We made it! After two months of traveling, visiting and speaking we are finally back in Puerto Viejo. While we were in the states, we traveled to South Florida to visit friends and supporters in our home church, Calvary Jupiter. We then headed up to Tallahassee to visit my family and speak at Thomasville Road Baptist Church. The next stop was Tucson, Arizona where we spent time with Amy’s family and spoke to a group from Calvary Chapel Tucson. During the first part of October, we drove up to Ridgway, Colorado to spend some time with our director and meet the new board of directors for Alternative Missions Costa Rica. After a brief return to Tucson, we took off for San Diego where I spoke to over 100 students and faculty at the Horizon School of Evangelism. Our final stop was back in Tucson where we spent the last few days with family, packing and one final speaking engagement at Calvary Chapel Sahuarita, just south of Tucson.
Fortunately, even with all of the travel and speaking, we were able to get in a few days of fun together. We visited the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park and spent a couple of days in Durango, Colorado. We also had the opportunity to let the girls play in the snow as we passed through the mountains.
Overall, it was a great trip. We have found that it is so important for us to get away from time to time so that we can spend time with friends and family and get recharged. It also helps to bring a fresh perspective to our work here in Puerto. It’s easy to get caught up in the day to day tasks, especially being so short-handed, that you lose sight of the big picture. Life becomes one fire to put out after another which begins to take a toll physically, emotionally and spiritually. We need these times to get away so that we can recharge and come back in with fresh ideas and a fresh perspective.
I’m looking forward to changing a few things up with church in an effort to reach out to more people. I am also planning to go deeper with several of the guys that have become the core by spending more targeted personal time with them... working with them to help them realize God’s plan for their lives. I want to help them see beyond tomorrow and get a vision of what is possible when they truly surrender their lives to God. Please be praying for us in this and also for new staff.
Our greatest need right now, and one of my highest priorities for the coming year is getting additional staff. The foundation is in place and there are incredible opportunities but without the right people, we can’t really take advantage of those opportunities. I’ve been familiar with the verse that describes the fields as being white for the harvest but the workers being few, for a long time. It is incredibly true. That means that we, and hopefully you, will be praying to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers. Please pray.
