support and prayers for us as we minister here in Costa Rica! GOD bless you as you minister where GOD has you!
JESUS BLESS YOU! Franklin Evelyn Mary & James

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Walk in missions

Good Morning!
I have been having trouble with our blog and haven't been able to post pictures! Thank you for keeping us in prayer and for your faithful support of our ministry and daily need here as we minister in Costa Rica!
GOD has been good and much has been happening!
James is doing well in school, he continues his daily lessons in the Abeka program, we are so thankful for his home school!
When we moved to the mission field 14 years ago this wasn't much of a concern because our kids were little and didn't have a need of school. I homeschooled Mary off and on throughout the years we were in Language school then in Belize for 3 years. We were in the states for 9 months in 2003, our oldest son had a very bad accident and my Mother was very sick with cancer and died. So during this time in the states James went to preschool where I worked, then to Kindergarten. Mary was able to go to 4th grade for a few months and got some much needed basics that would help her during the rest of her studies!
Then we moved full time to Costa Rica with the vision to build a camp & Training center. We had lost a lot of the Spanish we'd learned in 2001, and our kids hadn't kept up the Spanish either. So we decided for them to have the language of the people we'd minister to we put them in the public school system. This was a wonderful place for them to spend the next 8 years! Mary & James are both completely bilingual with no accent. Mary was already in 4th grade by this time and it was very hard for her, thankfully GOD provided friends in our church to help her along the way and she is very determined to learn and do well! She graduated in December 2012 from high school, with a fraction of the kids who started out in high school. Many drop out but many got all the way tot he end and didn't pas the last tests to be able to graduate. But Mary did, we praise the LORD for that!
Now Mary has almost finished her first year in college, and is doing well! She was able to take the CLEP test for Spanish and was able to get 12 hours of college Spanish! She is majoring in Spanish education with minor in music, which has been a love of Mary's for her lifetime! She loves art and music, a GOD GIFT for sure!
Now James went to school until 7th grade when he went to high school it just didn't work for him,(they don't have middle school here) so looking for options to continue his studies my sister suggested we look into Abeka. It has been wonderful for James. He misses having friends, but we are thankful he is here at home under our supervision! Many of his friends are now not coming to church and want nothing to do with GOD, therefore causing a rift between them and James. He prays for their salvation and sees what they do and is sad that they don't choose JESUS!
GOD has a plan for each of us and we are thankful for the plan HE has shown us for our family and our children. Thank you for your continued prayers as we seek to serve JESUS and lead our family in GODLY ways, living out what we preach daily! JESUS bless you!


JESUS BLESS YOU! Franklin Evelyn Mary & James

Monday, February 10, 2014

Fun weekend!

We are so blessed to serve beside our pastor Ogler and Guiselle his wife! We are always encouraged by their love for each person GOD gives them, even us! They have encouraged us and loved us through thick and thin!
We were able to be at church Saturday Night and Sunday morning for both services! We had not been going on Saturdays and really missed the fellowship! They are our family here and we love time spent at our little church!
This Sunday after church we brought 20 youth and several adult chaperons to have a fun evening here at the camp center! As Rebecca and I finished getting food ready after our arrival here around 2pm, the youth gathered in a circle and prayed together to start their time off! Then off to change into play clothes and they ran and played all afternoon, ate several times! We had nachos for lunch and of course rice & beans! Then they played water fights and other games! Merlin one of the girls who sings in the music group, was running and fell and cut her foot, thank you to teams who have brought bandages etc, we got her bandaged up and she was able to finish her day painting wooden blocks with friends, we save small 2X4s etc from the construction, they painted all types of pictures on the wooden blocks and took them home as a remembrance of their fun afternoon!
They ended the evening eating hotdogs and cake around the campfire and gave testimony of what GOD is doing in their lives! They sang praise songs and then Franklin loaded them all up in the white van and they got back home around 10pm!
The vision for the camp & training center is just that, groups from church all over Costa Rica coming to hold day camps or overnight camps to renew their walk with JESUS, playing and enjoying GODS beautiful creation! Coming away from their regular activities of life to seek our LORD JESUS in prayer and just spending time getting to know GOD and each other!
Thank you for giving to make this vision possible! Thank you for your prayers! As Merlin fell and cried as we fixed her bandages, almost passing out because of the blood, we know that it could have been much worse, and because of your prayers for us and those we love here in Costa Rica she was safe and today she is off to high school! Their return to classes is today! They were all happy to be back in school and looking forward to a prosperous year in the LORD!


JESUS BLESS YOU! Franklin Evelyn Mary & James