Thanks so much for your prayers for God to help us adapt to the rhythm of life down here in Costa Rica. It looks like we have officially adapted to what is called “tico time” – referring to that cultural inclination to put off until “manana” what you probably should have done yesterday! That is our excuse for this belated Christmas letter… but you probably didn’t have time to read this back in December anyway, right?
We sure hope you had a wonderful holiday season! After a rough start to the holidays involving a serious car accident on Christmas Eve (no serious injuries in either car, thank God!), we spent Christmas week with our son Jesse and his family who live about six hours from where we live, down at the beach on the Nicoye Peninsula. Justice had a wonderful time playing with his cousin Zoe and swimming in the sea and we enjoyed the break from Spanish lessons and the busyness of getting a whole new ministry started.
The last couple of months have been very exciting for us. We have been getting to know our recently arrived Global Outreach Mission teammates, Nathan and Amber Babcock and Ken LaBelle, and have been blessed by their partnership with us in ministry and by our opportunities to help pastor and encourage them. All three are first-term missionaries. Nathan is El Jardin Sagrado’s administrator/camp director. Amber, a registered nurse, is here to head up our medical missions projects and Ken is an electrician and all-around handyman and is overseeing the center’s maintenance. All three have big hearts for evangelism, better Spanish skills than we do (not difficult to have!) and great gathering skills and they will be helping us get a new church established here. In addition, Gary and Debbie Gray, American ex-pats we met at our language school have turned out to be seminary-educated and on fire for God. We believe they are going to be key players as we move forward to plant a church.
While we remain “linguistically-challenged” the Lord has opened many doors for us in terms of significant relationships among both nationals and the surprisingly numerous English-speaking people here in our community. We have been holding bi-lingual Potluck and Praise nights a couple of times a month at our house. These have been attended by both believers and non-believers, locals and ex-pats. A young tico couple, Adrian and Marjorie, believers who have been hurt and discouraged by negative experiences in past churches, have been attending these gatherings and Adrian has agreed to help play guitar and lead worship.
An American woman named Roni who professes to be Hindu but seems to be searching spiritually has also been playing guitar for us. Teaching her the worship songs and having spiritual conversations with her has blessed Judith. Please pray that her exposure to Christian life and community will open her eyes to the One True God and release her from her bondage to the thousands of “gods” that must be appeased within the Hindu tradition.
Since our last letter we have gotten hooked up to the internet at home and we now have the ability to call the USA and Europe virtually for free so if you would like to hear our voices, send us your phone number or give us a call and we’ll call you right back! Our home number is country code 506-533-1471. We also have a post office box now and mail has been arriving with no problems to Apartado 141-7100, Paraiso, Costa Rica.
Most importantly, we have started this BLOG where we will be posting updates, prayer needs, photos and videos. If you come here regularly you can see, up close and personal, a medical mission that Judith recently participated in serving poor Nicaraguan refugees in a local “precario” (the Costa Rican name for ramshackle, often dangerous, shantytowns made of tin and cardboard that seem to take over the hillsides on the edges of towns here). Other stuff will be added regularly here at bridge-builders.blogspot.com and don’t forget to let us know what you think and any suggestions you might have! For starters, here is a short video of the medical outreach Judith was a part of in Tres Rios...
Coming up: a combination medical/construction team will be here at El Jardin Sagrado shortly. Pray for lives to be touched with the love of Jesus as practical needs are met and for successful completion of numerous construction projects at the center including work on a multipurpose building which we hope to use for significant outreach to the local community.
On a personal note, please pray for God’s protection and guidance for Spree who had a tough year in 2006. She is walking close to the Lord, grieving her losses and trying to start again.
It’s tough to be so far from her at this moment but we are hoping to make a trip to Europe in February or March when we need to take care of some legal matters regarding our guardianship of Justice and our residency. We have an urgent need right now and maybe you can help. We already have return trip tickets to Belgium but we need tickets to get back to Costa Rica! If you can help with some frequent flyer miles or tickets, please contact us by email right away at judithgrossman@hotmail.com or call us so we can begin to organize things.
We are so grateful for your faithful friendship, prayers and support. God is at work in Costa Rica and together we can join with Him and make an eternal difference! Dios le bendiga! With love from Rick and Judith
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1 comment:
Very useful post...thanks!
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