June is about crossing borders…
Sunday a team arrived from Arkansas. They came from two churches that are partnering together to minister to the indigenous Cabecar of Costa Rica. They will be here through Friday, and are visiting some pretty remote areas of the country. Pray God will use them as they preach to and pray with the native residents of this fine country.
The support from Journey Church in North Little Rock and All Points Church is being used to fund pastor and leader training. The work is already producing fruit as both churches have experienced growth as a direct result of the investment.
The Brook in Atenas, Costa Rica
Construction has already begun at Iglesia Bíblica. Our local team has built a dividing wall in the Casa de la Cultura in preparation for moving the children’s ministry into the building. In July, teams from Texas travelling with Matrix Ministries will begin renovation of the old children’s building which will become the new Casa de la Cultura.
Why the change? Our investment in the Casa de la Cultura has been a tremendous success. The youth group at the church has grown from a handful of teenagers to over 45 young people. Plus classes for the community have expanded rapidly: computer, guitar, Spanish, Hebrew, Portuguese, and cooking, just to name a few. The outreach has helped to grow the church, which is now at FULL CAPACITY on Sunday mornings. Truly, it is standing room only on most weekends, and the leadership is in prayer about how to continue to grow the church with limited resources.
Lord willing, the opening of the new Casa de la Cultura, and the move of the children’s classes will open up a few seats. But even with these problems, we can all rejoice that the investment by our donors in this worthy project has resulted in tremendous growth.
The Brook in Guadalupe, Costa Rica
Another ministry of The Brook is providing fund raising support to church planters in Costa Rica. Once pastors recruit donors to support them, The Brook acts as a clearing house for donors in the United States. A full 100% of those donations are passed on to the church planter, and The Brook covers the administrative cost (about 2.5%, plus our time).
One such church planting couple is Manrique and Rebekah Salazar, in Guadalupe, a suburb of San Jose. Their growing church, Iglesia La Gracia, recently moved into a new facility thanks to the support they have raised, and The Brook is helping Manrique transition from a part-time pastor to a full-time pastor. This is one of our favorite ministries to church planters.