January 2020 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope that each of you had a wonderful Christmas and a great start to the new year. Although, Jeremy wrote last months prayer letter, we were so caught up in the work that he forgot to send it! It can be read on our blog at Blanz2nicaragua.blogspot.com. We apologize for that. Last month, we finished our commitment to helping in the Atenas church plant. We had special Christmas parties for each age group. In January we will have an official "goodbye" service to conclude our service there. In the meantime, we have continued working on the final requirements for legal residency and establishing a new religious organization in Costa Rica. We have purchased some equipment for the upcoming church plant. We have spoken with our home owners and they agree with the need for a Gospel preaching church in the area and are very supportive. We have also spoken to others in the region about our vision and some have offered to help out and shared ideas to better reach the community. Some will be helping us with visiting and evangelism. Until we have an official start to the new church, we will be visiting some other Baptist churches in the area to share our plans and ask for prayer. This month, we will be ramping up the visitation and evangelism. We have also received a good report from the church we started in Nicaragua. Pastor Berner has informed me that they will soon begin a local church Bible institute to train people for the ministry!

In Costa Rica, December is the end of the school year. Ellowyn graduated from kindergarten with a great report from her teacher. Lila also finished first grade with great grades. They have also done very well adjusting to the language and culture. Elijah has also been growing up quickly and learning new words every day! The kids are now on "summer" break until February. We had a special Christmas and always enjoy celebrating the birth of our Savior. In the home we are making several changes as we will begin hosting weekly Bible studies. We are converting our garage to an area to hold meetings. Our home owners have been a great help and have made us a new storage area. While it is a bit hard for the kids to leave the church where we have served, they are excited that we will soon be starting a new one.

We want to send special thanks to all who gave special Christmas offerings. This month, please pray:

1. That God will open doors and prepare hearts for the Gospel in San Pablo.

2. That God will save souls and draw others to be a part of our home Bible studies.

3. That God will bless our efforts and lay the groundwork for a Gospel preaching Baptist church in San Pablo.

In Christ,

Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn, and Elijah Blanz

December 2019 Prayer Letter

(This letter was written in December, but accidentally was not sent until now)

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope that this letter finds you doing well. We have stayed busy here. Jeremy has continued to help with the visitation at the church. While we were visiting a few months ago, we met a teenager and his mother who were from Nicaragua. His mother called upon Christ to save her. Since then, she had to return to Nicaragua and left her son in the care of a church member. Since then, he has been very faithful in the church. Every week he has been excited to help us out in visitation. Although another family had to move away, the church has been growing. Jeremy has been been teaching on God's plan for the family as well as on the sufficiency of the Scriptures for faith and salvation. Jeremy has also been working on various materials for the current church and our next church plant. Near the end of the month, we were contacted by our lawyer about some issues with the religious association that was helping to sponsor us here in the country. We are praying about establishing one which will be sufficient for our church, other ministries, and even to help other missionaries with legal residency. We have gradually been shifting our focus more to our plans for the next church plant. Jeremy has been sharing our plans with others. There are now a few different churches that have expressed the desire to help. There are also two other families who are planning to help us with evangelism.

Last month was very busy for our family. Because we are still awaiting approval of legal residency, we had to take another short trip to Nicaragua. There is a small shack on the Nicaraguan side which serves food. While there, Jeremy was able to share the gospel with the people there. While we now feel like experts at border crossing, we look forward to no longer having to do it. The kids have been doing well. We had some sicknesses which made things more difficult, but we are better at the moment. Lila has been doing great in school and got excellent grades on her exams. Ellowyn has also been getting much better at her Spanish. Elijah has even surprised us with words we never taught him. At the moment, we are at home without a car. It is getting repaired from when a motorcycle hit us 6 months ago. We are still awaiting another replacement part from Japan.

This month, please pray:

1. That God use our ministry to save souls and add them to the church.

2. That God will help the church to mature spiritually and give them a burden for the lost.

3. That God will lead us as we make plans for the next church plant.

In Christ,

Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn, and Elijah Blanz