Base News- April  

Dear Friends,

I would like to begin posting a base newsletter on a quarterly basis to keep all of you updated on our activities, (like staff changes, events, property purchase, new schools, etc), and to inform you prayer warriors of any urgent prayer requests.   I will try to list the prayer points and financial needs at the end of these letters that need to be considered.

When God called my wife and I back to Costa Rica, (our second home), we were very excited because we had been away for many years.  Although we were challenged with many situations here, we found God to be always faithful in His guidance and we are happy to report that we have made some significant progress.  Since 1985 it has been the earnest desire of our hearts to see Costa Rican missionaries serving all over the world.  If you read the link about our schools, you can see the present statistics of those weīve seen trained and sent out to the nations.  Just in the last 2 1/2 years we have sent teams to 14 countries and 5 continents. 

Our current DTS is preparing to leave next week for Israel.  The last time we were in Israel, the Lord opened a door for us to minister to the Domari Gypsies, which are one of the unreached people groups.  We are targeting this people group in order to establish a Christian witness among them.  Eventually we would like to see teams of Latin Americans going to live full time among these and other unreached people groups.

Many of you may know that my wife and I have a background in farming and ranching, but it wasnīt until 2003, when I did the Environment & Resource Stewardship School (EARS) that I realized that much of the disease, famine and general poor quality of life around the world is related to unwise use of our natural resources.  As I looked into the statistics, I found that 1.1 billion people in the world live in extreme poverty (less than $1/day).  Most of those live in the 10/40 window, but 47% of them live in Sub Saharan Africa, which is below the 10/40.  The other statistic that struck me was that 54% of the people that live in extreme poverty are farmers.  I began to ask myself,  "If they are farmers, then why are they starving to death?"  In Proverbs it states, "that my people perish for lack of knowledge".

While on a trip to Kenya in 2003, the Lord showed us that the reason many farmers suffer is because they donīt know how to use what they have, or they have abused their land where it no longer produces.  This knowledge inspired us to develop models of resource stewardship and sustainable agriculture all around the base.  God has been opening doors through this effort with those that visit our base.  We still donīt know what impact that could have with our neighboring communities.  Last September we ran our first EARS school and currently it is the only YWAM Environment School being offered in the world.  Our next school will be in January 2009.  If you are interested, please click on the Schools link for more information.

For the past nine years, we have been renting the 5.75 acres that we are on.  Two years ago God directed us to go ahead and buy it, so we have entered into negociations with the owner to do so.  We have had an appraisal done and agreed on a price.  Now we are applying for a loan and raising the $76,000 we will need for the down payment.  As soon as the purchase is finalized, we will begin construction of a dining room/dormitory building and several cabins for families.  This property is covered with large Cypress trees which can provide all the lumber we need for construction.

We continue to grow as a family.  This month we added 3 new staff bringing us to 18.  One of our challenges with foreign staff is the difficulty they face getting permanent resident visas.  Without these they must leave the country every 3 months for 3 days to renew their visas.  Please pray that God will give us a breakthrough with immigration.  Last year immigration signed an agreement with the ministerial alliance to facilitate resident visas for religious workers, but so far it hasnīt helped much.

 We thank all of you who have prayed and supported this ministry over the years.  We are trying to be good stewards of what God has given us so that we can accomplish the things God has asked us to do.  We continue to need your prayers and your support.  Below you will find a list of some things to pray about.

1.  Property purchase

2.  Outreach fees for present DTS  (lacking $7500)

3.  Residency visas for staff

4.  Monthly support for our Latin staff

5.  Health and strength

6.  Purchase of a 15 passenger mini bus