Dear prayer partners,
Many things has and will happen this month, so we're burdened to send out this
email before we go to our Easter camp. Thank you for being with us with
your prayers.
1. Please pray for our Easter Spanish youth camp on March 28-30,
2002. Praise the
Lord for the second generation young people of our church. They planned this
camp by themselves. We are 'assigned' to be the dean and only need to
speak in one workshop and panel. Connie is one of the three cooks cooking
for 67 participants (this is not her talent but there is no other adult :)
attending this camp). We are looking forward to see God's work in this
camp because something has already happened. Read on...
One of the 67 participants died of a car accident yesterday. She was only
19 and was the older sister of our youth group member. She accepted Jesus
but was not serious of her Christian life. Upon request of her non-Christian
parents, our church held a funeral service for her today. The funeral service
was touching to many and several young people accepted Christ through personal
invitation. Her tragedy has impacted her friends to re-evaluate their life
goal and meaning. Many young people who were only expecting to have a fun
social time in the camp will hold a different attitude now. Please
pray for repentance among those who have gone far away from God, and pray for
Christians that they would dedicate their lives to live for God and serve Him.
2. Please pray for our church one-day outing on March 29, 2002. We praise God for
overwhelming response: 142 participants, including 41 kids. About
one-third of the participants are non-Christians, mainly are students of our Spanish
language class and relatives. Please pray for Sindy and many
brothers and sisters who are group leaders, song and game leaders, speaker,
children worker, and many miscellaneous things.
3. Our Spanish language class kept on growing although we already announced the
deadline. We have 43 students. Almost every week somebody wants to
register. When asked how long they have been in Costa Rica, the answer is
usually less than 2 weeks.
4. Praise God for the 5 baptized brothers and sisters on March 24,
2002. One
elderly lady and four youth. When Hector the young guy shared in his
testimony that he wanted to preach the Gospel to the world, we were touched,
because two years ago he was still hanging out with street gangs. We are
encouraged because we could see obvious change in all these lives.
5. Mr. Lai who was shot by robbers is recovering slowly. His lower body is
still paralysed. Please continue to pray for his full recovery especially
his response to physiotherapy.
6. After Baptism, came the funeral, and now we're preparing to go to camp.
Please also pray for the safety on the road as two buses and three cars will be
going on this winding mountain road.
Before we finish, please rejoice with us of God's guidance in founding a
'Chinese Christian Mission of Costa Rica' in the beginning of this year. It is
like seeing a dream come true step by step, the dream of founding a Christian community centre for Chinese. Under God's guidance,
CCM of CR has
purchased a piece of land with the love offering of many supporters. Now
all we can do is wait for God to send the appropriate people and financial
support to advance this dream project. Please see attached Chinese
document for the details of this project and photos of the Inauguration and
Dedication Service held in January 31, 2002.
Have a blessed and memorable Easter!
Love in Christ,
Stephen and Connie