Quebrada Amarilla, Costa Rica
- Johnny & Mabel Marin
- Sep 9, 2022
- 3 min read
We have been encouraged by the Lord's work throughout the past months, particularly with the children's work in the nearby neighbourhood. We had told the kids we wanted to have a pizza day and encouraged them to invite their friends out to sing, hear God's Word and eat some pizza with us. The kids came through, and we had 36 out that day. It was the most we have had, resulting in a few new kids coming out regularly. We were thankful to have Mabel's parents visiting us at the time, as they were a great help with the activities and crowd control. Being early into the rainy season, we purchased tents in case it rained, and it did pour down on us that day! Thankfully we were able to keep the pizza dry, but many of the kids arrived home soaking wet. The two tents also provide great shade from the sun.
We have added another night of meetings to the week. Our study of Romans is on Tuesday nights, the preaching of the Gospel on Thursday nights and Sunday nights we have begun a study on the Church. A few people have asked questions about local church doctrine and practices. It was an excellent opportunity to show them what the Word of God teaches. We have been waiting and praying for the right time to dive into these topics.
There have been two people profess faith in recent months. One of them is Maria who has been attending the meetings since we started in 2019. At our house, over coffee, one morning we answered many of her questions from the Scriptures, helping her put her faith in Christ alone. Please pray for her as we continue to assist her. She has been a great encouragement and amazing at bringing her neighbours and family out to hear the gospel.
Jairo (pronounced Hairo) is a Nicaraguan man, who moved to Costa Rica a while ago. He came out to the meetings as a result of an invitation by the other Nicaraguan families who have been coming out. He expressed a desire to change his life's direction and start walking in the light of God's Word. I invited him to coffee a few times to talk and read the Bible together. During the first visit, he told me he wanted to be saved and turn his life over to Christ. After sharing the gospel with him, he closed in prayer, and expressed repentance from his sin and surrendered to Christ as Lord and Saviour. It was a wonderful and encouraging time. He continues to show interest in studying God's Word together. We greatly appreciate prayer for him.
Recently a few young people from Vancouver, Canada visited us. Austin Milne, a good friend of mine, with another brother and sister, Kaden Chang and KerryAnne Callahan. Austin and I spent a year in Nicaragua together in 2016/2017, helping with the Lord's work.
Their visit was a tremendous encouragement for us. The contacts from our outreach were very much encouraged by their presence and enjoyed their fellowship and friendship. In their time here, we set apart a week to have gospel preaching every night in the cabin. Though Austin was already fluent before the trip, Kaden and KerryAnne, for the most part, were able to communicate with the locals quite well.
We also had some great support from other churches in the country. Kory Crawford brought down some believers from the San Juan assembly and the Ciudad Colon assembly, to help with the preaching, as well as some unsaved to hear the gospel. In preparation for the week, we prepared some packets of invitations and gospel texts to hand out door-to-door in the neighbourhood and surrounding areas. There was a community barbeque on Saturday when we typically had the kid's meetings. The parents were invited, so that they could see the work we were doing with their kids. We were very grateful for a few women from our meetings that wanted to be involved, and the extra hands to help, from our visitors. KerryAnne shared her testimony with the young people: an an evident story of the life-changing power our Lord Jesus has.
Thank you all again for your continued prayer and support for us, for believers and unbelievers alike in Quebrada Amarilla: that Christ would continue to be proclaimed and glorified faithfully in the Lord's work here.
Autumn 2022
Written by Johnny & Mabel Marin - Costa Rica
