Through our eyes...seeing the need. (April 3)

You may remember from our last posting when we talked about our recent family visit to "El Hueco" we had spent some time with a particular family that lives there Ruth, her three children and her long time live-in boyfriend Mauricio. I had felt that God was opening a door for me to spend time with Mauricio who is not saved when I could see this family's need of improving their house.

I ended up spending the day with him on Tuesday (March 31) helping him get started on adding onto his house. I now see why that day Mauricio was more open to talking and sharing with me, more than I expected as we worked together in the hot sun at the back of his house.

Back of their house where we are about to add on two bedrooms to their 400 sq. foot tin metal wall and roof house.

God knew that I was not going to have the amount of time I was hoping to have to spend with him, because the next day Mauricio found some temporary work for the next few days. I was a little sad that I couldn't help him more. But that first day working with him God had allowed me to share about my past and what God was doing in my life more than I thought I would be able to. He asked a lot of questions and we enjoyed getting to know each other. At the end of the day he thanked me for helping him, which included digging about 20 holes in the hard rocky dirt for the wood posts to eventually support used wood pallets for his floor.

Today (April 4th) I went down to the hole again to invite children to come to a special kids program for tomorrow Saturday morning and visited with Ruth a little bit in which she told me that Mauricio would be off on Wednesday all day which will be our last day here before we leave for Honduras. I was glad to hear that I will have one more time to share with him about Christ.

Please pray for him, and that he will be open to hearing the gospel. After spending almost 7 months serving here in this community I have been burdened with the obvious lack of men who are spiritually lost which is very evident in the quality of life you see in the homes of these people.

As I left Ruth I noticed that two men were sitting just outside of her house on the other side of a make shift fence. I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to go and introduce myself and talk to them. I found out that they were next door neighbors of Mauricio and Ruth.

The older man was the father named Jose and his younger son Ricardo. I had a good visit with them for about an hour telling them about why we were in Costa Rica and how God had called us to be at a children's home in Honduras. They were interested in knowing about life in the U.S. and why we were going to live in Honduras.
Jose, his wife Francisca, their son Ricardo and his daughter Brenda.

Toward the end of our conversation Jose's wife came along and Ricardo's daughter Brenda who I met briefly the other day when I was working at Mauricio and Ruth's house.

Before I left I asked them to come to the church that we had a part of and told them I would like to visit with them again this coming Wednesday. Pray that this family will come to know Christ and that Wednesday I will have the opportunity to witness to them more.