Saturday, February 24, 2007

Update

It has been a little while since our last update, so we thought we would let you know how things are going. We have had a little bit of a change with the weekly Bible studies. We had one faithful family attending every week, and they have decided to go to the local Assembly of God church that is also in our town. So for the last few weeks, we have had only our family at the Bible studies; but we are still inviting and expecting people to come. It is taking time to get to know our neighbors around us. We make ourselves available to them and also put ourselves in situations where we can be around them more. For instance, Dave enjoys going across the street and just hanging out with the men that are normally there chatting. We are praying that the Lord will continue to place us in the right place at the right time and that He will open up doors of opportunity for us to share His love. We have invited two families to our home for dinner, just to be able to get to know them better, but we have not had any takers as of yet. We are realizing more and more how different we are than the "normal" American family that lives or visits around here. We think our neighbors are still a little taken aback with us and wondering what we are all about. We actually take the time to try to know them and invite them over. I am sure they do not normally see this with "strangers". Our desire is to see that boundary broken so that we will have more of a common ground with them. We continue to ask the Lord for favor according to Psalm 90, "may the favor of the Lord rest upon us, establish the work of our hands Lord".


Our children have been experiencing many lessons on how important it is to always show and portray the character of Christ. For all of their lives, they were surrounded by friends at church in Nashville. They had neighbor friends too, but the bulk of their friendships came from our home church. This was the same for them in Nicaragua as well. Here in Costa Rica, things have been quite different for them. They have made friends....but these friends come from unsaved homes where Jesus is not the center of everything. The children they play with are not Christians...and our children are getting a taste of how important it is to have the attitude of Jesus. At times..it is difficult for them, but we see them maturing and growing stronger in what they believe and why it is important. Rachel has become a little evangelist! She was out playing one day with one of the little girls that seems to be at our house daily, or outside playing with my girls. This little girl is 5 and on this particular day Rachel had asked her if she was a Christian and had Jesus living in her heart. The little girl said no, so Rachel began to explain to her what it meant. Rachel asked her if she would like to pray and ask Jesus in her heart...and the little girl said YES!! Rachel has been teaching her and showing her different things about being saved. We are so excited to see this little child, who has never known much about Jesus or who He is, learning about Him! Dave and I are praying about starting a children's Bible study on Saturday's and ministering to the children. We know that God has a heart for kids...and this is a tender area with us. We love to minister to children.




We covet and appreciate the prayers of all of our family and friends. We would like to ask you to keep several issues in prayer for us.

1. Pray with us as we seek God's will on beginning a children's Bible class.
2. Pray for divine opportunities to reach out to our neighbors, and that God will open their hearts to receive from us.
3.Pray for us concerning residency in Costa Rica. This is a somewhat difficult task because of all the laws here concerning residency. There is a missionary residency available, but one of the laws states that you must be affiliated with the Catholic church to obtain this.
4. Pray for us to have wisdom each day to carry out His will for that day! We do not want to miss any opportunites that He has for us!

We love and appreciate each of you. Our prayer is that God will continue to bless you in all you do. May His face shine upon you!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Andersons,
Hello. What a wonderful testimony! I love the numbered prayer requests and have printed them out to place in my daily devo.
Many Blessings,
Jenn Sharpe