That is the message we have been getting from the Lord for the past month or so. After our last post, we spent a lot of time praying and processing through the results from the missionary screening/counseling that we went through with our church counselor. We felt led to slow down and not to try and rush God’s timing for us to go to Costa Rica. Although it was kind of hard at first to have our plans/ideals adjusted, we now see the benefit of stepping back and getting a better picture of it all.
Our hope was to be able to go down there sometime this summer and help host the mission teams that would be coming to Puerto Viejo. Up until last Wednesday (June 11th), we had set that hope aside, assuming that wasn’t God’s timing, but our own. However, after talking with the missionaries already in Puerto, they encouraged us come down and do a 3 month internship with them. They suggested for us to try and make it down in time for the last mission team of the summer, so that we could experience what it is like to host a team. The last team will be there from July 17th -26th. We would like to be there at least a week in advance in order to get our family somewhat settled which means we would need to arrive there around July 6th or 7th. Realizing that only leaves us 3 weeks, we began to quickly pray for God to provide and started to check on the details of it all.
This is where serving an amazing God comes in. First, Allen’s office graciously agreed to work with us and allow him to take a 3 month leave of absence, and they even held a fund raiser to help us out. Second, for us to be able to make the trip, we would need to raise a LOT of money in 3 weeks in order to support our family of 5 in Puerto and also to continue to pay our bills back at home. What is amazing is that in less than a week, we have had most of it pledged and a good amount already given. As of today, we are only $3500 short of our goal, and we look forward to seeing how God will provide.
The last cool thing we wanted to share is how God was working in our oldest daughter’s (Hope) heart this past week. She has had the most concern about moving to Costa Rica and leaving all of her friends and family. Last week while God decided to hurry us up, Hope was at a missions camp (GA camp) and God was preparing her heart for Costa Rica and her counselor said that in the beginning of the week, she was much more reserved when talking about moving. However, closer to the end of camp, she was much more excited and wrote in her devotional journal several times that God was calling her to be a missionary in Costa Rica. There is no greater joy than seeing God working in your children’s hearts and growing them spiritually!
Please pray for us as we prepare to go in less than 3 weeks and have to get things in order here at home and also prepare for our time there. See our prayer needs page for more specific prayer request details.
We are extremely excited to be able to do this internship and are looking forward to being used by God.
We are truly/finally “preparing to drop in”
Blessings to you all!!!!