March 2019 Prayer Letter

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