God's abundant Love

This afternoon I brought the kids up the river a little ways to a spot where there is small alcove where the water pools up and it is very calm and safe for swimming.

As I sat on the edge of the river I thought of how many thousands of gallons of water rush past Living Waters Children’s Ranch each day and how there seems to be no end to the water supply. It reminded me of a song that I learned as a child from the musical “I am God’s Project”. The Lyrics to the song go like this…

Give your candy bar to me

That’s the last of it you’ll see

Love is just the opposite

You can’t give too much of it.

G.L.Y.S.D.I God Loves You And So Do I

Pass it around it will come back to you.

The river is an excellent reminder of God’s abundant love for us and how through Him we too have an abundance of love to share with others.  This is what we strive to do here at 6:8 Ministries and what we have begun doing here at the Children’s Ranch. We moved onto the Ranch almost full time the first week of February.  We live there on weekdays and travel back to the city on weekends to help with the Saturday feeding center and anything else they need our help with. The children started school at Green Valley Bi-Lingual School on February 9^th, the first day of the school year in Costa Rica.

It was a rough first couple of weeks since Spanish is spoken 80 percent of the time.  They have begun to make some friends and are getting used to the rapid Spanish that is spoken all day long. The kids are learning new words and phrases every day and I am a little jealous that they will be fluent in Spanish before long. I have to say that we are quite proud of the kids for sticking with it and really trying their best to follow along and achieve. Thank you all for your prayers. We feel them and are encouraged by them.

Last week was a very exciting week for us with 4 visitors from Connecticut. Jaylyn, from our home church Valley Brook Community Church began interning for us here at 6:8 Ministries. 

She just finished up a 6 month training in Costa Rica with YWAM and decided to spend 2 months serving with us before going back to CT and preparing for College. We are so excited and blessed to have her. Our friend Ellie, from our home town has been serving with YWAM in Costa Rica for the last 18 months, came to visit us with her father, Kevin.

It was so great to see old friends and reminisce. Abby’s grandmother, Judy, also visited with us for the week.

We have been looking forward to this visit since she booked the tickets last Summer. It looks like she picked the perfect time with record low temperatures and record high snowfalls in Connecticut this winter. While it was a vacation for her relaxing in the river and soaking up the sun, she also spent a lot of time helping us out with staining trim boards, cooking meals, and spending time with her granddaughter. We really appreciated her visit and Abby especially enjoyed the special time she got to spend with her Grandma.

Two weeks ago we began laying the foundation for a building that we will first use as a much needed shed since all of our tools, and supplies were stored in the kitchen. This building will eventually serve as a guard house for security once the Ranch is up and running. Thanks to our Tico workers and our CT friends, we are amazed to say that we completed the building last Thursday and moved all of the tools, lawnmower, weed wackers, wood, etc. out of the kitchen and into the shed.  Yay God! The kitchen staff will be so excited when they see it!

God has been so good! We continue to be amazed and blessed to see how God provides exactly what we need in the moment that we need it. Our latest little God moment happened last Monday morning when we woke up to yelping outside.

We went out to find a puppy on our porch. Nobody knows where it came from and none of our neighbors admit to dropping her off. The puppy appears to be a mix of German Shepherd and an unknown other breed. The God thing is that Rob and I have been promising the kids a dog for years and said once we move onto the Ranch we will get one. Well, last weekend we decided to seriously start looking for a large dog that would serve as a guard dog and we specifically mentioned a German Shepherd. It looks like this puppy made our search easy. She found us and she seems to be a perfect fit. She has shown her protective characteristics, by barking and letting us know when people come onto the property but is very patient and gentle with the kids. She stuck around all week so we decided to take her home to the city with us over the weekend and bring her to a Vet. Sadie is now on a vaccination schedule and we are claiming her as our own.

Prayer requests:

• Please continue to pray for the kids and their adjustment to a mainly Spanish speaking school. Pray that God would give them a supernatural understanding of the language. Rob and I could use a little of that prayer tooJ
• Please also pray for us as we move forward with construction on the Ranch.  Much prayer is needed as we continue to work with the municipality and try to get through the red tape in order to get the permits necessary for building the family houses that will eventually house the foster/orphan children and their host families.

Praise:

• God’s abundant love.
• That the kids are adjusting remarkably well to their new school.
• For our visitors from Connecticut.
• For the completion of our much needed shed!!!
• For all the stars in the sky that are now appearing at the ranch (see post from September 29, 2014)

Serving Him.

Yvonne