Week 3 Update

Dan here - Karen has the night off - she is resting for another week of school.

Nearly everyday Karen and I have the opportunity to practice our Spanish, but today was a reminder that learning to speak Spanish well has to be a top priority for the next few months. Today Josh (another missionary here) and I were called to counsel and help a friend of ours from one of the neighborhoods in which we work. He was having a very, very bad day (I’m not going to share the details). Josh and I were able to tag team him with our Spanish but it would have been a good opportunity to counsel him at a deeper level if we knew more Spanish. We pray that God uses the little we could do and say to help him in the days to come.

Its been so good to begin to settle into our new routine. The summer season of mission teams is officially over and our staff is taking some time to decompress and recharge. But even in this downtime our ministry doesn’t stop. This week, we have had the opportunity to serve the orphans, feed the kids in Verbana, mentor our teenage friends, and continue building new relationships with local churches in the area of Alajuelita. Additionally, our staff has started the discussions of what ministry will look like in the future.

We’ve had time to fellowship with the members of the staff here at 6:8 that are new to us. Josh and Alli McArthur are an amazing young couple with three boys under 5 years old. There are some people that just fit in down here - they are an example of this. They are currently serving with us here in Alajuelita but will be moving out to the children’s ranch when their house is finished being built (probably early 2016).

Additionally, Rob and Yvonne Wutka are a new (to us) family who live full-time at the ranch with their 4 children. They have taken on the daunting task of building the ranch from literally nothing. They work tirelessly through the heat, humidity, rain, flooding, bugs and wildlife to carve out a place of beauty that will affect Costa Rica for years to come.

Our other staff members are old friends: Charles Parker has been serving with us in the summers for a while and has lived in CR for two years. Neil Clarke is our resident Irishman and served with us last summer during the busy season. Both are as amazing as always.

You can see pictures of all of them at: http://68ministries.org/about-68/the-68-staff/

6:8 had a staff appreciation dinner to celebrate the end of the summer this past Saturday. It was great to have the Gringo and Tico staff all together in a relaxed atmosphere to be served for change.

We will have more stories over the coming months and years involving our amazing staff. But for now, please keep them all in your prayers. The sacrifices they make are tremendous and the spiritual warfare they struggle with can be oppressive. Please pray for strength and peace for them and their families.

Karen is settling in well to school here. Her first week of school with the kids was wonderful. She came home one day this week and said, “Why would anyone want to go back to teaching in America after experiencing this?” Please continue to pray for her, her students, the staff, and the parents of Country Day School. Pray that Karen can be a shining example of Jesus to all she meets in school. She could use prayers for wisdom!

I have started transitioning into my role of handling the financial responsibilities of the Alajuelita ministry over this past week. Rob Wutka used to handle the finances for the entire ministry but it proved too burdensome for him since he was mostly out at the ranch and has a big enough task handling its construction. Pray that the transition goes smoothly and that I’ll be able to handle the new responsibilities with grace and ease. I will be working closely with a Tico who doesn’t speak much English but understands it well. I don’t speak a ton of Spanish but understand it well so it will be a fun few meetings at first!

We will begin our Spanish classes with some of the staff this coming Tuesday. Pray that we all are given a supernatural ability to learn Spanish quickly and for God’s glory.

Also, we will begin our off-season ministry as a staff this coming Tuesday. Pray that God will give us wisdom, compassion, and energy/strength for the ministry He has planned for us. Pray that we will be able to strengthen the relationships we have and build new ones where necessary.

Thanks for your prayers!
Dan