Dear
Friends and Family, March 2019
Blessings
from Costa Rica! This last month was a bit rocky with some unexpected
setbacks. For the last couple of months, we have been waiting for
Elijah's birth certificate from the US Department of state. After no
progress over the last two months and many phone calls, our case was
referred to a "specialist," and then to a supervisor.
Nearly 2 months after cashing our check, they are now progressing to
print it. We hope to have it soon. In the meantime, we have now found
a residency lawyer who will be ready to begin the legal process. We
also began the process of purchasing a vehicle. We had several
problems with the wire transfer, but at the end of the month, we now
have our car! At this point, most of the local taxi drivers now know
us and Jeremy has been able to witness to some of them. Once we had
our car, we were able to take a trip up to Heredia province where we
plan to start our ministry. Not only are houses hard to find, but we
have found that the houses tend to cost much more and have less
space. We will also need to be creative in our outreach as a large
portion are in gated areas with restricted access. We were also
blessed that the Lord brought to us a missionary family who wants to
help us in the church plant while they are in language school. We
have received good news from Nicaragua. Our church plant is
continuing to grow. They have several full time Bible Institute
students and several more for the Saturday studies. They are also
doing evangelistic services throughout the city with the hopes of
planting other churches.
Our
family is now going through many adjustments being in a new mission
field. It has also been a bit of a transition from the grassy fields
and horses we frequently saw in Nicaragua to metropolitan area of San
Jose/Heredia. Lila is relearning to speak Spanish pretty quickly. It
was more difficult for Ellowyn. For a few weeks, she struggled, but
she is now much more comfortable with the new culture and language.
Elijah surprised us the other day with his first Spanish words like
"adios" and "gracias!" For a couple of weeks, our
family struggled against some stomach sicknesses, but thankfully, we
are all now back in action!
This
month, we have some very important decisions to make regarding where
we will live, where we will start our next church, and how we will
begin. Please pray:
1.
That the Lord will lead us to the right house and location to begin
our next church plant.
2.
That the Lord will open doors and give us opportunities to share the
Gospel with others.
3.
That the Lord will guide our plans and first steps in our Costa Rican
ministry.
In
Christ,
Jeremy,
Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn,
and Elijah
Blanz
