October 2008

Dear friends,

Recently, God has brought the above verses to the forefront of our minds, reminding us of our ultimate purpose here. It is especially fitting considering the challenging terrain in this area where we serve, as many of you who have visited us can attest to. These past few months have been filled with challenges and blessings, a few of which we share with you below. All in all, we are thankful for the opportunities to learn, grow, and “see the goodness of our Lord in the land of the living”.

In July, we made a surprise trip to visit our friends in Tsimari and to see the progress the community had made in preparation for building the bridges. We were blessed to see how the community had come together – men, women, and children preparing the bridge sites and building a shelter for the volunteer workers. Unfortunately, it is unusual to see communities come together like this in the indigenous territories, since paternalistic government and private programs have created a dependant, because-I-am-an-Indian-you-have–to-give-it-to-me mindset. We went with Giovanni (who will be the foreman for the bridge construction), Seth (one of our Cabécar friends), as well as Rebekah and Hannah Jones, who are the daughters of our dear friends Timothy and Keiry Jones working on the Cabécar Bible translation. We were able to work with the community in building the shelter, as well as attend to some medical needs of patients in their homes.

The engineer has completed the plans for the three suspension bridges to be built in Tsimari, and we are waiting for the materials and some of the structure (which will be prefab) to be ready to begin the construction. It is possible that the construction will not begin until January for various reasons. First, we are in the midst of the rainiest part of the rainy season in this area. Also, Giovanni broke his hand (scaphoid fracture) after falling off his bike this past week, and will be in a cast at least until December. We trust that the Lord’s timing for this will be perfect.

Also, we are thankful that our friend Aniceto (the man from Tsimari who we are training to be a community health worker) continues to be faithful in coming out for training and to receive medicines. One encouraging thing is that the community is contributing to his travel expenses to come here each month – which is a sign that they are taking ownership and see this as a something valuable for their community!

One of the challenges we have recently faced is the shut door (at least, for now) for our continuing to train the government community health workers. On the local level, this training program was readily received, and we really saw some good things beginning to happen; however, the health area administration (out of Turrialba) shut down the program because of what is essentially a power play. Although we are sad that we haven’t been able to continue what we feel like is the key to improving healthcare on the reservation, we also realize that what we are doing is shaking up the system – which is why we are here.

In September, we had the opportunity to make a whirlwind visit to the U.S. This included visiting our main supporting and home church in San Antonio (Village Parkway Baptist Church), sharing with our two friends Dan and Lori Friedly in Washington, D.C. – who will be moving to Costa Rica to attend language school and work with us in March 2009, visiting with Judith’s Aunt Marilee, Uncle Lou, cousin Andrea, and sister Jaime in Denver, and attending a week-long seminar with the Central American Leadership Initiative at the Aspen Institute in Aspen, Colorado.

As part of being a member of the Central American Leadership Initiative, Alekcey needed to present a project of long-term social impact at the Aspen Institute. After praying about this for several months, Alekcey felt like he had his project: start a technical boarding school in this area for adolescents to learn furniture making for export, business models, and moral values through mentoring. At the last minute, while Alekcey was in the middle of the seminar, he realized that this was not the project he was to present; and instead presented the project of creating and executing a new model for the administration and implementation of health care for the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica, starting with the Cabécar people of the Chirripó area as a pilot program. This is a need we have been aware of for some time, but have been shying away from it because of all the political barriers that need to be faced to truly make a change at the administrative level. This also means working with the government healthcare system –which is a mammoth of bureaucracy which we have, for the most part, been trying to avoid. Nevertheless, our God is bigger than all of this. He will show us the way to go, and give us the perseverance we need to see this through. We are glad we don’t have to do this alone.

There are a lot of other things going on, some of which we will likely share in the next newsletter as we see certain things come to pass. Stay tuned! – And thank you for all your prayers.

With love and by His grace.

July 2008

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is the word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Isaiah 55: 10-11


Dear friends,

Our love and greetings to you all from Paso Marcos. We continue to experience the Lord’s grace daily, and want to take this opportunity to share with you His continued faithfulness in and through our lives.

In our last newsletter we had written you all regarding our visit to the community of Tsimari and the specific needs there. We rejoice in what the Lord has been doing for these people. As we mentioned in our last newsletter, during our first trip to Tsimari we identified a young man, Aniceto, to train as a village health worker. Starting in April, Aniceto has been coming out monthly to Paso Marcos for training and medications. It takes Aniceto two days to get to our place, so this is no small commitment on his part, and we are grateful for his dedication to the calling the Lord has on his life to help his community.

We had also mentioned the need for three footbridges over dangerous rivers in Tsimari. The Lord has opened up a partnership for this project with the Hospital Clínica Bíblica in San José. They have provided their engineer (who has in the past worked extensively with the U.S. Army in Panama installing bridges), along with a commitment to facilitate and provide all funds for the transportation and materials needed for this project. A week and a half ago, we took our second trip to Tsimari (this time in helicopter) along with the engineer and team from Clínica Bíblica for the site survey and measurements, and will be meeting with the engineer later this week to discuss the design, materials, and logistics. It is a very exciting time for us, as we feel that the Lord will use this project to open other doors for His work in this community.

In April, we had the opportunity to join Timothy Jones (Cabécar Bible translator) for a trip to several villages we had not previously visited before. During this trip, the Lord continued to expand our horizons and deepen our understanding of the Cabécar people as we stayed and visited many homes for relationship building, discipleship, and medical care. The Lord also used this trip to reveal certain truths of which we were previously unaware. In the Cabécar culture, deception is considered an acceptable tool of survival and self-preservation, and we were faced with the truth of this in regards to our relationship with certain individuals. Although our hearts are sorrowful, we are thankful that are eyes have been opened to the truth, and pray daily that truth would reign in the hearts of these individuals and all the Cabécar people.

In May, we began another long-term health education project. The government healthcare system has trained and employs 12 Cabécar rural health workers. Each worker has various responsibilities such as administering vaccines, registering newborns, community health education, epidemiologic surveillance, emergency response, etc. Unfortunately, a few years ago the government decided that to take these people off the field for ongoing training was a waste of time and resources. These are the people who are on the frontlines of healthcare on the reservation, and we believe in the importance of providing these workers with the support and tools that they need to do their work well. The Lord opened the doors for us to begin an ongoing monthly training program for these workers, beginning with a two day training session in May at Paso Marcos, with the second training session last week. The Lord has blessed us with a good rapport with each of these workers, who we believe are the key to improving the lives of their people.

There are many other things the Lord is doing here, and we look forward to seeing the Lord’s purposes as they continued to be worked out in and through our lives .

Thank you for your continual prayers and support.

March 2008

Dear friends,

We are so thankful for the opportunity the Lord has given us to be in His service. These last few months we continue to see His hand and His purpose in our lives and His ministry here in Costa Rica.

We have continued to enjoy being part of the community in Paso Marcos. The construction of the multipurpose building is coming together – all in His timing – and we will begin equipping this very soon so we can ask for permits from the Health Department.

In February, we were blessed to be able to join a medical mission team to the Amazon in Peru for two weeks. For this trip, we were on a boat which traveled upriver 533 miles from the city of Iquitos on the Amazon River to the village of El Tigre on the Huallaga river, stopping to give medical and dental care to various villages along the way. Although the trip was challenging at times, we were blessed to see the Lord’s purposes being fulfilled in this part of the world. We also had the opportunity to see and follow up with Michael, the young man from Peru who had corrective surgery for club foot in Costa Rica. He is continuing to do well with his recovery, and we even had the opportunity to take a walking tour with him of the town where he is living.

Also in February, we celebrated one year of providing regular dental care to Paso Marcos and surrounding communities, thanks to the generosity of the Hospital Clínica Bíblica (Costa Rican private hospital in San José) in sending the dentists and support team. We are thankful that the Hospital Clínica Bíblica has committed to continuing to provide this service to the community as long as necessary.

March was another busy month for us, as we hosted a family medicine resident from the program we trained with in the U.S. We had the opportunity to visit parts of the reservation we had never visited before, which included grueling hikes with breathtaking views.

One of the places we visited is the village of Tsimari. Tsimari is a small Cabécar village which is unique in that it is fairly isolated from the rest of the villages on the reservation. Because of its size and location, the people in this village do not receive much attention or aid from the outside world. We had the opportunity to visit most of the homes and talk with many of the people regarding their resources and needs. All of the habitants identified the need for footbridges over the three significant rivers that converge in that area, since their current method of crossing the rivers consist in precarious unraveled cable and vine bridges or logs. Most children need to cross these bridges every day on their way to school, which is particularly treacherous during the rainy season when the rivers rise. We feel that the Lord is leading us to help them in this area, and have begun to explore possibilities.

Also, since this village has essentially no medical care available to them, we proposed the possibility of training one of the community leaders as a village health worker. The community chose the very person we had in mind for this post, which was a wonderful confirmation to us that the Lord is in this. Incidentally, this man, whose name is Aniceto, also happens to be the only Christian in the community. He is coming to Paso Marcos tomorrow to begin his training this week.

There are many other things the Lord is doing here, and we look forward to seeing the Lord’s purposes as they continued to be worked out in and through our lives here.

Thank you for your continual prayers and support.

January 2008

Feliz año nuevo! Facing the New Year typically causes us to reflect on the year that has just passed. Each year has its challenges and blessings, and that is true about 2007.

Challenges which we faced this year and their blessings include (but are not limited to) the following:

Temporarily closed door to medical ministry on the reservation. For several months of last year our attempts at doing medical clinics on the reservation were thwarted by Cabécar authorities. Thankfully, we now know the president of the Cabécar Association (the Cabécar governing authority) and have a good relationship with him. We were even able to work closely with him on the community committee for a new bridge over the Pacuare River. Through this, we have also solidified our relationship with the government physicians in the area.

Multiple generator failures. As many of you know, we do not have electricity in Paso Marcos, and have had to rely on generators for all our electrical needs, particularly for the construction and dental clinics. By the end of October 2007 we had pretty much gone through 3 generators (one of them borrowed from a neighbor for the dental clinic). As a result, the construction process has been significantly delayed. We are thankful, however, that we have never had to cancel a dental clinic. Two days before our dental clinic in December, we still did not have a generator available, but God provided. We now have a new, heavy duty diesel generator which has been performing well for all our electrical needs.

The Pacuare River bridge breaking. The suspension bridge over the Pacuare river has been in disrepair for many years. This bridge is the only access across the river for a population of about 11,000-12,000 people, including the reservation. This year, we were an active part of the community bridge committee, which we formed in order to find a permanent solution to the problem by replacing the bridge. Through our efforts, a meeting with the vice-minister of transportation resulted in his agreeing that the bridge needed replacing, and that he would put it in the budget for 2009. Two weeks after the meeting, the bridge broke (November). Thankfully, no one was hurt, and as a result, the awareness of the need for a new bridge was heightened. The bridge was repaired (a temporary fix), and the push for a new bridge continues.

Isolation. For those of you who have visited us, you know that Paso Marcos is an isolated place. In addition, we still have no communication at the property site. However, we have found that moving out to Paso Marcos has multiplied our relationships in Paso Marcos and in the surrounding communities. We have also significantly strengthened our relationship with the other missionaries in the area, which has opened doors to other relationships with the Cabécar people in other parts of the reservation.

We’d also like to share some additional blessings and new directions that the Lord is taking us:

Alekcey has been selected to be one of four people in Costa Rica to participate in the Central American Leadership Initiative sponsored by the Aspen Institute. This is a two year leadership program, mostly comprised of high-powered businessmen and government officials; however, God has seen it fit for Alekcey to rub shoulders with these people. Part of the program is to develop a socially-minded project in an area of interest under the guidance of a mentor. The possibilities are endless, but ideas for this project are forming, and we are excited to see how God is going to use this. The program’s first seminar begins in March.

Dental clinics: In December, with the generosity of the Social Action Department of Hospital Clínica Bíblica, we were able to complete one year of providing regular dental care to Paso Marcos and the surrounding communities. The dentist has made comments that by providing regular dental care to this community, he is beginning to see how we will soon be at the point of providing preventative dental care along with curative care. That’s what development is all about – making a lasting, permanent change. Clínica Bíblica has committed to at least another year of regular dental care.

The clinic in Paso Marcos: Because of the electricity problems, the clinic facilities are still not completed – but we are getting close. This has given us time to reexamine the true medical needs of the area and the purpose of the clinic. We have always wanted to compliment the medical efforts of the government clinics, rather than duplicate them. We have been able to develop a good relationship with the physicians and staff at the government clinic for the area (about 10 km away – 30 min. travel time). At this point in time, we feel that the biggest need is for an intermediate care facility – essentially, a place where people can stay and receive long-term treatments (such as for leischmaniasis and tuberculosis), as well as a step-down unit as people transition from hospital to home.

One last thing we’d like to share. The Lord has provided us with a home church in the U.S., called Village Parkway Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas. This in and of itself is an interesting, but long, story. They were able to send their second team down to Costa Rica this past week (Dec. 28 through Jan 5). We had a marvelous time and were able to accomplish many things including the kitchen expansion, digging out the drainage system for the road after a landslide, VBS, and a community New Year’s Eve party. We have many stories to share from this trip, and we’d like to share one here.


We decided to host a community New Year’s Eve party at the property as an alternative to the available entertainment (which isn’t much) for that day. Since this is our first time ever doing this, we really had no idea what to expect. We personally invited a few, and put up signs around the community. Apparently word spread because we counted about 100 people there. The tricky thing was planning the food for the party. Having not expected so many people, we were concerned that we were going to fall short on the food supplies. The time came to serve the meal: rice, beans, pork, malanga (a starchy root vegetable), and juice. In short, every one we served was full, and there were even some leftovers. The next day, we served the same amount of rice to our team (16 people in total) which was just enough for the meal. Now, can anyone explain to us how the same pot of rice, which was just enough for 16 people one day, fed 100 people the day before? Thank you, Lord.

Thank you for your continued prayers, support, and friendship.