Intern Goodbye Dinner
After a great summer of discipleship training and serving together, we had a beautiful and special time together with the interns as we sent them off to what God had next for each one of them.
About Chelle
Posts by :
Summer Baptism
God was challenging, shaping and molding the interns this summer. The culmination of their re-dedicated commitments to the Lord took place with a baptism service at Las Musas Ecopark was an unforgettable celebration of their new lives in Christ!
Intern Adventures In Panama
As the interns continue to come and go for their term in the Discipleship Program, the outreach and ministry opportunities vary with the season, the participants and the needs that arise during their stay.
For two of the interns this summer, David and Landon, they had the unique experience of traveling with us to Panama as we began the process of working with an organization that is in it’s beginning phases of development for growing and distributing food to the needy in the Chiriqui province.
Introducing them to yet a different country and culture, their adventurous spirit led us all to new places of intrigue and beauty. The river and canyon ravine at Macho de Monte was one of the most unique, peaceful, powerful and beautiful creative wonders that we have yet experienced during our time in Central America. They didn’t hesitate to go all in and swim through the canyon river and slide down the canyon waterfalls! Both David and Landon developed a love for Panama and its uniquely different ‘feel’ from Costa Rica, and hope to return again in the future to help as the projects there continue to grow.
Costa Rica vs. Greece World Cup Celebration
In the Centro of San Ramon after the game, it wasn’t hard to figure out who won the big game! The poor people in the car ….
Farm Day
Farming isn’t for the weak! A day with the interns on the farm caring for the cattle, pigs, and yuca wasn’t all hot and dirty!
Yuca Everywhere!
Yuca is a tree that has a tubular shaped root vegetable that bares an outside resemblance to a sweet potato with brown skin remeniscent of tree bark with a white fleshy center. It is commonly grown in all of Latin America and used as an annual staple root crop in Costa Rica, being used as any other root crop is used. In our home, we have taken it further and use it to make pizza dough, tortillas, rolls, fries and more! Having a good amount of property available for our usage for a time has turned into a journey on learning some typical and traditional farming methods to grow and harvest yuca for the distribution to those in need throughout the San Ramon area.
The typical yuca growing season is best done during rainy season to take advantage of the natural water source and climate that yuca thrives in. It can easily grow in the clay soil that makes up this particular piece of property, and has a growing time of 9 months from planting to harvest. We planted approximately 15 acres of yuca and it is now time to harvest and distribute.
The planting and harvesting process is not for the faint of heart, or the stiff of back! Faithful friends, neighbors and young people have happily dawned their barn boots, lathered up with sun protection, and stocked up on water bottles to join us in the heat and humidity to pull up 2 horse trailers full of yuca. We owe a special thanks to the Kent, Brent and Phyllis Johnson families whose backs we couldn’t have done this without! Their faithfulness and support in this project has been extraordinary and we are truly grateful for them all!
We will bring to market that which we can and will use the proceeds to minister to families in need, and what we cannot bring to market will be distributed in the poorest areas of San Ramon to help feed their families.
To donate and help sponsor a bag (or 100 bags!) to feed families this yuca harvest season, please click on the donate button below.
$2 yields 10 lbs of yuca to feed a family.
A Day In The Life Of Projects
Projects seem to be a way of life here on the farm in Costa Rica. Of course, we are unable to keep up with everything on our own, and are always grateful when others have time or the energy to pitch in and help us with whatever the Lord has put in front of us for that season…day…hour…minute! We have been blessed with many young people in our lives who have become in some ways like part of our family! Some are in our neighborhood, some we have gotten to know in town as we run errands at the meat market, féria (farmer’s market), hardware store and others who have come to our English classes.
Working side by side with young people who have a heart to help and a heart to serve is such a pleasure, as well as a privilege. The joy that comes from hard work, dirty hands, and sharing the Lord, who He is, and what He’s done with others makes even the hardest of labor an amazing adventure. Everything from planting and harvesting yuca and plantains to building a greenhouse with its complimentary garden boxes/beds and tilapia pool has been so rewarding while spending time with young people who have more energy than we do!
It’s so exciting to be able to pour into the lives of others while you build into the opportunities that God provides. We always enjoy where we are at and whatever we are doing while maintaining an atmosphere of adventure and hope to how each opportunity will grow into the purpose God has designed for it!
Bilingual Bible Study
It is so incredible how God works. He seems to always take seemingly normal situations and turn them into something beautiful and amazing right before your eyes in ways that you could never have imagined yourself!
What started as a simple request to us by good friends of ours to help them learn to read the bible and understand it for themselves one day per week, gradually morphed into our ever increasing bilingual bible study. As the neighbors heard that we were meeting to read the bible and discuss it at home, they came – many out of sheer curiosity – to see what that actually entailed and what it looked like.
Funny how it doesn’t take long for you to realize when God is calling you to something that you really don’t feel qualified for, like teaching a bible study in a second language that you are still learning yourself! The best part of that is how obvious it becomes that you have nothing to offer but yourself, your love of the Lord and your obedience to do whatever He has put before you. Watching the Holy Spirit move in people’s lives, including your own, as He makes His way through your faithfulness is nothing short of miraculous!
As the years have gone on, the bible study has grown and changed as God has seen fit. People from all walks of faith have gathered with us in sheer astonishment that it is possible to read the bible, understand it, ask questions and discuss things, and for some, have the scales fall from their eyes as God moves in their hearts and minds. Many have brought their family members creating the need for one table studying in English while another is studying in Spanish; their children have created the need for a children’s program, and some have gone on to have their lives radically changed by God and are now serving Him in wonderful ways.
The most awe-inspiring part of studying the Word of God, praying and praising Him with people in and from another country is to truly realize how big He is, how much He loves us all, and how He can bring people together with a common theme – to know Him. love Him and be saved by Him. Things change all of the time within the bible study, people come and go, the size ebbs and flows, but the one constant that never changes is Jesus Christ. We will continue to study His Word and welcome others to join with us – nothing fancy, just faithful.