Now for Thursday

*We are currently at the beach where we will spend the night before returning home tomorrow.  I am praying that the internet will be much nicer to me here and allow me to upload my pictures this time without taking hours to do so.*

THURSDAY

In my last post, I mentioned that Score International owned some property that they have big plans for in the future.  Well, one of the most exciting things God has done recently is to allow them to start a church on the property.

In an effort to help their church reach out to their local community and grow, we went door to door inviting their neighbors to church and telling them about Jesus.  We divided into 3 teams (because we had 3 translators) and hit the streets.

We would knock on the door & our translator would introduce us and tell the person we had a gift for them.  Then we would hand them a bag with hygiene items, tell them about the new church, and ask if they had time to talk a little more.  If they said yes, then we would share the Gospel with them.

If no one answered the door, we left the invitation to the church at their gate.

Three people accepted Jesus as their Savior!!! God is so faithful!!!

Costa Rica is primarily Catholic so they know about Jesus.  But they often believe that doing good works will get them into heaven.  So, we really focused on our sin separating us from God and Jesus providing a bridge for us through His death and resurrection - due to God's love & grace, not our good works.

The first house my team went to was that of a believer.  It was a lady with 3 daughters.  She told us that if we were Catholic, she did not want to talk with us.  She only wanted to talk about Jesus, and she only wanted her children to hear about Jesus!  She was the real deal!!!  She took a strong stand for her Savior.

The next house we went to was also that of a believer.  We shared some verses from the Bible with her and had the privilege of praying for her and her family - her mom needs a new job. 

At the next house, we met a lady who loves Jesus and has a prayer group of 20 people meeting in her house every week.  We gave her some Spanish Bibles to share with her group after we learned that not everyone had a Bible of their own.

The other people we visited all said they knew Jesus, but due to some of their responses to our questions, we were not so sure.  So we shared the Gospel with them anyway.  We were even invited inside at one nice lady's house.  Because of this, both she and her son heard the Gospel!

Each team had some different experiences, so if you have a family member or a friend here, be sure to ask them about sharing the love & hope of Jesus Christ door to door.

Also, please join us in praying for this new church to grow and be a beacon of light in it's neighborhood.

After lunch, a few of the youth FINALLY got in the pool.  Danielle had been waiting all week for this!

Check out Cody swimming in his "capris" :)

But not everyone who ended up swimming wanted to go swimming!  Stephen had a little help from his friends!

After drying off, we went souvenior shopping at some local shops......

and at WAL-MART Costa Rica!!!  Imagine Wal-Mart with lower level parking, security guards, and taxis lined up like at the airport!  It also had workers on almost every aisle waiting to help you!

 Here's me and Ms. Tonia with our skinny jeans, Costa Rican style!

Nearly all of us bought fresh bread and pastries at Wal-Mart too. Yummy!

After dinner (and I must add that the food this week has been DELICIOUS!!!), we went to a Bible study at the new Score International church I mentioned earlier.

Here is Todd with the pastor of the new Score International church.

Todd led Bible study.  He taught us about faith from Matthew 8:1-13 where Jesus was amazed by the centurion's faith.  He compared this passage to Matthew 8:23-27 where the disciples had little faith themselves and were amazed by Jesus.  Todd challenged us to be like the centurion and amaze Christ by our faith.  WOW!  POWERFUL!

 Here are some of our students with Terry, one of our interpreters from Score this week.

 Ahhhh! Sweet Sisters!

Loving on the children at church!

Matt held this baby almost the entire time we were at the church!  It looks like he's done this a time or two before!

One last plank before bedtime - this is the fountain outside of the villa where we stayed all week.

We have had a really good time this week being a part of God's work in Costa Rica and letting Him work on our hearts too.  To Him be the glory!

Loving HIM with all my heart & soul,
Nancy