The Middle of Nowhere...

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. Psalm 139:7-10

This weekend I got to see first hand that there is no place that is hidden from God's eyes. On friday I loaded a van with 7 other missionaries and a couple from Mexico that are students here in Costa Rica and we drove over the mountains to the north of San Jose. Our destination, the Saripiqui River. If you look on a map of Costa Rica you will find this river, it flows north out of the mountain towards Nicaruagra. However what you won't find on the map are the small little "communities' of 10-50 houses that line this river as it winds it way to the ocean. There is little to no electricity, no phone, certainly no internet. The water comes form wells, the drains go to... who knows. The main "road" is the vary river these people live on. In what was once jungle Costa Rican people have carved out small farms with tall banana trees, and skinny cows. But even here in the middle of nowhere, God is calling people to himself.

We went to a community called Media Vuelta to work with a missionary woman that has lived on this river working with these people for nearly 20 years. In this small "town" there is a small church that desires to reach the people in this and surrounding "communities" like Boca Del Toro, Arbolitos, and Los Angeles. Our task was to go door to door and take a census. I know that doesn't sound like mission work, but the intent was to gather names, birthdays, and family needs so that the pastor could know a little more about the people that he desires to minister to. We also gave each house a copy of the Gospel of John. We took time to pray for the people and share as muvh about Christ as they were willing to listen to. We only had a couple of decisions but we planted alot of seeds. It was really neat because the pastor shared a devotion the first night where he shared a bit of his testimony. He said that he used to struggle with the fact that he shared and shared and felt like no one ever came to Christ. But then God showed him that he is just to plant seeds and then it is Christ who does the rest. It really spoke to me. It encouraged me to know that sometimes we are there for the harvest and sometimes we are there for the watering, but sometimes all we get to do is through out seeds and pray that they land on soft ground. The pastor was very encouraged because he felt that our work really spread alot of seeds that might bare fruit one day.

I am asking you to pray with me and the others for the people in these small communities in the middle of nowhere where God is working. The pastors name is Franklin. Also pray for the missionary that works in all the communities in both Costa Rica and Nicaruagra, her name is Ana. Pray that they will stay strong in this work. Apparently these people have heard the gospel over and again and are just hard to it. Pray that God will break down there walls and bring them to himself.