News from Costa Rica

Yesterday, Pastor Alberto was talking with us about the change he and CCA went through when they realized they were only preaching the Gospel, but they were not been living it (Matthew 25: 31-46). “There wasn’t disagreement in the church – people wanted to live out the Gospel. But we didn’t have a culture of going out of ‘our world.’ We needed to acclimate to the new environment.”

“And we soon discovered that “living the Gospel” also required money. We couldn’t just hug our neighbor and tell them we’ll pray for you. They were hungry, they were thirsty, they were without clothes and shelter and family. This requires money. And so our priorities (as a church) had to change. We couldn’t put all our money into buildings and land and nice musical instruments.”

“What God has done is surround us with friends. Now, because of our friends, instead of a wheelbarrow, we have a pickup truck. It’s still our job to do, but we have friends to come along side us and give us a hand. Without them, it would be much harder and take a lot longer. But we now serve 16,000 meals a month in our various Centers! Think about that!”

“And I look at Ramon, the director of the Men’s Center, with his children, his family and think – this is a man who lived in the streets, in cardboard box, for 10 years! Now he has a degree in Psychology and serves in the Center!”

“And Alexis – 2 years ago was living in the streets, and on one of our ‘Days of Mercy’ in the central park of Alajuelita, we cut his hair, gave him food and drink and invited him to come with us to the Center. Today, he heads up our construction ministry --builds the classrooms at CCA’s school, designs the houses we are constructing in Jasmín, and soon he will be getting married.”

“Even though our current Centers are old, overcrowded and inadequate places, we have good programs. They’re packed with people, and we’re seeing results. God is doing miracles here!”

“But it has always been a dream of ours to have a better place in an atmosphere conducive to achieving a life-changing relationship with God, self and others. We want to make a City of Restoration, where homeless people will come in and ministers will go out; where people will come in without a family and go out reunited with their family; where the sick will come and go out healed. We’ve always dreamed of a place like this. And now, we have the opportunity to do that. We call it the Promised Land. All this land -- all the ways and steps of our church – have been surrounded by God’s miracles.”

Blessings,
Larry and Carole