Christmas Outreach 2012

The Christmas Outreach was a great success this year!  What a blessing!!!  We were all overflowing with joy and the kids were more than blessed!  Thanks A MILLION to all of you who served and donated to make this possible!  The fun festivities included bounce houses, a real photo booth (made by a friend of ours), face painting, coloring, cupcakes, the Christmas Story presented by our Youth Group, the Gospel message, and of course gifts and candy.  It was a wonderful day and we praise God for all of the love that the volunteers showed these precious ones!  Here are a few pictures of our day!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from Costa Rica!  God bless you!!

Caught Him!

Tonight we caught Micah in the kitchen with the empty ice cream container!  He dug it out of the trashcan and tried to eat every last drop.  This is after I found him under the kitchen table licking Jacob's empty bowl.  He is a mess!!

Below:  Fun with Family for a day in San Jose

Women's Bible Study Celebration

The Women's Bible Study finished their first Bible Study Book, "Nueva Vida En Cristo" (New Life in Christ) just as the youth did.  This has been such a wonderful few months of studying this book as a group.  This group of ladies has grown in such an intimate way and I have been so blessed to be a part of it!  To celebrate, we put on our "ropa elegante"  ("elegant clothes", said the women) and we went out to a local restaurant to celebrate.  Granted, many of these women would NEVER have the opportunity to eat at a restaurant and so we were more than blessed when someone donated money for a dinner celebration for these women.  This restaurant went over and beyond to accommodate us and they were really excited to be a part of this as well!  They presented me with the most beautiful framed letter from the group including the scripture Matthew 25:33-40.  I was more than touched by their thoughtfulness!  What an accomplishment for these ladies to have completed this study!!

Even more, we did our first service project and the women organized it.  They held a yard/food sale for the community of INVU to bless people with stuff to buy at reduced prices for Christmas.  We received donations from the church and the community donated things as well. Then, I let them run with it.  It was a great success and it blessed me so to see them working together as a team!  God is doing a great work in the lives of these women.  I truly love each of them and their families and feel so humbled to be a part of their lives.  I have had a few new women ask when we are starting the next Bible Study book as they want to be a part of it.  So the new year will bring more women hungry for Jesus and hungry to learn how to fully depend on Him in all things.  To God be the glory!!!

The women showing off their certificates of completion

Here are a few of the ladies organizing the yard sale

Youth Group Celebration

These last 4 months, we have been studying a book with the Youth Group called "Nueva Vida En Cristo" (New Life in Christ).  This is the first Bible/book study that any of them have participated in and it goes through the basics of the Christian faith such as salvation, prayer, devotional life, baptism, etc.  It has been a big commitment for them and we finished the book last Saturday.  It was super exciting as we had a pizza party at Pizza Hut to reward them for their hard work.  They all came dressed in their best and really enjoyed this time together as many never get to go to a restaurant to eat.  Each youth proudly received their certificate of completion as the group clapped and cheered for each name that was called. There were 32 students who actually finished the book and received a certificate.  It was such a blessing to be a part of this big accomplishment with them as this culture is is very noncommittal and finishing a commitment like this is very rare!  Please continue to pray for these precious students as we begin book #2 with them in January!!!

Here are a few of our students with their certificates...so proud of them!!