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.
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.
