Update Letter

Dear Sponsors,

I can’t thank you enough for your prayers and financial support over the past year that I have been working with Pura Vida Missions. It has been a huge blessing as you have made it possible for me to continue in full-time ministry. There have been a lot of things happening and some big changes I wanted to fill you in on.

The first six months of this year have been very busy! Pura Vida had its biggest spring yet with 10 teams from January-May. One of my favorite stories from these groups comes from the very first team of the year. On Wednesday night the Spirit of God fell so heavily during our evening service that it continued for 2 hours longer than usual! The group of high school students were praying scripture over each other and another group was singing psalms. One of the boys soon came up on stage and asked if he could say something then proceeded to preach an absolute Holy Spirit led word over his team. While this was happening one of the girls from the team, who had voices telling her to kill herself, was being delivered from evil spirits. The peace in her eyes, which had not been there before, was so captivating and it was such a beautiful testimony of what God had accomplished. The teams that followed continued to bless and minister, not only to the Ticos and one another, but also to us as the staff.

Now to tell you of some big but wonderful changes in my life! God has been stirring in my heart over the first 6 months of this year to step out and to do something beyond my abilities; to have faith. But this faith he has been asking me to grasp is not only faith to believe He is who He says He is, but also faith to believe He can do what He says He can do! He has been asking me to have faith that provokes His faithfulness.

Ok so what is this step of faith? Well God has been showing me that every disciple (follower of Christ) has been given a command – a commission to go and teach all nations, to baptize in His name and to instruct others in the ways of Jesus. This is the Gospel. Suddenly He made me very aware of my selfishness, as I saw that I viewed the Gospel as something just for me, and inward focus. Not that the Gospel isn’t meant for each and every one of us as individuals, but he was showing me that in order to grow as His disciple, the next “footstep” is to follow in His steps to make disciples. So I started thinking, “how can I make disciples? I am not qualified, I don’t know enough, how can I teach others what I am still trying to figure out?” Then I could sense Him telling me the same words He had said to Moses and Joshua – be strong and courageous, as I am with you and I will teach you; trust me. From that point a vision started to develop more specifically; an idea that God had place in me at fifteen years old. It’s an idea that God has been shaping and forming through many trials, difficulties and times of training. The culmination of “level one” of my training process has now been completed through all he has taught me at Pura Vida Missions.

This Dream is called Relentless Ministries.  This dream builds upon what my family has been doing together for many years and I have been given an opportunity to take it a step further.  It is a ministry fueled by an international discipleship program for graduating high school seniors and college age students. Here students will not only be in an environment to go deeper in their faith through prayer and intensive study of the Word of God, but it will also be a place where their faith will be tested and put into action. This will be a ‘frontline’ training ground, out of which I pray God will raise up missionaries to go into other nations. As I stated previously,  this is only the fuel to the flame.  These disciples, through their individual gifts and talents, will be partners in ministry as together we design outreach events and join together with other ministries to find ways to meet the overwhelming needs of the people in Costa Rica. My prayer is that God will bring all kinds of people: dancers, preachers, musicians, teachers, artists, photographers, mission majors, athletes, translators, construction workers and most important above everything else, people with a passion for Christ.

So the next question that I asked God was where? Where are we going to start? I don’t own a house or have a mission. In complete confirmation God responded in a way I could have never imagined. At the same time our very good family friends with God’s assistance decided to move to Panama.  They offered their home as a mission site here in Costa Rica and presented an amazing offer to make it possible to accommodate the ministry from their home! God never ceases to amaze me! Praise God! He is so faithful!

I am so in awe of God’s hand through out this whole process and His great faithfulness to answer our prayers! In these months of transition I will be living at my parents house preparing everything that goes into launching this new ministry. During this time I will still be leading worship with Pura Vida Missions and hope to continue partnering with them in ministry for many years to come. The official launch date and opening of the mission house is September 1st. At this date we are praying and believing God will stir 6 people into action to come and join us in the Frontline Discipleship Program. Please be praying for my family and I in this time of preparation that we would remain in prayer as God leads us through the development of this new adventure!

Please check out the new website for more info, prayer requests and don’t forget to subscribe to the latest updates: www.relentlessministries.org

If you would like to support Relentless Ministries or any of our current programs financially it would be greatly appreciated and we would love to commit to praying for you as a staff.

You can donate be going to: http://www.relentlessministries.org/donate/

Thank you so much, God bless you and please come visit soon!

Your Brother in Christ,

Tyler Burke

July 2013