Antioch

We have arrived in Costa Rica, thank God.

Looking forward to meeting the congregation and being able to bless them as they will with us. All prayers are well received! 

And we have our staff, from the right to the left Rebeca, Nazaret, Gabriel, Kimberly, Erik and Jeric.

Last night we had our orientation meeting where we talked about how to stay healthy and safe during this mission trip. 

We are excited and ready to serve! 

We had a special moment with the church. We all sang together and had the opportunity to share 2 songs. It was a beautiful moment where we all sang and praised God.

Today’s sermon was about how important and needed it is to trust in God when we are going through the hard times, and it was based in Mark 6:45-56. 

This morning we had the opportunity to share with the children a small teaching about Noah and the ark, where God had the opportunity to save Noah's family and the animals of the land from the flood but God had a promise for them. That's why God created the rainbow as a sign of promise with us.

In the afternoon we went to a supermarket in the center of Upala to buy all the supplies for the bags of food that we will be delivering this week. 

We can't wait to meet all of these families! 

After shopping we headed to the church to pack up all the food items and pray over them. Each bag represents a family that we will be visiting and sharing the love of God.

We are praying that we can be the hands and feet of God! 

What better way to start the day than praying! Before anything we had a beautiful time putting everything in God’s hands.

Isaiah 6:8 NLT

"Then I heard the Lord asking, 'Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?' I said, 'Here I am. Send me.'”

This morning we visited 10 families from the community and we shared the Good News of Salvation and two persons accepted Jesus as their savior and lord! 

Today we started our project of painting the church. It was a good time and we hope it will be a blessing for the pastor and his congregation.

In the first day of women's ministry, we shared with the ladies of the community a devotional about how we need to spread the gospel with the people that are around us and not be afraid. Also we painted their nails, and we spent a beautiful moment talking with each other.

This afternoon we started working with the kids and what a blast! We had so many crafts, puppets, bubbles and we shared the story about Zacchaeus and how Jesus wanted him to change, because God is not interested in our past but in our future so that we can be better. 

Yesterday morning we had the opportunity one more time to visit some houses and pray over families. Some of them accepted Jesus in their hearts and some decided to ask God for forgiveness. 

On our second day of painting, we started to paint outside of the church. It was a good day and also we enjoyed the time together.

Yesterday we had a wonderful time with the ladies of the church playing bingo. They were so excited to play. After that Dina shared her testimony and it was a blessing for them! 

In our second day of VBS, we shared with the kids about how Jesus feeds the 5000 and how He is always a provider for us.

We also made crafts and did face paintings.

To close the day, we had a movie night. We shared some snacks, but most importantly, we shared as a community.

Before anything else we like to put everything in God’s hands. We want to honor him and praise him before we start our day! 

On the third day of ministry with the women of the community, we shared a devotional about how God is that rock that supports us. Barbara also shared her testimony, and at the end, we made reusable sanitary pads.

It was a time of blessing for everyone!

On day 3 of VBS we learned about how the friends of a paralytic decided to make his friend receive the miracle of healing and have the opportunity to be able to walk, and even in the midst of difficulties, his friends decided to help him so that he had a chance to walk. Jesus was and will be good to everyone, he just wants you to be his friend for him and to be able to walk with him every day.

On wednesday we had the opportunity to be right at the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, we met some families, we shared about the gospel, we shared some stories and testimonies. This lady in the picture she can’t read, and she told us she was trying to learn with the Bible, so since we had some proclaimers, that one of our brothers back at the church donated for people who don’t know how to read or for the ones that are blind, we decided to give her one and she was really excited cause she will learn more about the Bible.

(The proclaimers are some sort of radios that have the whole New Testament included).