I would like to thank you all for your prayers over the last
few weeks. After my last blog post we
could feel your prayers which were very encouraging. Three weeks ago we went on our 90 day border
run to reset our visas. We left at 4am
for Nicaragua and the stars were out.
That was an answer to prayer for me.
Now I know when the stars are out.
Just before sunrise.
Unfortunately, I am not terribly motivated to get up that early to look
for stars. I think that just knowing
that they are there will have to be enough for me. We know that many of you were praying for us
as we crossed the border. We have heard
horror stories of it taking 8 hours to get across the border so we were very
nervous. God heard your prayers and He
went before us and prepared a smooth ride North to the border. We met a man at the border who spoke English
and guided us (for a tip) through the 4-6 different stations for baggage check,
passport stamps, and border fees. The
most amazing part was that there were no lines at any of these stations when we
arrived. Upon leaving each line there, was
at least a dozen people waiting behind us and quite often the lines would be
out the door. We would have never made
it without our guide, as the various stations where spread out by a muddy 100
yard path. We would have had no idea
where to go next. Yay God!!! Nicaragua was very beautiful and it was a
wonderful 3 days of much needed family time.
We have included some of our pictures from the Nicaraguan beach on the
Pacific Ocean.
We have begun the process of establishing temporary
residency here in Costa Rica. Residency
would enable us to stay in this country indefinitely without having to leave
every 90 days on the expensive visa reset trips. Rob’s mother has graciously located our
marriage and birth certificates in our storage in CT and brought them to get an
apostille (a verification required by Costa rica) stamp at the CT secretary of
state’s office. They will be bringing
these documents to Costa Rica with them when they come to visit on November 1st. We got finger printed for the FBI to do a
background check and left a copy of our prints at the police station in San
Jose. We believe that now all we have to
do is wait for approval. We have learned
that the initial fees for residency is very expensive, costing about $1000.00
per person. (We have a family of 6) We have started this process on faith that God
will provide as he has done all along. Please stay tuned for a notification of a
fundraiser to help us raise these funds.
If any of you have ideas of a fundraiser that we can do from a remote
location, please let us know. We are
open to all ideas.
Last Sunday, we had our first 6:8 Ministries staff worship
service. Elise and I had the opportunity
to lead the worship music and it went very well. It felt good to use some of the talents that
God has prepared us with. It was very
special to worship together as an intimate group of 13 and we know that this
will be a wonderful unity building time for us.
Please pray that staff unity continues to build and our relationships
grow so that we will become even more effective as we serve the people in this
community.
We are currently hosting a church group from Atlanta,
Georgia. This is the last church group
that we have scheduled until after Christmas.
The church groups that come down to serve tend to be very encouraging to
us as a staff so we will need a lot of prayer over the next couple of months,
especially as we will be missing family during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Please consider putting together a mission
group from your area to come down and serve.
We hope to begin construction soon on our house out at the ranch and
would love to have several groups come down this winter to help get it
done. The two team houses at the ranch are
finally up and functional so we are ready to have teams come and have a dry,
comfortable place to stay with indoor plumbing;-) We are so excited! We are coming into the dry season which is an
absolutely beautiful time of year to schedule your mission trip.
We love you all. God is good!!
