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.