Trying to be Light for the Lord......

Since we have been living here in Costa Rica our lives as we knew them in the states have been turned upside down. When we lived in North Carolina we were all very active in our church. Mark and I sung in the choir, attended Sunday School, helped in our Wednesday night Awana program Mark was an usher and I served as a nursery captain we also went out on Soul Winning Visitation. Taylor and Hunter were also active in church activities as well and went out on Teen Soul Winning. When we moved to Tampa we jumped right in to the minitries there and went on Soul Winning on Saturdays when we were home and not out on deputation. It is so amazing that others do not take advantage of sharing the Gospel in our native tongue.  It is so easy to hand a track out or ask a person where they will spend eternity when they day in English if we only step out of our comfort zone.


This has been such a challenge for us since we have been in Costa Rica. Not only could we not speak the language when we arrived but we did not even have the material to hand to someone so that they could read it for themselves. Mark and I knew that even here we could be doing more to reach the people of Costa Rica for Christ. We began to pray that God would put people in our path to witness too. You know that God does answer prayers if you only ask, it may not always be the answer that we want or expect but he always answers. I told you a few weeks back about a lady named Ms. Anna. Well, after meeting and talking in Spanish for over 2 hours and comforting her with God's love and mercy while she witnessed a loss right before our eyes we knew that God had placed us there. The very next day we were getting ready for school just like any other day and had Josiah ready and everything and at the last minute decided to let him stay home with Taylor and Hunter.

Later that afternoon when classes were over we walked down to pick him up from class....forgetting that we had broken our daily pattern and left him home. Instead of walking out of the bottom gate which we were standing about 20 ft from we decided to walk all the way back up to the top of the hill to the main gate. Once we were at the top of the gate we saw an older lady sitting on the ground with a few bags and a man standing over top of her. The man helped her to her feet and handed her the bags. I looked and Mark and we both agreed that we should go over to help her for we could tell that she was having difficulty caring the bags and she was not using her left arm at all. When we approached her she began to tell us with pain in her eyes that she thought she had broken her arm. Mark understood alot of what she said because of all of his training in the fire service. We helped her to her house and as she pulled out her keys Mark noticed that during her fall she broke all of her eggs in her purse. We helped her inside and asked her name "Alisa" (we think.... she gave another name but this was the short version) We told her that we would be praying for her and she was so thankful. We walked home and grabbed a bag of eggs that we had in the fridge and quickly ran them back to her house. Her son had called the ambulance and asked "how much for the eggs" we told them they were a gift. They seemed very surprised and thankful.

We have tried many times to go and see her but she has not been home. We did found out though that she in fact broke her arm and look each day to see if she is home so we can visit.  During both of these encounters we would have loved to had a track to hand out so that they could read about the Roman's Road or The Plan of Salvation. That all changed though this past week when our director Pastor Mike Higgins brought us some Spanish Gospel Tracts. What a praise item for us. Even though we are still not fluent enough in Spanish to present the plan of Salvation we can hand out a track and plant the seed for someone to water. We make it a habit now for all of us to take 2-3 tracks with us where ever we go and hand them out. Whether we are in a cab, grocery store or passing someone on the street we try to hand them out.

Today we were walking back from a visit out for breakfast and the park and went a different route than normal. Again, God will direct your paths if you let HIM...and he let us to an older man sitting on his front step reading the paper. Mark greeted the man with "?Como esta?" The man jumped to his feet and began a conversation with us. We began to talk and he started to tell us that he had lived in the US for 5 years and traveled all over the world. After talking to him for a while we told him that we must be heading home and handed him a track. Mark asked him if he could read it when he had time and he happily excepted and began to talk some more. He looked at us and asked if we were Ticos? We giggled and said no...he said your Spanish is so good and we laughed again. What a nice thing to say...but we still have much work and learning ahead. He continues to talk to us and say the he was a boxer in his younger days and that he is a member of the World Boxer Org. how cool was that. As we concluded our conversation he said You and I are now friends and I want you to come inside for coffee. We had to turn him down but promised to return. It is so amazing at how God opens the doors and leads you down the path that he has paved. We now have 3 open doors not only to plant the seed for the Lord but great ways to help improve our Spanish.  Please help us by praying that the Lord will continue to give us opportunities to reach the people of Costa Rica with the Gospel.

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:4-6