Hola, hermanos y hermanas en Christo!
Summary
Praise God for his awesome work in the church of Avangaritos.
Pray for the love of the church to spread into the rest of the community
where there is much need.
Thank God for what he is doing in the life of each team member: we have all
been so encouraged and at the same time have had struggles, pray that we would
be aware of His work in our lives, and would work with him.
Avangarutis
Wow, we´re now back in San Jose after having an amazing week and a bit working
with a rural pentecostal church in the village of Avangarutis on the gulf of
Nicoya. We have really experienced the power of God, and have all been changed
by the experience. Meeting with God has brought each of us joy and
encouaragement, but also challenges and struggles, so there is a lot to praise
and pray for. The project was to build a disabled toilet block at the church site, which was
under construction. However, much more importantly, it was about getting to
know the church, and about loving, serving, encouraging, and learning from
them.
Our schedule was pretty tough, and it was very hot, but God sustained us and
none of us have been seriously ill. We arrived at church at 8am in the
morning, and returned home at around 9.30pm in the evening, sometimes popping
home for an hour or so to shower after work, but towards the end we stayed
right through the day. Upon returning home, we´d often have planning meetings
for the service the following day; our lives really did revolve around the
church, and it was so rewarding, if exhausting. During the day we did a
combination of building work, playing with the kids, eating, planning
services, and leading services. The church holds services on Tuesdays,
Wednesdays, Thursdays, a youth service on Saturdays and two groups and a
service on Sunday. Apart from the worship music, we were to take all of these!
As a team we´ve all had a chance to use and share our gifts, including
children`s work, music, drama, dance, giving testimonies, preaching, and of
course all those construction skills during the day!
We hope that we will have been an encouragement to the church, but we really
did receive SO much from them. Some things to praise God for were:
* The warmth, love, and acceptance of the church.
The kindness, generosity, friendliness and trust that we were shown was really
humbling.
* The prayer of the church.
One guy Abner said he prayed for us and our families morning and night, and I
think this could well be representative of the whole church.
* The joy and freedom of the church. The end of the services turned into a
party, with latino music blasting out and lots of dancing.
* The community of the church
It was like one huge big family. The closeness of these people, and the way
that they shared their lives with one another day in day out seemed to be a
glimpse of heaven.
* The potential of the church.
We were left with a vision of the love of the church flooding out into the
village community, and for these people of God to be sent out into the world
to share their joy with others.
Perhaps the most worthwhile thing we did was to try and reach out to the wider
village community. At the very first service we noticed that there was a bunch
of guys who would stand outside the church listening, but they wouldn´t come
in. Through both some of the team going to chat to them after the service, and
through a travelling outreach event that we put on at three different points
of the village including a dance/drama and a testimony, and serving a meal to
them, we saw some of them come into the church service on our final night. We
were so overjoyed, and it was such a wonderful encouragement on our last
night, and helped us to trust God with what he was doing with the community
there. There are many problems within the village, including alcohol and drug
addiction, child abuse, gambling, and witchcraft, making it a community that is
desparate for the love that the church have found in God.
Please pray for the church, that it continues to seek God in prayer,
and that they remain unified in his love.
Please pray for the church´s vision to reach out to the village to
grow and grow.
Pray for God to be working in the village, and for him to release
people from their struggles and find freedom in him.
Please pray for the teenage boys who are struggling with their faith
and how they relate to God, that God would reveal his love powerfully to them
and that they would have the courage to surrender their lives to him and join
the church community.
New Project
Please pray for the new project that we will be starting in a church plant in
Los Guidos, which is an area that we encountered through working with EdPlus,
were we did some clubs with young people from the shanty town there. The new
project will be very short, perhaps only four or five days, so please pray
that God would be showing us what we has brought us here to do, and that he
would give us the energy and love to do it for his glory. Please also pray for
our team, for unconditional love and unity among us, and that we would be
receptive to all that God has to teach us. Please pray that if God is
challenging us or seeming to be leading us into a struggle, ask that he would
make the purpose clear to us. And thank him once again for his amazing love
and for his powerful work in the world. What a great God we serve!
Dios le bendiga,
The Costa Rica Team
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