(No. 1: CR4C #19)
In a few days, Norma and I will fly to Costa Rica for nine days of preaching, teaching, mentoring and encouragement among our many Christian pastors and friends there.
As always, we can only carry out these plans with God’s miraculous provision, which He has ALWAYS faithfully provided, year after year, through our many supporting Christian partners. Please send us a generous donation today to make this next venture possible.
This will be our 19th mission adventure to Costa Rica since our first CR4C (Costa Rica for Christ) trip 16 years ago in 2008. We are not taking a team this time; it will just be Norma and me.
Praise God that two years after Norma’s multiple myeloma (bone cancer) diagnosis and her stem-cell transplant, Norma remains in complete remission! And praise God that my health is also doing well. It is our hope and intention to have many more years of productive ministry — in the U.S., Costa Rica, and India — before we go to join the Master.
Ambitious Plans
We have some ambitious plans for this Costa Rica trip:
• Friday, July 12: A full-day Discipleship University class, especially for pastors and church leaders but open to all. This class is one of my favorites in the Disc Univ series. End-times Bible prophecy: “What The Future Holds” — the Rapture, Tribulation, Antichrist, Second Coming, Messianic Kingdom, Judgment, and the New Earth.
• Saturday, July 13: “Family Reunion.” We work with 10 churches in CR. We will bring their pastors, leaders and members together in San José for a full day of preaching, worship, and fellowship. We will rent buses and send them out in all directions so these precious believers can attend. This event typically draws more than 150 church members from throughout CR.
• Sunday , July 14: Norma and I will worship with the Christian church in San Miguel, and I will do some preaching. Just earlier this year our CR4C mission team helped complete this new church building and the congregation recently began holding services there. We can’t wait to join them for worship in their new church home!
• Monday-Wednesday, July 15-17: Norma & I, Francisco Lopez, and Jovanny & Leticia Baez will travel together to CR’s Nicoya Peninsula. This is new territory for us; Norma and I have never been there before. We will travel for several hours — in a rented van and by ferry boat — to get there.
Thank you to the many who donated earlier this year to help Francisco bring his residency status up-to-date. For the last year, Francisco has been cultivating a new church work in the town of Cóbano on CR’s western peninsula. Francisco has asked for our help to cover the cost of his transportation back and forth to Cóbano. So we are traveling there to see Cóbano and to meet the core group Francisco has assembled, asking God to show us if this is something He wants us to help with.
What Will It Cost?
Yes, we have a lot to do this month in Costa Rica. And it will cost a lot. I have calculated a budget of $10,600:
• $1500 for Discipleship University: 30-page notebooks for 30 people; breakfast and lunch for 30 people; dinner and hotel rooms for 8 pastors and their wives who have traveled from a distance so they can stay for the Reunion the next day.
• $4300 for the Family Reunion: 7 buses to bring believers in from all over the country; soccer field rental and tables and chairs rental; breakfast, lunch, and coffee for 160 people.
• $1400 for the trip to Cóbano: vehicle rental for 3 days, and gas and ferry; three hotel rooms for two nights; meals for the 5 of us for three days.
• $3400 for additional expenses: including Norma’s and my flights, hotel, meals, travel insurance, taxis.
How To Give
Please be our partner in this venture. You have come through for us many, many times before. We are praying that you will do it again now.
Here’s how to give:
• To give online, go to JoshuaOne.org/Donate. It’s easy. Just click on the Donate button and follow the simple instructions.
• Or, make a check to “JoshuaOne” and mail it to P.O. Box 8464, Edmond, OK 73083. If you’re sending us a check — please do it right away!
• Or, if you are local and want me to swing by to pick up your donation, I will be very happy to do so.
Meanwhile, please join us in praying for this venture
• That God will keep us safe.
• That the Holy Spirit will work mightily through the preaching, teaching and fellowship to strengthen the faith of the Costa Rican believers.
• That we will raise all of the funds we need to make these things possible.
Thank you, and God bless you!
