Men’s Retreat

A pastor friend that I new growing up, Jack Counts, reconnected with me in his desire to come with his worship leader to minister to those we serve here in Costa Rica.  Part of his desire was to have an opportunity to preach while he was with us, so it went perfect with something that we had been working on with a dear friend of ours with a church in Santa Ana.  Pastor Michael Esteban brought the young men from his church who he had been mentoring and discipling to join with the men from our bible study and some of the young men that had attended our self defense class and that we work with in our area for a weekend men’s retreat.

Loaded up in their church van, the young men from Santa Ana brought excitement and anticipation for day one of the retreat!  There was food, fellowship, teaching and fun!  A long lunch brought a welcomed bit of crazy time at the river’s rope swing that gave them opportunities to show off their ‘cat-like’ abilities (cats who like water!), the day was full of God’s blessings.

By the end of the first weekend, several of the young men had given their lives to Jesus!  The following Sunday was the icing on the cake when the Santa Ana church in its entirety joined our bible study for a bilingual service that finished off with Pastor Michael bapitzing the young men from his church and from our neighborhood at the very site of swim time the week before – all of who had given their lives to Christ that weekend before.

It was such an amazing time of watching God move in the lives of young men, using followers of Christ from different cultures and places all together to further the gospel and impact lives!