The Mission Lives On

It has been too long since I have sent an update on our mission. Our mission still lives on. We are still very much engaged in Costa Rica. We continue to hear from Peru occasionally as well.

Having lived abroad in poor areas, our responsibility as stewards stretches far. If my neighbor here knocked on my door, asking for help, I would take it seriously and see how I can help. Well, now I have literal neighbors from Peru and Costa Rica who still "knock on my door" asking for help. I take this very seriously, knowing that God is both in the face of those in need and he asks us to help those in need. I want to thank those of you who have joined us to make it possible to respond and help meet some of those needs that come to our door.

That being said, I have been able to continue to travel to Costa Rica, where I continue to connect with people in a tangible way. My greatest joy in returning is to serve alongside of Don Mundo and Doña Petrona and encourage them as local missionaries to the people of Coopevega.

I have just returned from my third trip to Coopevega, Costa Rica since we moved back to the United States a year and a half ago. On this trip I was joined by my family and seven other parishioners from our Little Falls area community. On our mission trip we put on a Vacation Bible School, built chicken coops, hosted a craft fair, and visited people in their homes. The children were full of smiles and thoroughly engaged in the VBS, the families who received the chicken coops and chickens were thrilled, the women selling crafts were excited to make some money, and the families we visited were grateful for our time spent and our prayers offered for them.

Tuesday evening prayer hosting by Don Mundo and Doña Petrona.

God continues to work in amazing ways and during the trip He provided many Divine Appointments. One of these involved a woman named Carla, who is a single mom trying to take care of two daughters, one of whom is handicapped. She was going to participate in the craft fair we were holding, but since she lived over an hour away, she was worried about how she would get to our town. Not knowing this, our mission group went on an outing and stopped at a grocery store. As we were leaving the store, we found this very same woman who was going to come to the craft fair sitting outside with her daughters trying to sell her bracelets. After praying with her and learning her story, we decided to buy her bracelets right there so she wouldn't have to come all the way to our town. Carla was so happy and kept praising the Lord. God's plans are so much better than our own. He is so good!

Carla with her daughters and our mission team outside of the grocery store.

The hard reality is we can't help everyone's material needs. There are some who asked for help that we were unable to meet. One poor family asked for tin for a roof, but for now their children remain in the rain even indoors. Thankfully, we were able to help others. One family asked for a cement floor for their two-room dirt floor house. Now their son can play without getting full of mud. It is a joy to live out the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy in such a tangible way.

I am very grateful to still have connections in Costa Rica and for the opportunities to bring mission groups and serve the people there.

We can still receive donations through our Family Mission's Company account. We use the funding to help the poor of Costa Rica and Peru.

Thank you to all of you who have supported us over the years and to all of you who continue to do so. We are so grateful and so blessed to be on mission with you! Please keep us in your prayers as you are in ours. If you desire to help financially you can do so here: Donate Here